On June 21, we were thrilled to witness the largest opening ceremony to an Architecture for Humanity project. At around 3PM beneath a bustling bridge, thousands of young skateboarders poured into what's being praised as "the Best Skate Park in Manhattan," providing a revitalized space to an underserved community.
This week, 12 finalists have been identified from 200 military base redesign proposals for our [UN]RESTRICTED ACCESS design challenge. The semifinalists were announced earlier this month and the finalists will be personally informed in the coming weeks.
Speaking of winners, we want to send a big thank you to all those who participated in the I Love Architecture Charity Auction and fundraising campaign - including the more than 60 sketch contributors, auction winners and donors. Your support makes our mission a reality and we are so grateful. We also want to say a special thank you to Design Fellow Kristen Schlott for all her hard work coordinating the campaign; Molo Deisgn who provided us with our beautiful booth at the AIA Convention and Dwell on Design; and congratulations to Magi Raibl, CEO of Kiva Designs for winning the raffle for the original Jeanne Gang sketch.
Please read on to learn what your incredible support is accomplishing.
Sincerely,
The Architecture for Humanity Team
San Francisco | Port-au-Prince | Cape Town | Sendai
@archforhumanity
Africa: Football for Hope
NIKE Gamechangers
Nearly 100 degrees couldn't keep the NY skate community away from Go Skateboarding Day's main attraction on June 21. At 3pm the gates to the renovated Coleman Oval Skatepark were opened and the park was flooded with the first hundred excited skateboarders. That hundred became a few thousand (we lost count after 2,233) and game was officially on. China, India, Japan, Brazil: how the other grants are doing.
Japan: Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Rebuilding
Haiti: Rebuilding Center
The Rebuilding Center Team recently completed two clinics in collaboration with Merlin. Both are recognized by Haiti’s Ministry of Health (MSPP). After years of neglect, then damage by the January 2010 earthquake, the clinics are now serving thousands of residents in the PAP communities of Caravelle and Turbe. In other news, a former intern with the Haiti team discusses the impressive scale of collaborative work through our work in Villa Rosa. Urban microplanning interventions are helping the informal neighborhood of 10,000 recover public space and sustainable housing.
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The wisdom and the experience of the [UN]RESTRICTED ACCESS jury have spoken. Jurors had the difficult job rating 200 entered base redesigns, but the semifinalists, and subsequently the finalists, have been determined. The 24 semifinalists were announced July 9, and 12 finalists were deduced after second round. It was a really close call. These 12 will be displayed, in some manner,* at the Venice Biennale this Fall.
We await announcement of the five winners and Founders' Award winner, as soon as each team has been informed individually.
We congratulate all of the participants for the stunning quality of projects submitted and thank them again for their participation! All submissions will be published when the winners are announced.
Interested in joining us? See requested materials for all Fall Internship Opportunities
Port-au-Prince Construction Manager, Directeur/Planification et conception, Haiti Team Structural Engineer, Volunteer
Sendai Design Fellow: Business
We couldn't possibly do what we do without our invaluable volunteers and Design Fellows. A warm welcome to new volunteers Stefani Tufarelli from Italy and Renee Hayden from South Carolina.
Farewell and THANK YOU to volunteer extraordinaires Romain Bigare from Belgium who worked on the Open Architecture Challenge for five months; Mali Valenzuela from Chile who worked on our new partnership with Enel and helped with our new office space; and Jonell Diekmeier from Denver, Colorado who worked with the communications and development teams.
At our Haiti office, we welcome new volunteers Yves Paul and Angie Tabrizi, Office Manager Marie Fransonnette Prussien, and welcome back to volunteer architect Katie Schalow.
The team there wants to bid a fond farwell to program manager, and all around rockstar Sandhya Naidu, who has been with Architecture for Humanity for nearly 4 years. Sandhya is pursuing another master's degree and we wish her luck. Haiti Design Fellow Frederique Siegel is moving back home to finish her master's. Both will be missed.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Architecture for Humanity are pleased to announce the grant recipients for the 2012 Disaster Response Plan Grant. These inspiring proposals are coming not a moment too soon as we continue to see disasters strike. We look forward to the positive impact these teams' work will have on their home states as they make progress toward safer and more resilient communities.
The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship is a prestigious three year award for young architects interested in community design. Fellows are hosted by community development corporations where they work to build an understanding of design in these organizations. One of this year’s fellowship opportunities is with the Little Tokyo Service Center and the Neighborhood Based CDC Coalition in Los Angeles, CA. If you're interested, apply here by August 3.
We announced this week the extremely generous software donation from Autodesk - $750,000 of drafting and designing programs are making their way to our teams around the world to enhance our design, construction and training capabilities. Thanks Autodesk!
Last but not least, we want to express a huge thanks to our friends at Dwell for their support this year and especially for inviting us to Dwell on Design. We're looking forward to a continued successful 2012!
Architecture for Humanity's Weekly Design Open Mic (open house) When: Every Wed., 12 -1 pm | Where: 848 Folsom Street, Suite 201, San Francisco
Design Like You Give a Damn: LIVE! 2012 When: November 12-13, 2012 | Where: Autodesk Gallery, 1 Market Street #200 San Francisco, CA 94105
Register for our 3rd annual humanitarian design conference and earn six AIA continuing education credits. Listen to expert panelists, participate in workshops and present at Design Open Mic!
Greenbuild 2012 When: November 14-16, 2012 | Where: San Francisco, CA
