My name is Logman Arja, I attended the City College of New York as a Fulbright scholar from Sudan, where I earned a Master of Science in Sustainability in the Urban Environment, graduating in 2016.
I also now hold a Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. I am currently a lecturer in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design. I am also the founder and CEO of TRIPLE C (Clean Clay Cookstove), a San Francisco based design company committed to delivering ceramic 3D printed smokeless stoves to address household air pollution in developing countries where biomass is the prime fuel for heating and cooking. Currently, I am leading efforts to bring the technology of additive manufacturing with mud to Sub-Saharan Africa with a long-term goal of producing sustainable housing solutions and urban micro-infrastructures. These projects are developed in the context of the Eco-Industrial park. A concept closely tied to my studies in the Sustainability in the Urban Environment program at CCNY and my work at UC Berkeley.
My unyielding love for CCNY’s Sustainability in the Urban Environment program stems from the fact that it shaped who I am today. Through the many classes I have attended and the systems I have studied, I was able to rediscover my interest, understanding, and purpose in architecture as it relates to a broader urban and sustainability context. If I were to single out one class that has transformed my current and future interests, it would be the “Case Studies in Sustainability” course. In the class, I developed an interest in the concept of an Eco-Industrial Park and its enormous usefulness in developing countries with emerging economies. Now, I am adopting the concept, in its capacity to serve people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, as a blueprint for my research, teaching, and soon career.
Inspired by Brown’s methods of accommodating agile Eco-Industrial Parks in Haiti, I am developing similar strategies in rural Darfur, Sudan where I am originally from. My intent is to instrumentalize architecture to transform local communities and impoverished societies. I am so driven by how living architecture can catalyze change and vitalize communities, one further take-away that has been living with me ever since I stepped foot in the City College of New York.