Join us for a special 'Classroom of the Future' lunch presentation at 12:30 Wednesday, February 10th at SPUR gallery - located at 654 Mission Street. IDEO, San Francisco, a winner of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classrom, will present their design for a school in a low-income neighborhood in Hyderabad, India. The exhibition is open through February 26th for viewing.

The 'Classrooms of the Future' exhibit featuring finalists and the winners of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge opens tonight, January 12, at 6pm at SPUR. The exhibit will be on display through February 26, 2010.

Visit the show at 654 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. For more information and a complete listing of events, please go to the Open Architecture Network.

We are proud to share the video of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom winner announcement at the Teton Valley Community School in Victor, Idaho. The design team and Challenge winner,
Section Eight [design], partnered with Teton Valley Community School to develop a holistic design that can be adapted and replicated in other schools.

IDEO, San Francisco, winners of the Urban Classroom Upgrade category in the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom will present a lunchtime lecture at SPUR, focused on their design for a school in a low income neighborhood in Hyderabad, India. The lecture will highlight the tremendous potential for design and the challenges faced in school design in the developing world. This session will be part of a larger Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom exhibition at SPUR, San Franciscio from January 12 - February 26, 2010. Stay tuned for more details.

Thank you to all who submitted the Challenge school survey. We are in the process of researching sustainable solutions for charter schools and working to expand that effort to more innovative ideas in education design. Starting with the charter school model, Architecture for Humanity is exploring sustainable design solutions (as well as financing models) which can translate to private and public schools.

Eight teams were recognized today as finalists of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. Finalists submitted designs ranging from an outdoor classroom for children in inner-city Chicago, learning spaces for the children of salt pan workers in India, safe spaces for youth in Bogota, Colombia, a bamboo classroom in the Himalayan mountains. Congratulations to the eight teams!

The submission period for the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge is now over. Tens of thousands of architects, designers, teachers and students collaborated to create the classroom of the future. We are stunned by the response and the quality of designs submitted. To all of you, Thank You.

There are two weeks left to partner with a school in your community and register for the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge. Registrations are due by May 4th and entries must be submitted by June 1st.

10 million children lack safe and secure classrooms to learn. Schools from Aspen, Colorado to Mumbai, India to Kabul, Afghanistan have signed up for this unique initiative. This challenge is open anyone, all you need is a idea and a way to get it to us. A number of student led teams are not only showing their teachers a thing or two about creating the classroom for their future but are designing classrooms for children around the world through our building partners, like Orient Global/Rumi Schools of Excellence (India) and Building Tommorrow (Uganda).

This week our design fellow Sandhya Janardhan talks to the AIA about our 2009 Open Architecture Challenge and how architects can collaborate with teachers and kids to design the classroom of the future.

Those interested in the challenge must register by May 4th and entries are due on June 1st. Beyond the grand prize and runners up prizes we are also awarding more than $20,000 in software in technical awards.

The Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom has received an amazing reception from designers, teachers, and students as they focus their creative expertise on designing the classroom of the future. The best part about this challenge is that ANYBODY can get involved. For those who are still contemplating taking part in the competition, take a look at the video for a glimpse into classrooms around the world.

With more than 200 entries in the first month, the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom is definitely on. We've been getting entrants from everywhere from Kentucky to Kabul. Last week students from partner Orient Global did their first design workshop with volunteers in Hyderabad, India.

At left: A studuent at an Orient Global school in Hyderabad, India measures his classroom as part of a workshop in conjunction with the Open Architecture Challenge.

Registration has opened for the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom.

If you are a design professional, chances are you believe you can shape the world around you. Here's your chance to inspire students with your knowledge and expertise.

Each year Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Challenge design competition brings public attention to inequities in the built environment affecting the health, prosperity and well being of under-served communities. In 2009 the Open Architecture Challenge will focus on the issue of portable classrooms.

In 2003, the Modular Building Institute estimated that more than 220,000 K-12 portable classrooms were in use by public school systems. Because school systems cannot readily access capital funding, these temporary and makeshift classrooms have become an unintended fixture of many educational campuses. In the United States alone more than 6 million students spend much of their day in “portable” classrooms. Anyone who has spent time in one of these classrooms knows that we can do better.