Mud Bricks at the Top of the World

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Mud Bricks at the Top of the World is a documentary film by director Steve Kovacs.

Sergio Palleroni is an American architect, professor, and Director of the Center for Public Interest Design in the Oregon University System. Committed to social and environmental activism, he has been a pioneer in sustainable design solutions for communities in need.

To serve this mission, in the 1980s he co-founded the BASIC Initiative, a service learning program which every year challenges students at various partner universities in the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia to engage the problems of communities traditionally underserved by the design fields. Based on the pedagogical ideas of service learning and reflective practice, students have to date taken on the design of construction of more than 120 distinct projects in India, Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and Mexico to Native American communities in the US and Latin America.

Since 2013 he has been director of the Center for Public Interest Design, the first such design research center in the US, whose mission is "To investigate and promote design practices that are a catalyst for the social, economic and environmental change needed to serve the growing needs of communities both locally and worldwide." The Center offered the first public interest design graduate degree in the Americas and today conducts work in both US national and international projects, principally now in housing.

Druk Padma Karpo School provides quality education in an exceptional learning environment for girls and boys (aged four to sixteen years) living in the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, North India. The school started in September 2001 and now has over 1600 students with 40% living on campus in purpose built accommodation. founded by Drukpa Thuksey Rinpoche and designed in association with the school offers an education that grounds students firmly in their own culture and equips them to thrive in the modern world. It is a not-for-profit institution and receives no direct public funding.

It was designed in association with Arup engineers and architects, based in London. The project received the Prince Charles Award in 2010 among other recognition and is now on permanent exhibit at Royal Geographic Society in London.

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