In Sioux Falls, South Dakota the impact of the local chapter of Architecture for Humanity is peppered throughout the city.

Kristen Schulte and Steven Dix recently spoke with Headquarters about the chapter's story, their work, and their plans for growth. You can check out some of their work on the I Love Architecture page.

Nick Robertson, one of the directors of Architecture for Humanity Portland Chapter, has been involved with Architecture for Humanity for about ten years – and has worked with AFH_pdx (as they're known on Twitter) almost as long as it’s been around. During that time, he’s seen his chapter grow and evolve from a grassroots operation into a fully-fledged chapter. AFH Portland tackles a number of projects relevant to their community, often pairing up with other local residents and organizations to do so. But beyond just managing a wide range of projects, Robertson and his co-directors are working to create a stable future for their chapter.

Nick Robertson recently took the time to speak with us for a two-part look into the Portland Chapter. You can find the first part here, or keep reading part two:

Nick Robertson, one of the directors of Architecture for Humanity Portland Chapter, has been involved with Architecture for Humanity for about ten years – and has worked with AFH_pdx (as they're known on Twitter) almost as long as it’s been around. During that time, he’s seen his chapter grow and evolve from a grassroots operation into a fully-fledged chapter. AFH Portland tackles a number of projects relevant to their community, often pairing up with other local residents and organizations to do so. But beyond just managing a wide range of projects, Robertson and his co-directors are working to create a stable future for their chapter.

Robertson recently took the time out of his schedule to speak with us:

Little is more ubiquitous and mundane than dirt. And yet, earth accounts for a substantial amount of building construction today, however much it has fallen out of favor with the "developed world."

Annually, a conference in France challenges us to rethink earth construction. Members of RAI Studio in Tehran recently participated in the Festival of Earth Architecture (remember last year?), an event that looks at the planet from what seems like an archaic perspective, and sculpts inspiring shelters with an unassuming material.

On Thursday, May 16th, Architecture for Humanity rocked the casa (with notable guests) in Miami in the latest installation of ABSOLUT X - an experimental art project benefiting the host city's Architecture for Humanity Chapter.

With a focus on music, cocktails and participatory art, each event features a local artist, renowned mixologists and musicians, and an Architecture for Humanity Chapter. After the event, headquarters and chapter members work together to install the featured artist's donated piece in a public location, for all to interact with and admire.

Beth Worth is a trustee of Architecture for Humanity London Chapter, responsible for communication and public engagement. Today the chapter helped her take down a series of temporary installations for Clerkenwell Design Week in London - structures reflecting the ethos of Architecture for Humanity, and an elaboration on themes and formats raising awareness for the organization's work and principles.

Somehow, Beth found time this week to talk about the chapter's development and ambitions.

Linus Lam is the remaining active founder the first Canadian Architecture for Humanity chapter, in Vancouver. In the past four years, the Vancouver Chapter has worked on everything from self-initiated projects, hosting talks and conferences, to collaborations with the City of Vancouver and the Haiti Rebuilding Center. We spoke with him recently on some of the opportunities and challenges of their work.

Architecture for Humanity Toronto
2013 Lecture & Symposium Series

Sergio Palleroni; Co-founder and Director of the BaSiC Initiative

May 21st, 2013
6:30 – 8:00 PM
The Centre for Social Innovation Annex, 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON

Join us for the last night of our lecture series discussing communities and architecture.

Ricardo Daza is beyond dedicated to the Bogotá Chapter he himself launched in 2009 with two of his non-architect friends.

How do the Bogotá folks do it? Find out below.

Launched with seed funding to respond to disastrous metropolitan flooding in Fall 2012, the Manila chapter began right away addressing pressing environmental issues around the country.

While unpredictable Internet connectivity has created a, achem, bottleneck for regular project reporting, the Chapter is working with partner organizations and maintaining a healthy feed of YouTube videos for several projects they have adopted since their formation.

With a surge of volunteers, we see nothing but good things coming from the heart of the Philippines.

Director of Projects Colleen Mohan kind of fell into her role on the SF Chapter's steering committee - and couldn't be more excited about the responsibility.

We do a quick Q&A check-in on what gets Colleen out to meetings and where she sees it all heading.

The San Francisco Chapter held their monthly chapter meeting Wednesday night at 695 Minna in SOMA (@AFH_HQ).

On the agenda was a recap of Structures for Inclusion; project updates; announcements on resiliency and the upcoming AIA Architecture and the City festival; and a note to young practitioners on calling yourself an architect. Through the meeting you got a palpable sense of momentum with this team of young designers - and hope to see all their current efforts get built and help improve communities.

Twenty people showed up for this meeting - about half of them coming for the first time, from all corners of the design world, curious about that Architecture for Humanity was up to in and around SF, and eager to get involved.

Following is a recap of the meeting and the variety of projects the Chapter is currently engaged with.

The San Francisco Chapter's 1 Burrows Pocket Park, after years of development, recently broke ground, and is well underway with lots of promise as a prototype for similar dead end streets in San Francisco's Portola neighborhood.

We met Ruth Wallace of the Portola Neighborhood Association on site March 27th, as she and a member of the Friends of the Urban Forest, figure out where to plant trees on the slope above the park's future bioswale. She introduces the project and what it will mean for the neighborhood in this 1 minute video.

You may remember how last summer, damaging floods in Manila started a movement. We raised seed funding to launch a Manila Chapter, headed by an old colleague known for school buildings made from bottles. He's recently written us on progress of the Manila Chapter in its first six months.

The bottle theme hasn't abated an iota - and we're thrilled to see this construction system engaging the community and end users in a recently opened Center for the Aged, captured very nicely in a 3 minute video.

Tehran-based Rai Studio has completed two earth-based structures for Afghan refugees in central Iran, that we first mentioned last November.

We are also happy to report the project has gotten more eyes via Domus, with completed images of the structure with project and process details. The units were designed based on Afghan living habits and incorporate passive sustainability into a traditional medium.

Our friends at Rai Studio and Tehran just sent us their newest projects for Afghan refugees and communities affected by a massive earthquake last August.

Pouya Khazaeli, principal of Rai Studio and architecture professor at Azad University, Tehran and Ghazvin, notes: "Social sustainability in design is our main focus area here. It means to study how these refugees live, communicate, the meaning of privacy in their live, which materials they prefer and use for construction, which kind of construction techniques they use themselves, how much they spend normally to construct their own shelters...."

Architect, headquarters volunteer and DLYGAD[2] featured designer Pouya Khazaeli recently sent us some images of design/build charrettes and workshops in Mashhad, Iran, and Grenoble, France, led by his team of Tehrani professionals and the guiding principles of Architecture for Humanity.

Consistent with his contribution to the latest Damn volume, Khazaeli pursues rapid emergency shelters for those with the very fewest resources...and is not satisfied with just one formulation.

Both charrettes explore reed an earth construction, built on flexible, small tree limbs and allowing for a bit of geometric poetry. In the case of the CRAterre event in Grenoble, the structure was devised for users of a...smaller scale. Take a look.

Early last year, San Francisco chapter member and architect Reaz Haque reached out to the City for potential projects. The City chipped him a cul-de-sac abutting an Interstate in a low-income neighborhood. This east end of Burrows Street had become neglected, a dumping ground and gathering spot for vandals and illicit activity. Six months following the architect's design presentation, the Office of the Mayor is engaging the 1 Burrows Street Pocket Park as flagship project for neighborhood development and public greening.

Congratulations to our Auckland chapter, recipient of the October micro grant. The chapter will receive $2500 in support of their Mangere East Community Center Project!

The proposed Mangere East Community Centre will upgrade a dilapidated and neglected community centre that has operated in the last 50 years out of former prefab army sheds and abandoned masonic lodge that were not designed for the particular needs of the community but has been awkwardly re-purposed for its use. The new community centre will serve three main functions: 1) Adult education; 2) Early childhood services; 3) After school care. The micro grant will enable the chapter to take this project up to the schematic design stage. This requires 2 basic schematic proposals to be put together and exhibited during community festival, organization of design charrette and conducting of simple surveys – from which the chapter will produce at least one scheme with complete community buy-in. Subsequently the schematic design will be presented to local authorities and corporate funders to raise enough capital to get this project built in the next five years.

Calling all chapters! Chapter members can now apply for the October $2500 micro grant. The recipient of the October grant will be announced at our annual chapter forum in NYC on 22OCT! Apply starting today, through 21OCT, to fund your chapter project - projects can be in any design development or construction phase! Have a great future project but need a little help to get it going? Apply as well.

Fill out the application form to apply for the October micro grant.

Apply today!

For the third month in a row,all chapters are invited to apply for a $2500 micro grant to be awarded at the end of the month. Apply starting today, from September 12 through September 26, to fund your chapter project - projects can be in any design development or construction phase! Have a great future project but need a little help to get it going? Apply as well.

Fill out the application form to apply for the September micro grant.

Apply today!

We're pleased to announce that our August Chapter Micro Grant has been awarded to our Sioux Falls chapter. The grant funding will be applied toward the construction of a prototype garden shelter in Falls Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This garden shelter project will be the first of seven other community garden shelters to be built around the city. Each shelter will highlight a different sustainable material including gabion construction, rammed earth, straw bale, compressed earth block and cordwood. Congratulations to the Sioux Falls chapter!

We're doing it again. All chapters are invited to apply for a $2500 micro grant to be awarded at the end of the month. Apply starting today, from August 08 through August 22, to fund your chapter project - projects can be in any design development or construction phase! Have a great future project but need a little help to get it going? Apply as well.

Fill out the application form to apply for the August micro grant.

We would like to give a special thanks to Chase Community Giving for this opportunity and to everyone for their involvement and continued support of Architecture for Humanity and the Chapter Network.

Apply today!

We're pleased to announce that our first Chapter Micro Grant has been awarded to our Dhaka, Bangladesh chapter. The grant funding will be going toward the construction of a school in the Rayer Bazar Slum. The school provides English educational services to this disadvantaged community free of charge under the supervision of the Jaago Foundation. A very limited budget has not hampered the design innovation of this project which highlights the use of indigenous materials and techniques that can be duplicated in other locations. Extensive use of bamboo, locally grown, demonstrates the potential of this building material and offers sustainable economic opportunities for farmers and growers. The project also makes use of recycled metal, available in ample supply in Dhaka. Congratulations to the Dhaka chapter.

Micro grants for chapter projects

We're excited to announce our Chapters Micro Grants Program, benefiting our chapter projects. Thanks to the Chase Community Giveaway, we're able to fund this program for the next several months. A monthly $2500 grant will be awarded to a chapter project and watch how a little help goes a long way!

This month, 12 applications were submitted by our international and US based chapters. These applications cover a cross section of projects that truly highlight the talent and dedication of our chapter members. Each of these chapter projects offer an innovative design solution for a local challenge.

To qualify, current projects may be in any design development stage, making this a wonderful opportunity for all chapters. Consideration for a successful application include impact, sustainability, design innovation and progress feasibility within the 90-day grant period.

Architecture for Humanity was awarded a $25,000 grant by Chase Community Giving to help fund our local chapter projects.

Starting this July, Architecture for Humanity is proud to announce that we will be awarding monthly micro grants throughout our entire chapter network.

We will award one grant each month in the amount of $2500. The grants are designed to help local chapter projects move one phase closer to completion. The winning chapter will have three months to show how the funds were used toward the project.

The first round applications must be submitted between 01JUL and 15JUL. Fill out the application form to apply for the July micro grant.

We would like to give a special thanks to Chase Community Giving for this opportunity and to everyone for their involvement and continued support of Architecture for Humanity and the Chapter Network.

Apply today!

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A DIRECT APPEAL FROM ALEXANDRA LEE, DIRECTOR OF ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY - AUCKLAND AND CAMERON SINCLAIR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY

Architecture for Humanity is working with the Auckland, New Zealand chapter to help fund raise to Build Back Christchurch. Today a violent earthquake has struck Christchurch, New Zealand and a state of emergency has been declared in the city. Massive property damage and a rising death toll is ongoing; latest news at NZ Herald or find us on Facebook – Christchurch Earthquake Relief.

Here is how you can help.

What a terrific year for all our chapters! Our chapter network is growing rapidly around the world.  This year we welcomed the Calgary, Greenville, Guadalajara, Kampala, Karachi, Louisville, Mexico City, Milwaukee, Monterrey, New Orleans, Nashville, Raleigh, Rotterdam, Santiago and Shanghai chapters to our chapter family, making us nearly 70 chapters-strong.  A special mention goes to our Karachi and Santiago chapters for responding so effectively in the aftermath of devastating flooding and earthquakes.