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comment Architecture for Humanity Selects Winners in Open Architecture Network Competition
The nonprofit Architecture for Humanity has announced the winners in its competition to design information centers to connect communities in Ecuador, Kenya, and Nepal to the Internet and its educational, social, and economic opportunities.
In June 2007, Architecture for Humanity (AFH) launched a competition to design information centers to connect three communities on three continents to the Internet and its educational, social, and economic opportunities. Now, from a pool of more than 550 entries from 57 countries, AFH has announced the winners.
Image © The Global Studio/Architecture for Humanity 2008
This image shows the winning project’s T-shaped design as well as the proposed rooftop photovoltaic panels.
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The overall winners were the members of the Global Studio team from Seattle, Washington: Ashley Waldron, Matthew Sullivan, Geoff Piper, and Stephanie Ingram. This team won for its Africa Challenge design of a library, technology center, radio station, and recording studio for an informal settlement just east of Nairobi, Kenya.
The Nairobi project’s T-shaped design allows for an outdoor amphitheater facing the street and a football pitch and sports area on the more private side of the structure. The design—which relies largely on concrete, masonry, stabilized cement earth block, and wattle—takes advantage of locally available materials and skilled labor. The design also features composting toilets, a bioswale to filter stormwater, and a rooftop solar photovoltaic system.
The winners of the South America Challenge—for the design of a chocolate factory and technology hub for a cooperative of fair-trade artists and chocolate producers in the Ecuadorian Amazon—were Igor Taskov from Nis, Serbia; Fernando Pagan from San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Heather Worrell and ChunSheh Teo from Indianapolis, Indiana. The winners of the of the Asia Challenge—for the design of an Internet-based telemedicine center for a community in remote Nepal—were Max Fordham, LLP, and Nick Lawrence, both of London.
The competition was sponsored by Advanced Micro Devices, which will fund the construction of the Nairobi project. The Global Studio will refine the design with input from AFH and Slums Information Development and Resource Centres (SIDAREC), a nonprofit organization that works to reduce apathy among the youth of Nairobi’s slums by providing information and designing responsive social development programs. Each of the three winning teams will receive a stipend to travel to its project site, although AFH is still seeking funding to construct the winning designs for Ecuador and Nepal. With enough funding, the designs will be replicated for additional community partners. Details are online at www.architectureforhumanity.org and www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/.
This article was produced by BuildingGreen, LLC.- www.buildinggreen.com
