PROJECTS UP FOR AWARDS
The Long Way Home project in Guatemala is a finalist in the BBC World Challenge competition. Please vote for the project at this link. The winner of the Challenge will receive $20,000; two runners-up will each receive $10,000. This will do a lot of good for Long Way Home, so please help out!
Nyaya Health in Nepal is entered in the 2010 Social Justice Challenge for their wiki project. Voting is over, but the winners will be announced soon.
PROJECT UPDATES
Nepal – Orphanage bunkbeds: A design has been generated using Google Sketchup. Next up is to build a mock-up to test it. The project page is here.
Kenya Housing: The Kenya housing project group is meeting regularly. They are looking into ways to deal with water issues – the site is in a low area, so it is prone to flooding. During some times of the year, heavy rains add to the problem. We are looking for a no-cost solution that the villagers can learn to implement themselves; in villages where people have more money, they hire professional help, but that is not possible here.
Long Way Home: Some of our members are teaching a class at the Boston Architectural College – via Skype (one of the instructors is on-site in Guatemala) – that includes assembling a manual describing how to build structures using rammed earth tires.
Carter School: Some of our members are also teaching a practice studio at the BAC to continue previous work done by BAC students for the school. They will be refining previous designs with the goal of getting to schematic design.
Boomerangs: The team has surveyed staff and customers to learn more about desired changes. They will be meeting at the end of the month to give a design presentation to our primary contact. Changing flooring and finishes are some of the primary concerns – other significant aspects are lighting and layout of the clothing racks and other, easily movable furnishings. The team is also looking into a graphics standards package, to give them a cohesive look to their signs, website, etc.
Lastly, check out the photos of the awesome bamboo dome!
CHAPTER NEWS
The first ever Architecture for Humanity Chapter Conference happened on the weekend of October 16. Several AfHB people attended, to present the projects we have worked on over the years and to participate in discussions about the structure of chapters.
AfHB is one of the oldest chapters, and originally started about 20 years ago as the Task Force to End Homelessness. In 2005, a year when both the Asian tsunami and a terrible earthquake in Pakistan occurred, an Architecture for Humanity group started in Boston. They organized a competition related to the earthquake and produced a manual that Architecture for Humanity adopted.
Eventually, the AfH group and the Task Force to End Homelessness merged, as they had overlapping members and, to some extent, the same goals. We continue to be interested in working on projects both locally and overseas.
