Architecture for Humanity Board Member and Technology Chair Representative, Scott Mattoon, shared the structure and function of the board, and ideas for further strengthening the connection between the Architecture for Humanity staff and the Board of Directors at last week's Design Open Mic.

During Architecture for Humanity's weekly Design Open Mic (April 18, 2012), Peter Cohen, from the Council of Community Housing Organizations, poses questions related to development, growth, and design. Peter presents that green development projects and smart growth development policy should have socially equitable benefits. The Council of Community Housing Organizations ask the question in their work: who benefits from the plans and policies and investments that drive green projects and smart growth development, and who potentially is negatively impacted or excluded from those benefits?

Je'Nen Chastain is an architecture enthusiast and has experience in architecture nonprofit and chapter management. As a recent volunteer for Architecture for Humanity in San Francisco, Je'Nen contributed her experience and know-how to multiple projects, including the redesign of the library and Chapter develompent. Join Je'Nen in part one of Design Open Mic on April 11 in which she describes the mission of the library and the process by which Architecture for Humanity staff, design fellows, and volunteers from around the world can get the most out of this valuable resource of materials.

Ken Smith has been an Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow for a year and is based in San Francisco. Ken has an extensive professional background in technology, international relations, architecture, and landscape design. He has also been a volunteer plant propagator at Tilden Botanical Garden in Berkeley. Ken's extensive experience and passion for using architecture and design as a tool to facilitate social change are further demonstrated by the many design projects he's currently involved in.

At our weekly HQ Design Open Mic, Architecture for Humanity's newest Japan Design Fellow Akinobu Yoshikawa shared how he navigated multiple disasters that struck when he lived in Kobe, New York, Los Angeles and Sendai. These experiences informed his decision to become an architect and his approach to design. In addition, Aki showed photos and sketches of his recently completed project, an assembly hall and tower in Minamisoma, Fukushima. This assembly hall is on the site of a housing community for 500 families displaced by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Design Open Mic on March 14th featured design highlights on three projects from Nicaragua to Zimbabwe to Brazil.

First we heard from Power to the People, an NGO based in Berkeley, that has installed solar power at six sites in Nicaragua. Romina Arcamone and Jessica Shao are volunteers who are involved in this project, and Jessica shared her experience on a recent trip to Nicaragua in which she worked with the community to install a solar charging station.

The first Design Open Mic of the month is reserved for internal review of all active projects (and some operations stuff). The meeting takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours and I punch up a good six pages of notes. Here I'll spare the volume and stick to hightlights. Feel free to stop into 848 in April for the unabridged version. #iLoveArchitecture

If you've ever wondered what volunteering at HQ is like, then there's no better than our volunteer coordinator Tomika Anderson, to lay it out.

Virginia Calkins challenged our Wednesday lunchers: how do you promote trade through a materials-rich region and downplay material exploitation? The peoples of the Amazon basin are particularly keen to find an answer. Following the 1960's discovery of oil and the recent proposal of new trade routes, rural Ecuador has become the subject of contentious battles for land and development.

Calkins represents a design studio hoping to stem the influx of unsustainable development by applying incentives to let the land alone, and engage locals in the conversation.

The National Museum in Nairobi houses over 20,000 fossil specimens excavated from the Turkana Basin that are piecing together the ancestry of the human race. Problem is: it's very hard to catch a glimpse of these fossils. That's all starting to change.

Jacob Ehrenberg is Andy Goldsworthy's project manager. He joined us at our weekly Design Open Mic on February 8, 2012 to tell us about a job that comes with its own set of challenges - especially as Goldsworthy's work gets more ambitious and incorporates some...intriguingly specialized consultants. Jacob unfurled a tale of struggle and success on the Museum of Jewish Heritage's Garden of Stones.

Design Open Mic on January 25, 2012 featured two presentations. First up, we heard from Architecture for Humanity's Alix Ogilvie, T. Luke Young, and Delphine Luboz. They presented their experiences from Autodesk University 2011 in Las Vegas where participants were offered hundreds of classes on Autodesk software and could hear about the latest advancements in the company's products. Here's a sample of the software they discussed:

At our Design Open Mic on January 18, 2012, Producer Lee Schneider visited Architecture for Humanity to talk about his feature documentary, Shelter, which highlights innovative humanitarian shelter design around the world. Lee was joined by staff member Caroline Markowitz, and together the two showed clips from their filming in Haiti, described production plans for 2012, and introduced Shelter: connect, the educational initiative of the film, which connects university design students in the U.S. with communities in need.

Lee discussed why Shelter has decided to open source the film and gather public feedback. Lee said they started the outreach initiative to spark the humanitarian-design movement in schools, find out what schools are already working on projects like this and help them make media.

At Design Open Mic on January 11, 2012, Architecture for Humanity Program Manager Sandhya Naidu Janardhan gave us an update on Rebuilding Haiti two years after the devastating earthquake. Then Lisa Smyth, who started working with Architecture for Humanity in Haiti as a volunteer and recently earned a well-deserved design fellowship, spoke to us about “the other side of Haiti” - the challenges of rebuilding an impoverished community versus the natural beauty and culture of a Caribbean Island.

Danae Ringelmann, COO and cofounder of crowdsourcing site IndieGoGo stopped by on December 21st to share a bit of the history and current state of project crowdsourcing. Specifically, IndieGoGo is a platform for causes, entrepreneurs and artists to find a community of like-minded friends and strangers to help get their passions off the ground.

"In the developing world, decent, affordable housing and productivity are inextricably linked." Hasan Alemdar of the Equality & Opportunity Foundation visited headquarters last month for an Open Mic outlying this relationship, and how a $500 house can address it.

Hasan makes clear that simply designing a housing unit will not solve deeply-rooted economic problems. He looks to the world's largest urban slums, like those of Dhaka and Mumbai. Here, twenty million people "live in a geographic area that is impossible to contain within an urban setting."

Every month HQ dedicates a Design Open Mic to gathering all the program managers, and anyone else crazy enough to willingly listen to them, and reviewing project status for Just About Everything. We'll spare you the dull bits about internal operations (all the more reason to hear it in person?), but we get the hunch a few of you want to hear about the architecture...

This past Wednesday we were graced by presentations from the CEO of indy-publishing supersite Blurb , Eileen Gittins, and Tehran native and architecture professor, Pouya Khazaeli. With a 90-minute one-two punch Eileen defended hope for the physical book as we know it, and Pouya led a tour of a rapidly transforming, and highly misunderstood Persian capital.

At this Wednesday's Design Open Mic, Autodesk's Kimberly Whinna and resident designer German Aparicio visited HQ to talk about the Autodesk IDEA Studio and the latest residency project: FutureSF.

Zac Taylor and Ken Smith sit on opposite ends of the office, yet both are working away at their desktop collaboratories so prolifically that we (the rest of the office & guests) were surprised to not see liquid nitrogen billowing from their keyboards.

During this past Wednesday's Design Open Mic session, we learned about a few different sports programs that have been completed, are in progress, or are just kicking off around the world.

With all the natural disasters and especially earthquakes that have occurred around the world in the past couple of years, many believe that California is due for the next massive earthquake. The fear is heightened for those of us living in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere along the San Andreas fault line, where we saw our last major earthquake in 1989.

Do you have a humanitarian design project or concept you want to share with an audience eager to soak up new ideas? Sign up today for the traveling Design Open Mic series at our annual design conference in New York City.

On Saturday, October 22nd at Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE!, we will hear from various open mic participants who will have a maximum of seven minutes to present. The format keeps the pace energizing and allows us to learn about many projects over the course of the day. A good formula to follow is to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each, though it's up to YOU how you'd like to utilize your time slot.

At the top of our Design Open Mic program this week, we had Justin Moresco, Project Manager of GeoHazards International -- a nonprofit group "working toward global earthquake safety" -- introduce Luz María Sánchez Hurtado, Executive Director of the Lima-based nonprofit Estrategia. The two organizations have teamed up to advocate for and train women of low-income communities in Peru to build housing that is seismically sound and safe for their communities.

For our Wednesday, September 7th Design Open Mic program, we had presentations from Hiromi Tabei, Design Fellow for the Tohoku Reconstruction Program, and Nick Sowers, Designer, Founder and Author at Soundscrapers.

This past Wednesday, August 31st, we heard some very exciting updates from a few of Architecture for Humanity's very own.

Preeti Sodhi, Design Fellow with Architecture for Humanity, started things off at our Design Open Mic session with an update about the improvements being made to the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark.

The Manhattan Bridge Skatepark is one of the most popular skate spots in New York City, if not the world; however, it is in desperate need of a redesign and reconstruction. Located within a diverse community at the intersection of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, the skatepark provides a much needed place for recreation in a neighborhood with little green or open space.

At our Wednesday, August 18th Design Open Mic session, we welcomed Design Fellow Karl Johnson back to the office. Having just returned from a trip to Haiti, Karl gave us the latest on the happenings there, including the development by the Haiti Team -- in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity International -- of the Santo Community Plan, one of the first permanent residential developments for Haiti since the earthquake.

Participants in this week's Design Open Mic on August 3rd heard the latest updates on Architecture for Humanity's ever-growing project board.

First off, we were brought up to speed on the Happy Hearts project in Peru which is nearing completion as well as the other Happy Hearts projects in construction. This was followed by an update on the nine Football for Hope projects, three Nike GameChangers projects and five Nike GameChangers micro grants in various stages of design and development.

For our Wednesday, July 27th Design Open Mic session, our headquarters welcomed Darin Dinsmore, CEO of the newly founded Crowdbrite, an online platform that facilitates collaboration among professionals and experts of varying fields in their work on design and development projects. Chapters Coordinator Frederika Zipp spoke about the Chapter Micro Grants that will be awarded monthly thanks to a recent grant from Chase Community Giving.

At our weekly Design Open Mic on Wednesday July 20th, we heard presentations from Myriam Kaplan Pasternak on agricultural entrepreneurial opportunities in Haiti, and Brazilian Design Fellow Carla Del Mas, who introduced us to life in São Paolo and then debriefed us on the Architecture for Humanity project she is working on with Nike do Brasil and a local neighborhood association.

Our Wednesday Design Open Mic was dedicated to project updates and sharing our goals in the year ahead.

We heard the latest news on the Happy Hearts Fund and ING Latin America School Building joint venture, Football for Hope and Students Rebuild, among others.

Goals included launching the next Open Architecture Challenge, hosting this year's Design Like you Give A Damn: LIVE! on October 21-22 and implementing our projects in Japan through the Tohoku Rebuilding Program.

It was standing room only at Architecture for Humanity's Design Open Mic at the Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles last weekend. Six presentations were chosen from a long line up of submissions that spoke to the theme of "Regeneration." The topics were wide and varied, as you can read in the summaries and presentations included below.

Presenters had only seven minutes to share their ideas throughout the hour so the pace was fast, and the audience remained rapt.

This week’s Design Open Mic Program on June 29th, featured three presentations including an update on our response to Japan by Hiromi Tabei, a refresh on the Football for Hope Program led by Mark Warren, and an introduction to Alma Ruiz, our newest Design Fellow, and her previous work.

Hiromi Tabei started Design Open Mic by discussing programs to reinvigorate the community of Motoyoshi, Japan. One of the main areas of focus was Hikado Market, which was badly damaged by the tsunami. The goal of the project is to recreate a “community center” for the neighborhood displaced by the tsunami.

A recap of our fully packed Design Open Mic program from Wednesday, June 22 --

First up, talking about the history and future of urban agriculture, we had Gabriel Kaprielian, Design Fellow with Architecture for Humanity. Gabriel spoke specifically about the Bay Area movement and some of the Architecture for Humanity San Francisco Chapter projects -- past and forthcoming -- that are a part of the local urban agriculture movement. A couple chapter projects that were highlighted were the Hayes Valley Farm Greenhouse, a completed project, and the Sunol Agpark, a project currently in the design development stage. Gabriel's presenation about the history and current buzz surrounding the urban agriculture movement (which can be downloaded in PDF version, below), provided a perfect segue to introduce Eli Zigas and Ashley Rood -- co-coordinator and volunteer, respectively -- who spoke briefly about the policy and advocacy work that they do with the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA).

The finalists have been chosen and the time slots allotted. Next Saturday, June 25th from 4-5 pm, six presenters will take the stage in Los Angeles at Dwell on Design for Architecture for Humanity's traveling Design Open Mic. The seven-minute Pecha Kucha style design presentations will all touch on the theme of "Regeneration" since our hearts and minds have been with those affected by the natural disasters in Haiti, New Zealand and now Japan. The six presentations will focus on how design can be a tool to heal and improve the world.

On our Wednesday, June 8th session of Design Open Mic, we had presentations from Damon Hernandez of IDEAbuilder, and our very own Sandhya Janardhan, Program Manager currently working on projects in Haiti.

We had a very special guest for our Design Open Mic session on Wednesday, June 1st. David Thiru, director of Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) Academy was in town all the way from Kenya, and came for a special visit to the office to talk about his experience working with Architecture for Humanity on the Mathare Football for Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya.

On Wednesday, May 25th, we had founding principal Damien Newman of Central Story, and Urban Re:Vision founder Stacey Frost, speak at our Design Open Mic session about their work creating a new methodology for engaging individuals and communities involved in design and development projects. This new methodology -- which includes an in-depth examination of the processes of design and how they correspond with human life cycle stages -- will be used to facilitate consensus among citizen, governmental and organizational groups participating in the development of building projects. Central Story is expecting to create a workbook of guidelines to be used for the implementation of their methodologies.

We couldn't have been more pleased about the lineup from our May 18th Design Open Mic session. First up, from Architecture for Humanity's very own San Francisco chapter, we had Lindsay Toscano, Lauren Reichenbach, and Katie Elmore presenting their work on the West Oakland Health Center.

We will be hosting the next traveling installment of Design Open Mic on Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 4-5 pm at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles, California and we're on the hunt for presenters. Those humanitarian designers, both emerging and established, who are chosen will have the exciting opportunity to take the stage and share their ideas to a design-centric audience.

Architecture for Humanity is constantly keeping itself busy with dozens of ongoing projects around the globe. To keep the team up to date, we spent last week's Design Open Mic to review the progress we've made on some of those projects.

One very exciting update is that the Kimisagara Football for Hope Center in Kigali, Rwanda -- which has been in the works since 2007 -- has finally broken ground after the team over there had to overcome some road bumps along the way. Congratulations to all those working on the Football for Hope Program!

We had yet another satisfying and informative Design Open Mic potluck session here at the SF HQ on May 4, 2011.

First up, we had a presentation from Afaan Naqvi, Energy & Resources Engineer with ARUP. Afaan recently spent two months volunteering with the Architecture for Humanity Karachi Chapter to work on rebuild projects in response to the summer 2010 flood. Afaan brought our attention to some of the structural and mechanical problems that were inherent to buildings prior to the flood, and explained how these issues were ameliorated in the reconstruction of stone and brick buildings in the Sindh and Punjab provinces. You can download his presentation and watch highlights in the video clip presented here.

We will be hosting the next traveling installment of Design Open Mic on Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 4-5 pm at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles, California and we're on the hunt for presenters. Those humanitarian designers, both emerging and established, who are chosen will have the exciting opportunity to take the stage and share their ideas to a design-centric audience.

We had a full and lively lineup for our April 20th Design Open Mic program.

At the start of our session, we heard from Miles Ford, Program Manager for the redevelopment of the Knowle West Media Center in Bristol, England. Miles gave a compelling presentation about how ModCell -- a construction system that utilizes pre-fabricated straw bale panels to create well-insulated and carbon-negative building structures -- was used to build a community media center for the youth in Bristol.

During our Design Open Mic session on April 13th, we held an office screening of Building Hope, a film produced by The Nobelity Project that documents the construction and completion of the Mahiga Hope Rainwater Court and High School near Nairobi, Kenya.

The Mahiga Rainwater Court was an Architecture for Humanity project completed in 2009. In addition to being a 4,850 sq. ft., full-court basketball court, the design's main features included a roof with gutters for rainwater catchment, and a UV water purification system powered by solar panels. The completed structure serves multiple functions for the community, providing a sports facility, purified drinking water, a covered performance space for music and theatre, an outdoor classroom area, and a general meeting space.

We dedicated the April 6 Design Open Mic lunch time presentation to reflecting on the various projects going on here at Architecture for Humanity. Gretchen Mokry, our Senior Project Manager, went down the list on the programs board and updated us on the progress of ongoing projects, such as the Rebuilding Center in Haiti and the Football for Hope Campaign in Africa, as well as on reconstruction efforts in Japan.

Stay tuned for more updates and presentations from our Design Open Mic series. And as always, come by on Wednesdays from 12-1 pm if you're in the Bay Area.

Cameron Sinclair, co-founder and Chief Eternal Optimist of Architecture for Humanity, and Chapters Coordinator Frederika Zipp updated staff and attendees on relief efforts in Japan at our most recent Design Open Mic session on March 30.

Architecture for Humanity's Wednesday potluck series, Design Open Mic, continued this past week on March 23rd with presentations from Martine Theodore, newly appointed Economic Development Director for Architecture for Humanity in Haiti, and Vasilios Katsavrias, design fellow and volunteer at Architecture for Humanity.

Design Fellow Karl Johnson recently returned from a three-week site visit in Haiti. While there, he worked with the rebuilding team to assess schools and check out potential sites. At today's Lunch and Learn Karl told us about his trip and showed us images from the ground.

The 'Maison du Architecture,' where the staff and volunteers stay, is situated outside of Port au Prince. It's cozy but missing certain creature comforts, i.e. all clothes washing is done by hand. There’s a goat and plans for an edible garden. Karl then showed us an image of people in Port au Prince selling charcoal. He says there's a deforestation problem in Haiti - one of many problems for which the country is looking for a solution. Hand-painted signs proliferate in Port au Prince. Karl says there's acute attention to detail in the signs, just as there is in the many hand-crafted items around town.

Architecture for Humanity headquarters were jam-packed with volunteers, visitors and staff for our weekly Lunch and Learn. Bobby Chang, co-founder of California-based Incase, visited to present on Invisible Children's MEND program. A designer by trade, Bobby said he'd been working in Asia and wanted to evolve his skills to do something more 'responsible.' He was inspired by MEND and thought he could bring his design skills and knowledge to expand the program.

Who Made Your Bag?

Michelle Kaufmann visited Architecture for Humanity headquarters for our weekly Lunch and Learn session to talk about sustainable design. Her firm, Michelle Kaufmann Studio, works to make thoughtful, sustainable design more accessible. She said the average San Francisco home emits 8,000 lbs. of waste. One way to reduce waste by as much as 50 to 75 percent is to utilize modular construction, she said. A modular home is created in the factory but built to suit a specific site. You can check out a video of a modular home (designed by Michelle Kaufmann's firm) being set up here: http://michellekaufmann.com/2010/03/smart-home-a-home-in-90-seconds/.

For our weekly Lunch and Learn session, Tom Sargent visited our San Francisco office and presented on his innovative community-oriented development work in the Bay Area. Tom is the Founding Principal of Equity Community Builders (http://ecbsf.com) and the driving force behind such projects as Cavallo Pont - The Lodge at the Golden Gate, where two-dozen historic buildings at Fort Baker have been turned into a beautifully expansive retreat and conference center. He’s also the lead on a 30,000 square-foot conversion of See’s Candy factory into artist live-work space. Another of his projects is the Thoreau Center for Sustainability at the Presidio: twelve environmentally friendly buildings on a former military base-turned national park.

Independent journalists Ruxandra Guidi and Roberto ('Bear') Guerra have reported from around the world, bringing important local and international stories to light. They combine images, writing and multimedia to show how poverty, climate change, health care and other international issues affect people's lives. This week, they visited us for our Lunch and Learn session to share their work from a reporting trip to Haiti in Fall 2008. Bear returned to Haiti shortly after this year's quake, and they both plan to go back for a three-week trip in July.

Right before they traveled to Haiti in 2008, a string of hurricanes had just hit the country. They saw it as a great opportunity to examine foreign aid. Bear and Ruxandra said the lack of functional infrastructure was just one example of what wasn't working.

Chuck Setchell with the USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) visited us during our weekly Lunch and Learn session. He is preparing to return to Haiti and wanted to share with us how the agency is helping Haitians find shelter. He talked about some of the challenges to resettlement efforts, which include the vast amount of rubble left over by the earthquake, land tenure issues and the lack of recovery plans by the Haitian government.

Chuck said that past experience suggests that the population in Port au Prince and other cities will increase, not decrease, so aid groups needs to 'think big' to help the affected population. For now, the agency is assessing emergency shelters in affected areas to prepare for the hurricane season.

Here are some interesting facts from his presentation as collected by Cameron on his twitter account: