Posted by karl johnson on Dec 25, 2011
In homage to one of our favorite holiday tunes, below are 12 projects that convey the intention and enthusiasm that infuses our work. Hopefully they'll make you smile for the next 12 days and also inspire you to Sponsor a Day of Design.
Twelve Base Conversions
2011 Open Architecture Challenge [UN]RESTRICTED ACCESS - Worldwide
Design Team: You.
What do you do with that decommissioned military base sitting just past your back yard? More often than not, it becomes derelict, a lost space restricted from public use. But it doesn't have to be that way. Join a growing number of international designers aiming to turn erstwhile military space into civic space. Register before Spring 2012.
Image by Nick Sowers, soundscrapers.com
| Inspire transformation: |  |
Eleven Open Mic Checks
Design Open Mic - Weekly in San Francisco
Held every Wednesday at Headquarters in San Francisco and in marathon during the annual Design Like You Give a Damn LIVE conference, the Design Open Mic is a unique forum to share inspired humanitarian design solutions with guests working around the world. And it's free to the public.
Image by Karl Johnson, Architecture for Humanity
| Promote the sharing of good ideas and compassionate solutions: | |
Ten Bamboo Houses
Pakistan Flood Rebuilding Grant - Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan
Design Team: Mariyam Nizam and Yasmeen Lari
Whoops, make that 25 bamboo houses and a women's center. The Karachi Chapter took advantage of a reconstruction grant to develop bamboo-frame housing units and train villagers (a good many of them women) to raise them. In eight days.
Image by Mariyam Nizam, Architecture for Humanity Karachi
| Support low-impact, local self-sufficiency: | |
Nine Students Dancing
Margarita Maza de Juárez School - Huimanguillo, Tabasco, Mexico
Design Team: Diego Collazos
Opening ceremonies are hands-down the best parts of working on our projects. The community comes out, there's a round of speeches and gifts, and typically some dancing. Margarita Maza is no exception, as the students celebrated the kickoff of their new school December 7 with a union of the past and the future.
Image by ING
| Bring educational spaces to more children worldwide: | |
Eight Produce Bus Stops
Fresh Moves Mobile Market - Chicago, Illinois, USA
Design Team: Chicago Chapter, Architecture for Humanity
The Chicago Chapter put their heads together to find an inexpensive solution to the city's various food deserts–where access to fresh fruit and vegetables it limited. Their answer: make it mobile. A bus donated by the Chicago Transit Authority and a series of design charrettes have produced a vehicle-achem-of change.
Image by Katherine Darnstadt, Architecture for Humanity Chicago
| Enable local solutions to widespread problems: | |
Seven Solar Lampposts
Kimisagara Football for Hope Centre - Kigali, Rwanda
Design Team: Killian Doherty
Among other sustainability techniques employed on the Kimisagara FFH center is its just-installed solar-powered LED lighting system. The lights provide an opportunity to play at cooler times of day, reduce utility costs and provide a level of security for the Kimisagara community.
Image by Killian Doherty, Architecture for Humanity
| Create more sustainable resources for communities: | |
Seis Muchas Canchas
Una Cancha Muchas Canchas - Guatemala City, Guatemala
Design Team: Stefan Benchoam and Christian Ochalta, Buró de Intervenciones Publicas (BIP)
Awarded a $5000 grant through Nike Gamechangers, BIP sought to introduce more park space to the slums of Guatemala City–through the repurposing of low-traffic streets into urban futsala fields.
Image by Buró de Intervenciones Publicas
| Support the creative use of urban resources: | |
Fiiive Haalf Piiipes
Manhattan Bridge Skatepark - New York City
Design Team: Preeti Sodhi, Steve Rodriguez, Jens Holm, Kay D. Vorderwuelbecke
Geotechnical engineers survey the soil beneath the asphalt at Manhattan bridge in October. The surveys informed decisions of how to resurface the park for thousands people from all five boroughs deserving a safe and clean place to skate.
Image by Preeti Sodhi, Architecture for Humanity
| See that more construction sites get the surveying they deserve: | |
Four teams a-turfing
Ohya Green Sports Park - Motoyoshi, Kesennuma, Miyagi, Japan
Design Team: Tomoro Aida, Aida Atelier, and Hirohiso Higashi
A fenced-enclosed soccer pitch for Motoyoshi re-employed net-weaving fishermen and felled telephone poles. Children from local schools helped with a dedicated day of turf-laying last week.
Image by Aida Atelier
| Lend a hand to spaces that make places: | |
Three bowls of ramen
Hikado Marketplace - Kesennuma-shi, Motoyoshi-cho, Miyagi, Japan
Design Team: Autumn Ness Taira, Yuji Taira, Tomohisa Higashi, Yasunobu Meguro, Yoshihiro Konno, Hidehiko Ishimori
A team of traditional Japanese carpenters turns trunks and timbers repurposed from damaged buildings into one of the first (and still all too few) public spaces for a tsunami-stricken community. Best Joinery of the Year.
Image by Tomoro Aida, architect, Aida Atelier
| Help more communities recover together from disaster: | |
Two charrette reports
Santo Community Development Plan - near Léogâne, Haiti
Charrette Design Team: The Haiti Rebuilding Center
Elsewhere in Haiti, our team charretted tirelessly to get the new hundred-unit residential development Santo right for the folks soon to be living there. Sessions worked with dozens of future residents, analyzing local environment and economy, block and plot layout, discussing shared amenities, siting of schools and markets and assessing specific needs, between March and May 2011. The community is now under construction, as managed by Habitat for Humanity International.
Image by Sven Kalim, Architecture for Humanity
| Support the development of open source blueprints for rural communities: | |
...and a new school for kids in Montrouis!
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger - Montrouis, Haiti
Design Team: The Haiti Rebuilding Center
(Pronounced "Mon-wee") We know that the school celebrated its opening last weekend, but we turned the clock back a bit to highlight some incidental construction magic.
Image by Gerard Reilly, Architecture for Humanity
| Help build safe, inspiring learning places for a new generation of students: | |
As you may have heard, your gift made today builds more than buildings. Architecture for Humanity's projects empower communities and your donation allows us to build jobs, education, health, resiliency, dignity and most importantly joy.
In homage to one of our favorite holiday tunes, below are 12 projects that convey the intention and enthusiasm that infuses our work. Hopefully they'll make you smile for the next 12 days and also inspire you to Sponsor a Day of Design.
This is but a selection of the 50-odd incredible projects we've been involved with this year–projects that couldn't be possible without a small army committed to making dreams realities. We can't thank you enough for your dedication and inspiration, though we can try. Thank you.
Our 12 Days of Architecture 2011
*numbers may not reflect actual quantities of specified items (though we tried!)
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