Reflecting the current state of architecture, urbanism and landscape discourse, Architecture for Humanity – Chicago, School of the Art Institute Chicago and the Village of Igarai are proud to announce, 1.99 REAL HOUSING: Communities + Designers, a call for ideas.

In an effort to advance the territory between top-down and bottom-up planning, for all types of interim, emergency, public and affordable housing design, 1.99 REAL HOUSING seeks to create a design platform that utilizes advanced sustainable architectural design solutions, together with local knowledge of materials, methods and systems to produce a new form of cooperative culture.

Submissions are due on January 25th. For more information, visit www.afh-chicago.org.

© Kristel Gonzales Photography

As 2010 comes to an end we wanted to share with you some of the highlights from Architecture for Humanity. AFH has been involved in fifty three projects this year, completing a project on each continent.  Follow the break for AFH’s 2010 By The Numbers.

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Courtesy of Architecture for Humanity

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund just awarded $816,472 to Architecture for Humanity for the Haiti Rebuilding Center to support reconstruction and livelihoods in Port-au-Prince, a town that was catastrophically affected by an earthquake at the beginning of the year.  As a result, many large buildings were either severely damaged or destroyed. This fund will not only aid in the rebuilding process, but will benefit thousands of who were suffering since the natural disaster. Additionally, this grant will enable small and growing Haitin businesses to participate in post-earthquake reconstruction and ensure rebuilding incorporates better design and engineering. More information after the break. read more »

Khayelitsha Football for Hope Centre / South Africa

As the FIFA World Cup kicks off, Architecture for Humanity in partnership with streetfootballworld, honors the architects, designers and building professionals across Africa who have helped design sustainable Football for Hope Centres as part of the Football for Hope movement.

The first centre, located outside of Cape Town, South Africa, was completed in December 2009. Centres in Nairobi, Namibia and Mali are currently under construction and aim to be completed around the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

The Football for Hope Centres are part of a movement created by FIFA and streetfootballworld to strengthen local community-based organizations in promoting social development within their community. The buildings house facilities to promote public health, education and football initiatives. Find more about the projects here.

Back on February, we told you about the access to Trestles, one of North America’s most celebrated waves, and the threat due to safety and environmental concerns it’s going through. A coalition of concerned groups organized by the volunteer non-profit organization Architecture for Humanity, launched “Safe Trestles,” an open-to-all, two-stage design competition to create a safe pathway to serve surfers, the local coastal community and day visitors to San Onofre State Beach.

There are now 12 finalists (you can see all of them here), and the jury, with Bjarke Ingels, Cameron Sinclair (co-founder of Architecture for Humanity) and surfer Rusty Long among others, will announce the five finalists tomorrow via Lowers Pro web cast.

A bamboo structure designed by Bamboo DNA is featuring all the finalists in the beautiful beach of Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California. For more details on the competition click here. See more images after the break. read more »

The Pritzker will be announced in a few minutes. It will probably go to one of the figures you have already voted for in our 2010 Pritzker poll, but deep in our hearts we wish Architecture for Humanity to be awarded.

With the purpose of the Prize being “to honor a living architect whose built work demostrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced a consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture“, don´t you agree with me?

Anyway, Architecture for Humanity has been awarded with the 2010 IIDA Pioneers in Design Award, and we congratulate them once again.

Let’s hope we can probe Cameron Sinclair wrong in the future:

@casinclair: @archforhumanity will never be awarded the Pritzker Prize but we do have this awesome new video http://is.gd/b2yUU

(remember to follow @archdaily on Twitter to be instantly up to date on this and other news)

Access to Trestles, one of North America’s most celebrated waves, is under threat due to safety and environmental concerns. Currently, over 100,000 people each year follow informal trails through marshlands and over active train tracks to gain access to the surf breaks at Trestles. These impromptu manmade paths present a safety hazard with passing trains and threaten the fragile ecosystem of Trestles.

In response, a coalition of concerned groups organized by the volunteer non-profit organization Architecture for Humanity, are launching “Safe Trestles,” an open-to-all, two-stage design competition to create a safe pathway to serve surfers, the local coastal community and day visitors to San Onofre State Beach.

For more information on submission and requirements, click here. Watch a video after the break. read more »

© NY Daily News

It has been reported that 3 million people (about a third of Haiti’s population) have been affected by the recent earthquake.  With that number expected to climb as the days progress, the number of casualties will be somewhere nearing 50,000.  Many countries are supplying immediate help as millions of dollars, and tons of food, water and medical supplies are rapidly being delivered to the small country.

It is important that as the weeks and the months pass, we continue to think about how we can get involved and help.  Organizations such as Architecture for Humanity have already brainstormed ideas and developed a timeline which outlines their relief strategy.  There is little doubt that Habitat for Humanity will be bringing teams of volunteers to help rebuild.

As architects, but also as people, we have the power to drastically improve the situation.  Our thoughts will continue to be with Haiti during these times and we should try to supply any kind of assistance in the next few days, weeks, months and years.

With the Homeless World Cup arriving in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in fall 2010, Architecture for Humanity, Homeless World Cup, and Nike are teaming up with local partners Organização Civil de Ação Social (OCAS), and Bola Pra Frente (BPF) to establish multiple Legacy Centers to implement the Homeless World Cup influence beyond the week-long Tournament and Leadership Conference.

With project partners officially on board and a site secured, we are pleased to welcome you to the Selection Process for Design and Architectural Services of the Homeless World Cup Youth and Women’s Leadership Center in Santa Cruz , Rio de Janiero, Brazil. With project partners officially on board and a site secured, we are pleased to welcome you to the Selection Process for Design and Architectural Services of the Homeless World Cup Youth and Women’s Leadership Center in Santa Cruz , Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

For more information on submission, awards and schedule, click here.

Architecture for Humanity is a a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need. They do an amazing job all over the world and this has been an incredible year for them, specially for their Skatepark in Afghanistan.

During this year’s AIA Convention, we had the chance to interview Cameron Sinclair, the Co-founder and Eternal Optimist of AFH. Check the first part and second part of this great interview. After the break, we show you a review of everything they’ve done this year, and what’s to come. read more »

In a few minutes, Barack Obama will give his Back to School speech (read full text at the Huffington Post), just after the results for the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge are announced.

Near the ending, Obama says “I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too”. Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity, responds on Twitter “Sir, your welcome”.

This year the Open Architecture Challenge called architects, designers and engineers to rethink the classroom of the future.  Sounds like a typical competition, but it is not: they were required to  collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions.

Teton Valley Community School / Section Eight design

The winner of this year’s Challenge is the   Teton Valley Community School, with a project designed with the emerging practice Section Eight [design]. The Teton Valley Community School in  a non-profit independent school located in Victor, Idaho, which is one of the most underfunded school systems in the nation. Currently the school is based out of a remodeled house, but thanks to this award they are closer to get a full classroom.

There are also other awards that I will describe later, but this is more than just prizes. The Challenge received over 1,000 entries, entries that can become real projects that can help improve the quality of education around the world.  Architecture for Humanity established the Classroom Upgrade Fund, that hopes to provide seed funding and support to local schools in implementing the design solutions they have developed.

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This year we not only celebrate the 142nd birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, but also the 50 years of the Guggenheim, one of his master pieces (completed the year he passed away). These dates are not only commemorated with Lego Kits and exhibitions, but also with a very interesting competition held by the Guggenheim Museum and Google Sketchup.

The interesting part of the Design It: Shelter Competition is that it invites people from around the world to do pretty much what Wright made his apprentices at Taliesin: If you wanted to study to be an architect with Wright, you had to design and build a shelter in the desert outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Then you had to live and study in it, as it have been for the past 7 decades (you can see more of this at the Learn by Doing exhibition).

So, the competition invites people to design a small structure where someone might sleep and work. Your shelter should be created for a specific site anywhere in the world and geo-located in Google Earth. It also should conform to size constraints and must not include running water, gas or electricity. Then it must be submitted to Google 3D Warehouse, as described on the video (more details on how to enter here).

You can submit your shelter until August 23. After that, Taliesin students will pick 10 shelters for the People´s Choice Prize, and a jury will pick a shelter for the Juried Prize. You can read more about the prize and the jury here.

I like that this competition is not aimed to architects only, but to anyone who has a good idea for a shelter. As Frank Lloyd Wright, you don´t need formal architectural training, just a good idea and a pen. Or in this case, a 3d modeling tool easy and powerful as a pen.

Bonus: Architecture for Humanity decided to “hack” the competition, by adding a social component to it: The Purpose Prize. Instead of designing your shelter anywhere, do it for a specific community that can use your design to improve their living standard. So after submitting your entry to Google 3D Warehouse, submit it to the Open Architecture Network following these guidelines and you will be running for the Purpose Prize (US$500 + 10th Anniversary AFH Moleskine Folio). But the most important, you will be helping a community with your design skills, even if you don´t get awarded.

As promised, the second part of the interview with Cameron Sinclair, Founder and Eternal Optimist of Architecture for Humanity.

During the AIA Convention we had the chance to visit Architecture for Humanity (now on their 10th anniversary) and talk with Cameron Sinclair, the Co-founder and Eternal Optimist of AFH.

Architecture for Humanity is a a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need. A few years ago they adopted an open source model to let architects share designs with a Creative Commons license, resulting on Open Architecture Network, an open collaborative tool that allows people around the world to implement these architectural solutions.

AFH also edited the book Design Like You Give a Damn, a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve people’s lives. A second part is currently on the works.

Cameron was included on the list of the 13 young architects that presented their work on the closing session at the AIA Convention this year. He is also a Green Giant and a World Changing contributor, and has presented the work of AFH on TED (in my opinion, a highly motivational presentation).

I have decided to split this interview in two, leaving the regular set of questions in one part, and other specific questions on the other. This part focuses on how AFH works, delivering architectural solutions to the ones who can’t afford it in an innovative way, and also on the current economical crisis as an opportunity and Katrina.