Our intrepid designer Greg Elsner is busy collaborating with community members and students of the Mahiga school to develop Kenyas' first off the grid net positive basketball court. Here is the latest design;

All local materials and utilizing local construction technologies. The facility will collect all the rainwater needed for the school as well as generate energy through a solar collection system. The school is featured in the upcoming documentary "One Peace At A Time".

Taken just a few moments ago, the children of the Teton Valley Community School find out they are the winners of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge.

The school will be awarded $50,000 to help build the winning design and Section Eight [design], the winning design team, will receive $5,000 to help them implement their solution.

In less than an hour (9am MDT) we join up with Section Eight Design and teachers of the Teton Valley Community School in Victor, Idaho to announce the winner of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge. In the meantime here are a few words from award winners Emma and Nathan;

The fundraiser for Cyclone Nargis rebuilding in Myanmar last Saturday was a great success. I am very excited to have been a part of the event and I am honored that my closest friends and family were able to celebrate my 21st birthday while supporting a cause about which I am deeply passionate. The cyclone in Myanmar created so much destruction, much of which has yet to have been rebuilt. It was important to me to celebrate my birthday in a way that would contribute to the work that I have been doing with Architecture for Humanity.

AIASF is hosting its sixth annual Architecture and the City festival, this year’s festival promises several new and exciting ways to engage in conversation about our city. The festival theme Everyday, Design celebrates the many smart, ingenious and unexpected ways design impacts our daily lives, unveiling the unseen hand of the designer in everything from civic and institutional works to landscaping and residential design. Programs promise to explore the nuanced ways architects and designers thoughtfully impact our communities and reflect ever-important issues of sustainability.

The complete program listing is available here.

One of our amazing design fellows started his first day dealing with Cyclone Nargis as it hit Burma. We began working on the ground with an incredible team and they are currently working to restore civic buildings and build health and educational facilities.

This weekend Anand turns 21 and for his big bash all his friends are raising funds to build a health clinic for 2000+ people in Burma. We need to raise $10,000, so help celebrate Anands' big day by donating $10 or more to help bring life saving health care to those how need it most.

Last week we traveled with Yele Haiti down to Haiti to see if we could help to provide professional design and building services for a couple of projects on the ground. What I found was a country very different from what was reported in the media or gleaned from You Tube. However, it is still a world away from the three and a half hour plane ride from New York City.

Today Architecture for Humanity co-founders joined designers, teachers and administration officials at a luncheon at the White House to honor the 2009 National Design Award winners and finalists. Our organization had received the Patron Award in 2008 but we had been notified after the 2008 White House event and invited this year to be recognized. The award is a great honor and we hope that it helps to push more socially responsible and collaborative design into the mainstream.

Click here to view video of the speech by first lady Michelle Obama.