An alliance of green designers, architects, affordable housing specialists and sustainability advocates is teaming up with Native American communities in the southwest to develop green housing best practices for homes on tribal lands.

An initiative of Enterprise, the Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative is a multi-year effort aimed at creating culturally appropriate green building standards that will support tribal leaders with self determination goals related to natural resource management, energy conservation and healthy homes.

On September 4th and 5th the Karachi chapter of Architecture for Humanity continued post-flood assessments in partnership with the Karachi Relief Fund. On Sunday the team was surveying a potential site at Fizagat, which is approximately 3-5km from Saidu Shaif. They were stunned by what they found. A village that has designed their way out of the floods and into economic recovery.


Chapter leader Mahboob Khan explained, "The Swat riverbed extends over 300m at this point, with both sides of the river supporting large populations. During our trip we stumbled across an ingenious series of handmade rafts that were made from tire tubes and bamboo by local villagers. At least 50 of these rafts were seen crossing the water with a number under construction."

Over a span of 3 days, September 3rd to the 5th, a number of areas in Northern Pakistan were visited by the Architecture for Humanity Karachi and Karachi Relief Trust volunteers. These include Nowshera, Kurvi, Banda, Muhib, Munda Headworks and Fizagut in Swat. Here is a synopsis of the observations and future interventions proposed by our team.

With $500,000 on the line this is your last chance to get funding to build a sports facility that effects positive change in the community. As we want to give away as much as possible we decided to make our own videos to promote the fund.

Today, design fellow Alix shows the world how to eat concrete.

The tragic earthquake in Haiti tore communities apart way beyond the well documented streets of Port au Prince. Our teams have visited dozens of schools and done a series of assessments far into the rural areas surrounding the city. Below is a dynamic map of where we are working.

Nike and the Ashoka's Changemakers partnered to mobilize millions of people inspired by sport and social change to participate in an initiative that blends the worldwide obsession with soccer and Ashoka's 30+ years as a leader in philanthropy.

Changemakers Football Initiative honors Football projects in Bolivia, Guatemala, Brasil, Iraq, and the Grand Prize Global Winner Jawa Barat, Indonesia.

Building on the success of two previous collaborative competitions, "Changing Lives Through Football" brought together the next wave of leaders who are eager to find ways that sport can unleash the potential of young people, strengthen their communities, boost development, and affect change. In total 293 entrants in 60 countries submitted their innovative ideas and 12 have been shortlisted as finalists. The voting process launches today and ends August 18.

It has been devastating to watch the waters rise and sweep away whole villages in Pakistan. With millions of lives affected the question is not should we respond but how? While we have been heavily involved in the rebuilding in Haiti, thanks to our local Karachi chapter, we have the capacity to respond in a small but impactful to the post-flood regions of Pakistan. Architecture for Humanity Karachi will be our lead team for the work ahead.

It is our mission not just building back but do so in an economically and sustainable manner. We are adopting a strategy of supporting locally built incremental housing and here is our three point plan with funds we have available.