Browsing: Open Architecture Challenge

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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Gensler Architects finalist entry for the Open Architecture Challenge included an interesting video, on which we can see an important part of the project that is often unnoticed on publications: the community.

Check out all the finalists here.

Thanks Lisa!

The video was procuded by After ED TV. You can see more of their videos for the Open Architecture Challenge here.

Adaptable Hillside Classroom

After 6 months and 4 rounds of jurying, Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to needy communities, just recognized eight team finalists for the 2009 Open Architect Challenge: Classrooms.  The competition attracted 10,000 architects, teachers and students who came together to develop designs for more than 500 schools in 65 countries. “This initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions,” explained Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder for Architecture for Humanity and this competition.

The finalists include: Adaptable Hillside Classroom by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios & Architecture for Humanity UK, Bamboowood School by Petr Kostner, Martina Sobotkova, Sona Huberova, Classroom for the Saltpan Community by Cohesion Foundation: Rajesh Kapoor, Prashant Solanky, Bharat Karamchandani, Kiran Vaghela,  Teton Valley Community School
by Section Eight Design, A Sustainable Community Classroom by Gifford, House In The Wood by Built Form, LLC / Northwestern University Settlement House, Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transformation by Arquitectura Justa: Wolfgang Timmer, Fabiola Uribe, T. Luke Young, and Blurred Classroom by Gensler.

We would like to congratulate not only the eight finalists, but all participants who dedicated their time, effort and design skills for such an importance cause.

Project descriptions and images of the eight finalists after the break. read more »