Draper Richards Foundation

Build Change
Elizabeth Hausler
Fellowship Awarded 2006

Build Change builds earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and changes construction practice so that homeowners and builders continue to build earthquake-resistant houses after Build Change's intervention is complete. Build Change uses detailed housing sub-sector studies to determine the most cost-effective ways of building earthquake-resistant houses using materials and skills that are available through the local private sector. The organization empowers homeowners to choose their own layout and materials and manage their own construction with our technical assistance. In addition, Build Change provides on-the-job training to local masons, carpenters and homeowners to incorporate disaster-resistant building techniques that are culturally accepted and easy to adopt with limited training and education.

Elizabeth Hausler is the Founder of Build Change. She is a skilled brick, block, and stone mason with an M.S. and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Colorado. Before graduate school, she spent five years providing engineering consulting services at Peterson Consulting in Chicago and Dames & Moore in Denver. She has lectured on sustainable, disaster-resistant construction in five countries and served on the 2002-2003 National Research Council committee to develop a long-term research agenda for earthquake engineering.

Elizabeth is a 2004 Echoing Green Fellow and was a Fulbright scholar to India in 2002-2003. In March 2006, Elizabeth was featured by abcNEWS World News Tonight as Person of the Week.

Build Change recently completed a 2 ½ year program working with new homeowners in tsunami-devastated Aceh, Indonesia. During this program Build Change built 33 houses in partnership with local builders, improved the design and/or construction of over 4,200 houses built by partner organizations, and trained 130 builders and 245 technical high school students. Currently Elizabeth and the Build Change team are focusing their work in West Sumatra and Bengklulu, Indonesia with an eye toward earthquake-devastated Peru.

To learn more about Build Change, meet the new homeowners in Aceh, watch the builders in action and see the new houses, visit www.buildchange.org.

We don't know who we are until we see what we can do--Martha Grimes