Three design teams were recognized by the 2012 Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) competition. Maria Auxiliadora School in Ica, Peru, was named one of three international winners. The Kimisagara Football for Hope Center in Kigali, Rwanda, and Fresh Moves Mobile Market in Chicago, USA, were named honorable mentions.

It’s been more than two years since Architecture for Humanity first started working in Haiti just before the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 230,000 people and displaced nearly one million more people. Is the country recovering? It’s a fair question.

Media coverage has not been particularly kind to Haiti. This year headlines like “Haiti’s stalled recovery,” or “Haiti recovery stalled?” or my favorite, “Haiti’s eternally stalled recovery” painted a less than optimistic picture. However, you parsed it, “stalled” seemed to be the word of choice in 2011 to describe the pace of progress in rebuilding here.

Now is the time to make those promises that we hate to break - the dreaded New Years resolution. We all want to lose a little weight, but we really want to know what are your design aspirations for 2012?

You can remain anonymous or, if you are feeling bold in your promise, add your name and/or email.

While most people are focused on the end of the year and the beginning of 2012, a number of our friends, partners and colleagues in the Philippines are rallying behind the recovery efforts going on post Typhoon Sendong (Washi).

As we have limited resources in country we are making a contribution to a couple of groups we've worked with for short term and long term recovery.

A facebook group has formed to see if there is enough support for us to do a expanded response. If you are interested, please join and let us know how you can help.

The true strength of the Architecture for Humanity eco-system are our chapters. They are working hard every day in cities and towns around the world.

This year was a big shift for us as we moved from affiliate groups to formalized chapters. More importantly our chapters built, designed and instigated some incredible projects around the world.

Our largest number of projects were in the United States, our biggest growth was in Mexico and the most number of building completed was in Pakistan.

Here are just a few projects that they worked on:

Dhaka
Prefabricated Retractable Classroom for Jaago Foundation // Completed
LUKE Water Treatment Plant // Completed

London

A huge shout out to all the musicians who donated or performed in concerts for Architecture for Humanity in 2011. The amazing line up included Imogen Heap (twice), Blonde Redhead, Jack Black, Fat Freddys Drop, Tim Finn, The Nudge, Four Tet, Deerhunter, Interpol, Jamie Cullum, KT Tunstall, Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Amos Lee and Kaki King.

Benefit events include Songs for Christchurch concerts in Auckland and Austin, Texas; Live4Sendai and fundraising Albums 'Songs for Christchurch' and 'We are the Works in Progress'. We also had track contributions by Winter People and Ghostly International for some of our online videos.

Last year we were supported by one of the most amazing group of teens we've had the honor of collaborating with -- Youth Rock The Rebuild. 10 teen bands raised $28,000 for our work in Haiti in a single concert!

If you're still looking for gifts to give friends or loved ones for the holidays, look no further. Our handy Holiday Giving Guide is stuffed with great ideas for gifts that not only give, but also give back.

Check out the goods below and hear those sleigh bells ring!

Give A Day of Design Zero carbon, zero waste, zero packaging, one hundred percent impact. 100% of transaction goes to Architecture for Humanity

The Curry Stone Design Prize honors Social Design Pioneers. With a $100,000 "no strings attached" purse, it is the Pritzker Prize that gives a damn. In October they announces the 2011 Curry Stone Design Prize Winners and tonight will will be an awards ceremony at the Harvard Graduate School of Design to present to all winners. If you can't make it you can watch the livestream here.

In addition, the Curry Stone Design Prize will premiere a micro-documentary on each of the winners today at the ceremony, here is your sneak peak.

Hsieh Ying-Chun, Grand Prize Winner

Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée, Winner

Congratulations to our Atlanta chapter, recipient of our September micro grant,for their Oasis Project!

The Oasis Project is the Atlanta chapter’s solution to the recognized shortage of proper public transportation amenities in Atlanta.
Following an open call design competition to create new bus shelter designs, the chapter has collaborated with local community organizations in the selection of a modular design that can be installed easily. The chapter's goal is to construct a shelter prototype that can then be duplicated at over 700 bus stop locations throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Architecture for Humanity hosted a design charrette at the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark as part of New York City's Urban Design Week. The event brought together planners, architects, landscape architects, skateboarders and members of the community to brainstorm about how the skatepark and adjacent areas of Coleman Oval Park should and could look. The charrette focused on two design challenges: create a skatepark that is well integrated with non-skateboarding activities and create a permeable yet well-defined edge condition between the skatepark and non skatepark areas.

Will merge with the Open Architecture Network to develop a robust center for applied innovation and sustainable development.

San Francisco, CA (September 19, 2011) Architecture for Humanity is honored to announce the acquisition of Worldchanging, a leader in solutions-based journalism, and to merge its assets with the Open Architecture Network to create a robust and informed network to bring solutions to global challenges to life.

It’s an exciting match, since design increasingly includes discussions of policy and planning, communication, social justice and science; issues that once fell outside the traditional bounds of architecture are now at the heart of professional practice. Bringing these two worlds together is a logical next step in sustainable development.

As an earthquake rocked the Eastern seaboard today, it's another reminder to take stock in each and everyone of our communities of our preparedness planning for a major natural or man-made disaster.

It's not just about designing and warehousing shelter. If you are concerned about your community, have you thought about the following:

1) Do you have a plan, but more importantly, do you have the financial instruments in place that will allow the plan to be executed? Those take longer to setup than any other aspect of disaster reconstruction and are too often ignored.
2) Where will you house your residents? Preparedness is knowing where you are going to build transitional shelter and executing planning and zoning permits, easements, etc. in advance.
3) Does your community have a clear understanding of how many it may need to shelter? It’s not 100% of your population...

Straight from our friends in the visualization laboratories of Autodesk...

AutocadWS – web-based editing & collaboration of design data

Project Nitrous - a cloud-based collaboration service for design files

Project Photofly – create 3D models from photographs

NOTE: GREAT FOR SITE STUDIES OF EXISTING CONDITIONS--VERY COOL.

Design Indaba is taking action with the help of Interactive Africa following the news reports of mass starvation in Somalia. They've leveraged their broad network to secure transportation, funding and in-kind commitments to help those suffering in the impoverished African nation. The mercy mission is delivering 11 tons of food and other relief goods to those who at this moment really do need it most.

Check it out - Design ER+ shows that design really can be about solutions. Cheers to our friends at Interactive Africa.

This week we heard from our resident nomad, design fellow and education outreach leader Nathaniel Corum that he has been selected as a senior fellow to the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) on sustainable land use, clean energy and climate change adaptation in the Americas.

Nathaniel, who has spent a decade working on tribal nations, is a fantastic choice given his deep knowledge in the nuances of social, cultural and environmental sustainability. Read about him in this recent profile in the New York Times

This video is made by the brother-sister duo that make up Journey of Action and looks at how localism is a mechanism for creating sustainable communities.

Architecture for Humanity maintains a Collaborative Tenant Space at our San Francisco Headquarters Office. One of our Collaborate Tenants, Green Designer Elizabeth Cordero, is finishing an energy efficiency certification course and needs to complete an energy efficiency audit and commission of an existing building.

Elizabeth wants to donate that service to a local San Francisco Bay Area Non-Profit. If you are such a non-profit, or know of one, please contact her at lcordero@greenbc.com

Electricity pylons, little changed since the 1920s, may get a makeover with a new international design competition. Are transmission towers icons or eyesores?

The UK became the latest country to run a pylon design competition, open to entries from around the world.

Where is your nearest pylon?

20 Women 20 Houses 20 Years Later

The Agri-tecture team is back in Oaxaca, having returned from San Juan Mixtepec where they worked with the warriors of this town to build new foundations and to turn earth, manure and water into adobe...thousands of adobe to be exact.

In the coming months, the women of San Juan Mixtepec will continue their work together and with architects Joao Caeiro + Fulvio Capurso to complete the first of 20 energy and resource efficient homes and building sites. This training program and prototype will be the foundation to a sustainable social structure and enterprise for the community.

Learn more + check out their progress.

In the indigenous village of San Juan Mixtepec, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, 60% of the men (mostly youth and family heads) emigrate, mainly to the United States. 84.5% do not return.

Thanks to a Kickstarter, $5K will go to Agri-tecture Training for Women in Rural Mexico and another adobe house will be built with and by the women of San Juan Mixtepec. This training program and prototype will be the foundation to building a sustainable social enterprise for the community.

One of the big perks of Architecture for Humanity's Community Builders program is the opportunity to visit some of our projects, both completed and still in progress. These yearly site visits are a chance for Community Builders to see our work first hand and truly understand the challenges faced by the communities with which we work and exchange ideas directly with community leaders making a difference.

We've announced this year's visits and are excited for our Community Builders to travel together with Architecture for Humanity design team members to any of the following three corners of the globe:

6 Bands... 6 Continents... 7 Hours
Dart Music International House at 219 West
219 W. 4th Street (Map)

Dart Music International, The House of Songs and Songs for Christchurch are proud to announce the line up for the SXSW "Songs for Christchurch" concert. The event is FREE but we will be collecting money for the effort throughout the day.

12:00 - Songs For Christchurch intro by Jackie Bristow (Gore, New Zealand)
12:15 - Abbi (Nairobi, Kenya)
1:00 - Dart Music International Special Guest
2:00 - The Foreign Resort (Copenhagen, Denmark)
3:00 - The Boxing Lesson (Austin, Texas)
4:00 - Street Chant (Auckland, New Zealand)
5:00 - Inverness (Santiago, Chile)
6:00 - Apollo 18 (Seoul, South Korea)

Since the devastating earthquake in New Zealand a group of like-minded individuals have been working to put on small concerts for Christchurch and to create a digital album. The Songs for Christchurch project includes concerts in Wellington, Auckland and Austin. If you are interested in getting involved or are a music artist that wants to contribute a song to the digital album (audio or video) please email our office for more details

Concert Information

Austin, Texas - March 16th, 2011
6 Hours : 6 Continents
The Dart Music International House at 219 West International Relations
Jackie Bristow (New Zealand), Abbi (Kenya), The Foreign Resort (Denmark), The Boxing Lesson (Austin), Street Chant (New Zealand), Inverness (Chile), Apollo 18 (South Korea)

Auckland, New Zealand - March 10th, 2011

On February 22nd, Christchurch, NZ, was struck by a powerful and devastating earthquake. A state of emergency has been declared and at this moment hundreds of people are still missing. Threadless T's invites graphic designers to create an inspirational tee around the theme of "Rebuild."

25% of each sale of the chosen design will fund Architecture for Humanity's efforts to rebuild the city. The chosen design will be available at Threadless.

ENTER HERE

Architecture for Humanity and Benetton have partnered on Facebook Deals and are embracing this cause marketing opportunity together. Benetton will donate two Euros each time a smartphone user checks in to their location in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the UK and claims a Benetton deal.

The proceeds will benefit Architecture for Humanity's Slums Information Development and Resource Centres (SIDAREC) project in Mukuru, a slum settlement outside Nairobi, Kenya. The youth technology and media center will provide community members with access to the Internet, computer and technology training, health clinic services, early childhood development programs, and a community theater. A radio station and recording studio, 99.9 Ghetto FM, will top out the project.

Update: We are honored to share the news that design fellow Daniel Feldman will be consulting with the Government of Colombia to help on the reconstruction process.

Are you a passionate, motivated, and natural born leader?

Architecture for Humanity is looking for Design Fellows who will lead the design and construction administration of community facilities and enterprise centers in: São Paulo, Brazil; China (location tbd); Mumbai, India; and New York City. The center will act as a hub for programs that tackle social issues in the community. This is a great opportunity for an emerging designer and social innovator to work in situ with the community, partners, and international architects on projects with international exposure.

To be considered, you must:

• be fluent in the local language, and in English
• be highly experienced in design, and development of architectural working drawings
• be highly experienced in construction oversight of community facilities
• have strong graphics and communication skills
• be creative, engaging, hardworking and fun

This holiday season we’ve partnered with Altruette, which is debuting a classic line of charm bracelets, necklaces and keychains that have a modern twist: 50 percent of the profits from each charm benefits non-profits like ours.

Each purchase arrives in a beautiful gift box and includes a card explaining all about the work we do, so it's a great way to introduce your friends, family and coworkers to Architecture for Humanity.

The Architecture for Humanity "House” charm is available now at www.altruette.com.

Look Good & Do Good this holiday season with Architecture for Humanity and Altruette.

This time of year can get hectic, but please don't forget to take a moment to donate. We wouldn't be able to support our design fellows around the world without your support.

You can help build a more sustainable future — one community, one designer, one donation at a time.

Help us provide 365 days of professional design services around the world by donating to support a designer for a day, week, month, or a year.

Cheers,

All of us at Architecture for Humanity

Once again our holiday party was a hit. Thanks to our co-hosts and all who attended to make 2010 just as fun if not more so than years past. There was dancing, there was socializing, and there was bubbly (personalities of course). We held a drawing and gave away gifts from our generous sponsors. We are ever grateful to all our supporters who bring our organization to life in communities where we work and live around the world, and also right here in our great home of San Francisco. THANK YOU and hope to see you next year!

Cheers,
Team Architecture for Humanity

Co-Hosts: Global Action Through Fashion, Dharamsala Animal Rescue, Rotunda Software, LLC, UC Davis Professor Mark Kessler, French journalist and photographer David Folch

You are invited to a small and special benefit event here in the city on Thursday, December 9th. Your presence will support the Design Fellowship Program at Architecture for Humanity. Space is filling up, so please RSVP and purchase your ticket here.

Turk Pipkin will screen select Nobelity Project short films as well as unreleased clip from his upcoming full-length film that features the culmination of one of Architecture for Humanity’s projects, The Mahiga Rainwater Court. Additionally, a short presentation about Architecture for Humanity’s rebuilding efforts in Haiti will presented by Architecture for Humanity design fellow, Karl Johnson.

Join us for our annual 'green' holiday party on December 10th from 6:30-11pm.

Festivities will abound as our sponsors have provided delicious food and drink and our dj will be spinning the latest hits. You may even get lucky - we'll be running a raffle that includes gift certificates from local restaurants and video games from SEGA.

Bring your friends and your kids (there's a dedicated fun room) and enjoy our sustainably decorated office (think recycled).

Cost of entry is a suggested food or cash donation to the San Francisco Food Bank. See a list of recommended items.

RSVP here.

Architecture for Humanity's Community Builders recently gathered together for the first time to discuss their commitment to humanitarian design and an upcoming group site visit. Future Community Builders were also invited to attend to learn more about the program that allows us to provide pro-bono services to communities in need around the world. The evening was unlike any other.

Photo courtesy of Naho Kubota

On October 3rd the Museum of Modern Art opened "Small Scale, Big Change: New Architecture of Social Engagement", an exhibition of architectural solutions to humanitarian needs. Eleven buildings and three web based portals are highlighted in the show, including the Open Architecture Network.

We decided to build an iPad app, now available at the App Store, that showcases over 3000+ projects on the network and bringing crowd transparency to humanitarian programs.

As a fun incentive we started facebook group called 'Tell your Momma you're in MoMA', with prizes for the best picture of you in the Museum showing off your project.

Not sharing your innovative project? Want to be in MoMA? then sign up to the Open Architecture Network and upload your solution today.

Join us for Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE!, our two-day forum that will showcase innovative humanitarian design, panel discussions and one-on-one workshops.

Panelists include Felipe Gomez-Acebo from the Inter-American Development Bank, James Stuckey from NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, Debby Visser from Success Measures at NeighborWorks America, Yana Watson from Dalberg Global Development Advisors and Cynthia Barton from the New York City Office of Emergency Management.

Read all of the panelists' bios here.

When: October 15, 4:30-7pm & October 16, 12-8pm
Where: Center for Architecture I 536 Laguardia Place I New York City

Make a difference through design—learn everything they didn’t teach you in architecture school.

Architecture for Humanity-Boston Chapter has been working with the non-profit Long Way Home (http://www.longwayhomeinc.org) for two years. Chapter member Ericka Temple, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP currently lives in Guatemala working with them full time on the design and construction of an environmental school using alternative construction. Long Way Home has been selected as one of the 12 finalists in the BBC World Challenge. This represents a huge opportunity for the Chapter, both in terms of the financial reward and exposure. The Challenge winner is determined by popular vote, so we are asking our extended Architecture for Humanity family to support the Boston Chapter by taking a minute to visit the site and vote for them. 

As a leader in building and design and a friend of Architecture for Humanity, you're invited to attend West Coast Green with 50 percent off the full conference registration fee. In honor of our mutual partnership, West Coast Green will donate a portion of your ticket sale to Architecture for Humanity, so please make sure you choose "Architecture for Humanity" from the drop down menu in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" question during registration.

The first action you’ll have to take is to claim your pass by clicking here.

This year, West Coast Green is focusing on the most innovative clean energy, technology and business growth opportunities in the built environment--which includes sustainable infrastructure, smart grids, buildings and transportation.

Click here to see the full line up of speakers.

Highlighted Sessions of Interest:

Want to have your project featured at the MoMA, upload it to the Open Architecture Network and allow the cool iPad App to do the rest.

The Open Architecture Network goes to the MoMA Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement. Showing from October 3, 2010–January 3, 2011.

Press Release courtesy of Homeless World Cup

24 September 2010, The Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup, the world-class international football tournament beating homelessness, and Nike have today announced they will leave a significant football community legacy center to inspire Brazil to tackle poverty and help young people at serious social risk to fight against social stigma and exclusion.

The new community and education centre, which will open in November, will ensure the benefits of football are available to people in Santa Cruz, a district on the outskirts of Rio.

Architects are designing in the communities they live in around the world. Though they bring technical expertise to the work, they often lack community development skills that are important to effecting change on the ground. Now is the time to begin training architects to become community developers and leaders. At Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE! we will share the tools and knowledge needed to bring architects to the decision-making table.

Be a catalyst for sustainable community development. Join us to share your knowledge and participate in a showcase of innovative design and one-on-one workshops.

DESIGN LIKE YOU GIVE A DAMN: LIVE!
When: October 15 4:30-7pm, October 16 12-8pm
Where: Center for Architecture, 536 Laguardia Place, New York City

Go Play!, an international non-profit that designs and builds playspaces as a holistic means of improving education, health and the well-being of children in the developing world, is sponsoring a design competition - Play for all - to promote innovate playgrounds that create meaningful experiences, that emphasize free play, exploration and collaboration. Designs should be innovative, using sustainable and recycled or repurposed building materials that are affordable, buildable, safe, durable, and of course, fun.

Announced September 17 on the Open Architecture Network, the open-to-all competition will award $1000 USD to the winning design team to assist with travel costs to oversee the building of their design with the help of Go Play!’s project manager. The winning playground design will be built for a school for refugee children along the border of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar).

Registration ends November 17, 2010, and all entries should be submitted by midnight January 03, 2010 (PST). Visit Play for all to learn more about the competition, Go Play!, and to enter.

Phase 2 of Safe Trestles – an ideas competition that explores ways to create safe, low-impact access to Trestles – is complete. The winning scheme, The Wave, was collaboratively designed and developed by Co-LAB design office, an emerging award winning architecture practice based in Los Angeles. The design is based on the informal pathways cut through the wetlands each year by surfers.

The Wave’s ambition is to keep it wild, make it safe, and safeguard the area for future users - keeping this landscape safe, protected and pristine, for generations to come.

On October 15-16, 2010 in New York City, Architecture for Humanity will be hosting Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE!, an interactive workshop and forum on humanitarian design. You can discover lessons learned and the way forward in sustainable community development from experts and clients in the field. Also share your work with the public and meet Architecture for Humanity staff and Chapter members. You know how to design, this is your opportunity to learn how to build it.

The kick-off event and cocktail party is on Friday from 4:30-7pm, when the 2010 Curry Stone Design Prize finalists will present their projects. Come learn about pedal-powered farm machinery for use in rural Guatemala and transformative urban public housing in Chile. This is free and open to the public.

Phase 2 of Safe Trestles – an ideas competition that explores ways to create safe, low-impact access to Trestles – is complete. 5 teams were selected from Phase 1 to develop their designs over the summer while working with project stakeholders, local agencies, and the community towards low-impact solutions that serve all users from surfers to beach-goers, restore wetlands damaged by impromptu paths, preserve and augment vistas, and offer education about the history of the site and the coastal environment.

Check out the solutions. Join the discussion. And vote for the People’s Choice Award here.

A special thanks to Davis Langdon for donating their expertise by providing cost estimates for each solution.

Stacey (seated at right) is seriously green. I don't mean new (although she's that as well, to our Haiti team, having joined us last month in Port-au-Prince), but, you know, ECO. Sustainable. Stacey is working with Architecture for Humanity as our Design Fellow delegate from the United States Green Building Council, or USGBC, better know for the development of the LEED certification system (see an overview, Stacey's in fact, of how LEED can work in Haiti).

Stacey hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she is Principal and Green Studio Director for the architecture firm Koch Hazard. It's an honor that she accepted our invitation to work in Haiti for a year and I'm sure countless people will benefit from her wisdom.

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.

Participate in Safe Trestles People's Choice Awards for Phase 2

Phase 2 of Safe Trestles – an ideas competition that explores ways to create safe, low-impact access to Trestles – is complete. 5 teams were selected from Phase 1 to develop their designs over the summer while working with stakeholders - Architecture for Humanity, Surfrider, and San Onofre Foundation - local agencies, and the community towards low-impact solutions that serve both surfers and visitors to the beach, restore wetlands that have been damaged by the path, preserve and augment vistas, and offer education about the history of the site and the coastal environment.

Tomorrow at 8am PST, 11am EST and 4pm GMT join Imogen Heap, Sir Richard Branson and friends online, in a very spontaneous 'get together' with live music and open discussion, as they raise funds to benefit those affected by the recent devastating floods in Pakistan. Architecture for Humanity and our current Pakistan reconstruction efforts has been designated as one of the beneficiary organizations. To date our Karachi chapter has set up 150 tents, distributed 5000 meals and cleaned over 1000 homes.

The US Conference of Mayors met in San Francisco to discuss how California cities are advancing energy efficiency through federal funding. Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Cathy Zoi from the US Department of Energy spoke about how block grants promote green projects and in turn provide jobs.

$2.8 billion goes directly to cities and towns through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, benefiting 215 cities and 13 counties in California. Some examples of projects are lighting efficiency and community facility retrofits. Zoi said there are 4,000 projects underway this summer from the program.

Cities can apply for the funds and then go through a bid process, whereby they send out a request for proposal for residential retrofits, for example. San Rafael Mayor Richard Landis said his city applied for funding for an already approved grant, and 24 hours later had the cash in hand.

Santiago, Chile -- Architecture for Humanity, in partnership with Nike, is pleased to announce the Polideportivo Abierto Tecnológico Educacional Ana (P.A.T.E.A.) project as the winning proposal of Build Back Better: Chile. The project introduces innovative architectural solutions to solve some of the most pressing issues affecting the local community it plans to serve.

For the past decade Architecture for Humanity has held an open international design competition focuses on different issues that face the built environment. For 2011, we are giving you the choice to decide the topic.

In the past year we've been talking a lot about two issues 1. The most sustainable structure is one that has already been built and 2. Social justice, peace making and the built environment. From conversations with communities, academics and government officials, three strong options for the challenge have emerged. So let's vote!

Trestles is arguably the most popular surfing break in North America, attracting over 300,000 people a year. To save time, nearly a third of these visitors take a shortcut along an unmaintained trail, cross the railroad tracks, and follow any number of impromptu footpaths through some of the most pristine marshlands left in Southern California.

The San Onofre Foundation has partnered with the Surfrider Foundation, Nike 6.0, and Architecture for Humanity to ask how can we address the recreational demands of the State Park safely, while also protecting and conserving the experience of Trestles -- a surfing and environmental world treasure. To explore different solutions, "Safe Trestles" was launched, an open-to-all design and ideas competition that asks how can we eliminate the dangers of crossing active railroad tracks, and create low-impact access to Trestles.

Months have passed since the devastating earthquake hit Haiti killing an estimated 200,000 people and leaving another million homeless. The global effort to support Haiti is now shifting from relief to rebuilding lives of the Haitian People.

100% of the proceeds from your $25.00 purchase of a Haiti Help Build Hope reusable thermally insulated porcelain mug, with silicone lid, and a 70g bag of Haitian Blue whole bean certified organic coffee will be donated to Architecture for Humanity for the design and development of permanent schools in Haiti.

For the next 31 days you can start your morning coffee with a little vote over at the Pepsi Refresh Gulf Coast Funding Cycle. We are in the running to fund the Guardians Institute, a project we've been involved in since Hurricane Katrina.

Check out the amazing center designed by the Rockwell Group with landscaping by the Olin studio. If they place in the top two projects, this center will be built.

This weekend The New York Times profiled our nomadic architect and planner Nathaniel Corum. Nathaniel has not only worked hand in hand with Native American communities but has worked on projects in Morocco, Haiti and across the Pacific Rim.

Nathaniel has been leading our educational outreach programs for the past few years and is currently developing a multi-university studio focused on indigenous lands. We are happy to see the Times caught on to what we already knew, Nathaniel is a great guy and a visionary designer.

Prior Studios run by Nathaniel;

Container Studio (2008)

Pre-Fab Core Studio (2009)

For our weekly Lunch and Learn session, we invited Rajendra and Rupal Desai from the National Center for Peoples’ Action in Disaster Preparedness (NCPDP) to our San Francisco headquarters. NCPDP was founded in 2000 and promotes using local construction practices and disaster resistant technologies to rebuild. They talked about lessons learned from the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

Rajendra said most damage from the earthquake was caused by poor quality construction and structural weaknesses, such as cracks. People were scared to rebuild with rubble and therefore began using brick, cement and steel. They also started building lighter sheds made out of tin and timber. Rajendra said people had very little knowledge about the materials and were stuck paying high transportation costs.

Last night our dedicated volunteers convened for a design review of four schools on our project board. Attentive–and somewhat fatigued–participants and guests assembled in the Gro Kay Disko living room to share ideas. Megan Roy, Haiti team member four weeks standing, reflects on the review:

The bunk room at the Architecture for Humanity house in the hills of Petionville is currently overflowing with summer volunteers, mostly graduate architecture students who will be returning to school in a few short weeks. As another volunteer and I compared our drastically different design solutions for the rural Good Samaritan school yesterday over lunch, Eric decided that a late night design review was much overdue!

Architecture for Humanity would like to congratulate David de Rothschild, Adventure Ecology, and the entire Plastiki team for a successful expedition and campaign championing the protection of the world's oceans from the degredation of disposable plastics.

The Plastiki story highlights the importance of innovation to climb from this age of plastic waste towards Cradle to Cradle solutions. The Plastiki cabin was designed by Architecture For Humanity architects Nathaniel Corum and Michael Jones who shaped the boat's srPET exterior into an efficient and iconic shell. The cabin's triangulated tortoise-like structure is inherently strong and collected valuable drinking water for the crew during the 4 month journey.

Architecture For Humanity is proud to be part of the Plastiki team.

A message from Bernardo Maldonado of our Monterrey chapter:

Last month, Hurricane Alex dropped 616mm of rain in 60 hours taking 15 lives. Early damage calculations estimate $800-$1,000 Million USD for reconstruction of main infrastructure, not including housing. This numbers will easily go up 2 or 3 times for Nuevo Leon. The other two states adjacent to NL affected were Coahuila and Tamaulipas that together probably sum another $2 billion.

No official final numbers have been published yet but so far 43 out of 51 municipalities are in a state of disaster. Most of the poorest ones are located outside the metropolitan area and south of the State. These are counties like Arramberri, Montemorelos, Zaragosa, Hualahuises, among others. North of the state communities were affected by the Rio Bravo flooding. Anahuac was completely flooded with 20,000 people displaced. Initial damages are estimated around $160M USD, a county with an annual Budget of $9 million.

Millions of refugees and internally displaced people live in deplorable conditions, and thousands more have lost homes from natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti. Rafael Smith wants to change that. He runs the Uber Shelter Project, and he attended our weekly Lunch and Learn session to tell us about his organization's prototype for emergency relief housing.

Rafael designed the first Uber Shelter as part of his senior thesis while studying at Purdue University. Now he works with two other Purdue grads to design and produce emergency relief houses. Their prototype is portable, recyclable and easy to assemble--no power tools required. In fact, all you need is four people, a wrench and a ratchet. Watch it grow in this video clip: http://www.youtube.com/ubershelterproject.

Several organizations assembled Monday morning on a shady patio in Port-au-Prince to discuss a series of reactions to the new school construction standards released by the Haitian Ministry of Education in May (download the English translation here)(or the original document in French). This is the School Standards sub-group [of the UN Education Cluster] dedicated to the standards' review–sitting in the back yard of PARQE–"Programme d'appui au renforcement de la qualité de l'education" ("Program to support the strengthening of quality in education"). An air conditioner unit and a colony of unseen insects jostled for control of the ambiance. Somebody asked, in broken French, for the chairwoman to speak up.

Distressingly little repair or rebuilding has occurred since the Gaza War (2008-2009). The Gaza strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and residential zones suffered significant damage during the war. Over 15,000 homes sustained extensive damage during the War, displacing over 100,000 Palestinians and leaving thousands of families living in sub-standard conditions. The conflict left approximately 1,400 Palestinians dead and countless families without income due to loss of wage earner, multiple disabled family members, and increasingly high unemployment rates. The vast destruction calls for more than hasty, temporary solutions; in order to effectively help the communities in need, we must understand the importance of alternative, innovative, and sustainable solutions.
 
Click here for photos and reports.

Contact: Marie Coleman
Communications Associate, USGBC
202.552.1368
mcoleman@usgbc.org

Follow us on Twitter at @USGBC

John Schneidawind
Director, Public Affairs and Media Relations
American Institute of Architects.
202.626.7457
johnschneidawind@aia.org

USGBC and AIA Announce Architecture for Humanity Sustainability Design Fellow Stacey McMahan, LEED AP, Selected to Head Haiti Sustainable Rebuilding Efforts

Washington, DC – July 11, 2010 – One month after the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the search for the Architecture for Humanity (AFH) Sustainable Design Fellow to lead AFH’s sustainable rebuilding efforts in Haiti, Stacey McMahan, AIA, LEED AP, has been appointed to the fellowship. McMahan will work directly with community members on the ground in Architecture for Humanity’s Rebuilding Center based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is hosting a design competition in New Orleans. The focus of the competition is helping the local community rebuild after the storm. Students and young professionals will be able to showcase their most innovative and sustainable design concepts to a select panel of jurors.

The Natural Talent Design Competition, now in its eighth year, is in collaboration with Salvation Army’s EnviRenew Initiative. The competition will challenge entrants to design an affordable 800 foot LEED for Homes structure for an elderly resident in the Broadmoor neighborhood. Winners will be announced at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Chicago in mid-November and they will actually see their designs built.

Help Architecture for Humanity reach our $68,000 goal to complete construction of SIDAREC, a youth technology and resource center in the Mukuru slum settlement of Nairobi. Phase 1 of construction has been completed and Phase 2 is underway. The finishing funds will open the building before the year’s end.

The center will give residents Internet access, computer and technology training, health clinic services, early childhood development programs, and a community theater. A radio station and recording studio will top out the construction project, beaming SIDAREC’s radio station 99.9 Ghetto FM to more than 650,000 local residents and countless listeners around the world.

It seems a lifetime since we were hard at work rebuilding on the Gulf Coast, One of the worst affected towns was Bay St. Louis. Blogs and newspapers claimed it had been "wiped off the map." It wasn't, of course.

My first trip down I spent an unforgettable night with Ellis Anderson, who had opened her home to anyone who was willing to help. The home was hard to find. Debris blocked the road. Inside, though, there was good people, good food and good music. It was a place totally alive.

Ten Architecture for Humanity design fellows have been selected to participate in “Life In A Day” Film Project, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

Our inclusion will let you see 'a day in the life' of our designers living and working in all corners of the world. We hope to have videos coming in from Africa, the Caribbean, South America and South Asia.

On February 27th 2010 a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile. We reached out to our Chilean partners to see if we could help.

In May, in partnership with Nike Inc., we hosted an request for proposals (RFP) to fund community building projects from NGOs and/or local groups that are partnered with architectural professionals. The aim of the selected project should be to improve lives by focusing on community issues and creating social change through sports.

After all 47 entries were reviewed by partners in Chile and United States, we have selected ten RFPs for a final round process. We will be doing due diligence and interviewing project partners over the next two weeks. The selected project will be announced on July 11th.

In alphabetical order, the finalists are;
Campo Deportivo Club Union Las Condes

Do you need a dynamic and open office space with good karma* to run your small non-profit or business in San Francisco?  If so, Collaborate might be the place for you!

Collaborate offers many perks: 

Scalable: Rent one desk, several, or an entire area.

Hassle-free: Each desk comes with a phone (with service), internet, and printer/copier access. No dealing with the phone company here.

Conference room space: Both large and small room reservations included.

Smart, innovative, caring people: Collaborate is hosted by Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit design services firm that brings design and construction services to communities in need around the world. Other Collaborate tenants include start-ups and small non-profits. You, too, can be a part of that.

Affordable: Yeah the big Q. It's only $350/month per desk and right in the heart of SOMA. We are across from the Twitter HQ.

Imagine using your education and passion to breathe new life into a neighborhood in need.

The Enterprise Bart Harvey Fellowship − named for former Enterprise CEO Bart Harvey, who drew inspiration from Enterprise co-founders Jim & Patty Rouse − helps fellows use their talents to make real, practical change in low-income communities. By working with Enterprise’s executive leadership, fellows cultivate relationships, develop leadership skills and learn how to effectively manage an organization while navigating the challenges of affordable housing and community development finance. The Enterprise Bart Harvey Fellowship can transform a drive to serve into a meaningful career.

Apply online. Applications are due June 17.

Congratulations to former Design Fellow Susi Jane Platt (2005-2007), UN Habitat and the Pinsara Federation of Community Development Councils whose project, The Yodakandiya Community Complex* in Sri Lanka, is one of nineteen buildings been short-listed for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, one of the highest honors in the architectural world.

日本の皆様、こんにちは。
本日NHKの「MISSION」で「Architecture for Humanity」が取り上げられました。ご覧になられた方はいらっしゃいますでしょうか。
 
「Architecture for Humanity」の設立者であり代表でもあるキャメロン・シンクレアは、建築の社会貢献について日本でも積極的な取り組みが始まることを期待しています。 建築の力を社会的な課題の解決に利用しようとする彼の取り組みに賛同した私達は、今年の5月9日にその東京支部である「Architecture for Humanity TOKYO」の設立準備会を組織しました。
 
このwebサイトやテレビをご覧になって Architecture for Humanity Tokyoの活動に興味を持たれた方は、以下のメールアドレスまでご連絡ください。
 

A warm welcome to all the NHK viewers from Japan that saw our work on the program Mission. Please have a look around the site, see our latest projects, find a local chapter (Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto) and make a donation towards building a difference in the lives of others.

Darren Gill, our design fellow in the show, is hard at work in Uganda. The site has been cleared and the team is starting construction on the first of eight schools. He will be in country until the end of the summer before heading home or possibly off to Haiti to help rebuild that country.

Thank you for your interest in our organization and do let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Cheers
Cameron Sinclair, Co-founder and chief eternal optimist.

We want to extend a warm welcome to Paul Gabie, Narry Singh and Margaret Stewart, who recently joined our Board of Directors. Each will bring a breadth of knowledge and expertise to Architecture for Humanity, and we are pleased to have them as part of our team. Paul Gabie is Senior Vice President with RF Chandler, Narry Singh is Chairman and CEO at The Intellidex Group and Margaret Stewart is User Experience Manager at YouTube/Google. We look forward to collaborating with them as our organization enters the second decade of sustainable community design.

Architecture for Humanity is calling for small grant proposals to rebuild in areas affected by Typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy in the Philippines, Vietnam or Cambodia.

If you're a nonprofit or designer working in the affected areas with rebuilding projects that are in need of additional funds, we may be able to help.

Please read the project guidelines here.

We are happy to speak with you about your specific needs so email us if you would like to find out more.

Congratulations to the Safe Trestles Finalists

With 104 Entries from 25 countries, the jury is proud to announce the 5 Finalists. Finalists will receive a stipend to work with trestles Stakeholders to refine and develop their designs towards an achievable solution.