American Indian Housing Initiative
Using green building technologies on American Indian reservations
The American Indian Housing Initiative (AIHI) is an emerging national collaboration between Penn State, the University of Washington, and Chief Dull Knife College of the Northern Cheyenne Reservationwas established as a pilot program in 1998 in an effort to proliferate the teaching, learning, and discovery of green building technologies, while simultaneously utilizing these technologies to address the housing crises endemic to American Indian reservations.
n 2001, with support from the Bowers Program for Excellence in the Design and Construction of the Built Environment and the Schreyer Honors College, AIHI projects were incorporated into a three-part course series at Penn State as a vehicle to support the AIHI mission. Joining innovation in engineering and architectural pedagogies with social priority, this program broadens both students’ understanding of green technologies through research and the participation of an under-represented population through the application of that research.
David Riley, Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering, Co-Director AIHI (driley@engr.psu.edu).
