OPEN DESIGN COMPETITION LAUNCHED
Architecture for Humanity’s 2009 Open Architecture Challenge is launched today, January 28th. Each year, the design competition brings public attention to inequities in the built environment affecting the health, prosperity and well being of under-served communities.
This edition of the Open Architecture Challenge invites teachers, students and design professionals to work together to design the classroom of the future for their school. The theme is not taken out of the blue:
According to the World Bank, putting all children worldwide in school by 2015 will require the construction of ten million new classrooms spread over 100 countries. At the same time, millions of existing classrooms are in serious need of repair and refurbishment and will need to be upgraded. Meeting this need for learning spaces over the course of the coming decade will constitute, collectively, the biggest building project the world has ever undertaken.*
Intended to draw on a vast network of designers from all over the globe to come up with suggestions for the educational setting of tomorrow, it is an opportunity for schools and students to help create a safer, healthier and more sustainable learning environment together with design professionals. In addition to the possibility to win up to $50,000 to build or upgrade a classroom in their school, it is also a great way to learn about the role of design and the built environment when working towards sustainability -a natural cornerstone of Architecture for Humanity.
To get involved, teachers and students can team up with a local architect, builder, designer or architecture student and enter together; a school can participate with any number of teams and designs. The competition is open to anyone and the registration deadline is May 1st while the design proposals must be submitted by the 1st of June this year. Finalists will be presented on July 5th and the winners will be announced during the fall.
By participating as members of a levelled group, where their voices and opinions will carry weight as experts on their everyday reality, the students could make an impact beyond their classroom by reinventing the classroom.
Previous competitions have brought everything from Media Labs
The real challenge behind of Architecture for Humanity is this: How do you improve the living standards of five billion people? The founder Cameron Sinclair’s answer: With 100 million solutions.
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* From the Open Architecture Challenge Website, see it here.
To learn more about Open Architecture Network, click here.
For more about Architecture for Humanity, click here.
Leif Ahnland
