From building Lego cities on a pool table to building homes and schools in Africa, it’s been an adventurous ride for this Australian architect who wears multiple hats – urban designer, social entrepreneur, philanthropist, community advocate, humanitarian, and author.
“For me, it's always just been a love of creating,” says Dean Landy, a partner at the Melbourne-based architecture firm ClarkeHopkinsClarke.
Educated at Deakin University and later at the University of Nottingham, Landy has always been one to progress from challenge to challenge. The tertiary phase of his life saw Landy volunteering on international humanitarian projects, an experience that laid the foundation of his future ‘purpose driven’ career in architecture and design.
He returned to Deakin to complete his degree and joined ClarkeHopkinsClarke, where he leads the design and delivery of some of Australia’s largest and most ambitious urban developments, including town centres, mixed use projects, and urban renewal precincts.
Landy is also the founder-director of One Heart Foundation, an Australian ‘for purpose’ organisation working in Kenya to alleviate poverty by building and operating schools, children’s homes and skills training centres.
Looking back on where it all began, Landy recalls how as a 19-year-old student in Nottingham, he felt the drive to learn a little bit more about the bigger world around him.
“Not just the context in which I was designing in Europe and working in Australia; just had a real desire to understand and see how I could get engaged at the start, just volunteering where the needs in the world were greater.”
The Himalayan experience
Carrying out humanitarian work in the Himalayas, Landy bankrolled his trip by riding his bike across the entirety of England, outlining his drive and desire to assist those in need.
His stint in the Himalayan villages saw him helping doctors with their medical outreach camps, learning what could be done, what could be done better, and what could be done more sustainably. Observing the work of these doctors who were coming from London, volunteering a few months of their time to use their skills to give back to these communities in real need, it struck Landy that he could use his professional training and career path that lay ahead to bridge this gap. This was his defining moment – to be able to use his architecture and urban design skillsets to create more sustainable communities in developing nations.
“Sitting there watching these doctors in this incredible mountaintop village, I just wrote a note to myself that if I'm not doing something in 10 years’ time from now to improve the lives of others then I'm a failure. I’ve still got the note – it's sort of stuck with me and that’s been a bit of a driver in my journey over the following 20-plus years,” says Landy.
Establishing the first One Heart in Kenya
Between 1997 when he made the first trip to India, and 2007, when the first One Heart was officially opened, it was a period of growing and learning for Landy in his professional career as an architect and urban designer, even as he continued with volunteering for different organisations in different parts of Asia.
“As we moved towards 2007, I just had this idea around creating sustainable communities that will provide education, healthcare, homes for vulnerable children primarily, and then this ripple effect of broader community development,” Landy recalls.
The first trip to Kenya was quite eventful for Landy and his team as they landed in Nairobi right in the middle of a major political conflict. Unable to evacuate, the team decided to stay put and assist local communities in any way they could/
Sourcing and supplying food for juvenile centres, rescue homes and hospitals amidst the riots, the team was able to generate goodwill, which opened some doors for them when they returned about four months later to build their home.
There were many challenges along the way from finding people to work with to what materials were practical, and what skillsets were available in remote villages.
“But at the end of the day, boil it down to what's the primary need here and how can I make an improvement to the quality of the built environment there without being all about the architecture or a legacy unto myself – it's a lot more about function first and then the form to follow,” says Landy.
Using minimal resources, simple design ideas, and materials sourced locally, it was an experience that Landy enjoyed. “So it's really just working with a vernacular that the local builders can work with because our approach at One Heart is not about having westerners on the ground permanently and running these projects around them; it's about empowering local leaders and local communities and we facilitate that process.”
Grassroots sustainability – environmental, social and economic
Producing food onsite, capturing water, using solar – One Heart’s self-contained village model is environmentally sustainable but it also has an economic and social sustainability aspect. With the One Heart program supporting over 400 children in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, income needs to be generated in the country to offset some of their education scholarships.
Building a culture of hand up, not a handout is a really big piece of One Heart’s sustainability strategy, which includes rehabilitating children from abusive environments and integrating them back into the community, and empowering women to be able to generate their own income.
One Heart’s primary mission statement is to empower vulnerable children to reach their full potential. To ensure the children get the love and care, and a nurturing environment once they are in the One Heart community, a substantial amount of time is invested in house parents and social workers, because they are the frontline staff and always involved with the local community. That One Heart is an organisation that’s there to give back to the community, has resonated well with the local community, says Landy.
One of the primary funding sources is child sponsorship, which allows sponsors to spend time and connect with the children. One Heart also organises events such as the Run From Poverty marathons or Trek From Poverty trekking expeditions to the Kilimanjaro.
Positively impacting 100,000 children by the end of the decade
Elaborating on their hub and spoke approach, Landy says that they are working to establish a primary hub in each of the three countries – Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – which will have their main schools, large farms, rescue homes, and the One Heart homes. The spoke element involves going deeper into regions with high unemployment and reaching more tribal communities by creating vocational training centres to provide skills training at the grassroots level.
One of these grassroots initiatives is called the ‘street business school’ where the One Heart team can literally sit on the street, put up the tent and teach girls small business skills that would increase their income generating abilities. Landy is now looking for funders to help set up skills training centres with computers to provide IT skills training that would equip students with the abilities to work internationally on a range of design and web development projects.
“How do we get to 100,000? It's going to be through these small little village placements around skills training, vocational training and then really setting whole communities up to reach that empowerment target.”
