Starting at 8:30, Architecture for Humanity Boston and Edge of Seven will host a battle of the bands and celebration to raise funds for the Solukhumbu Development Project – designing and building sustainable [...]]]>

Come out to Scholars American Bistro in Boston on Thursday, November 17th for live music and to support a great cause!

Starting at 8:30, Architecture for Humanity Boston and Edge of Seven will host a battle of the bands and celebration to raise funds for the Solukhumbu Development Project – designing and building sustainable infrastructure for education in rural Nepal.

The event is sponsored by Harpoon Brewery – they will be donating 50% of the Harpoon sales from the night to our cause! We will have full bands and solo acts from various local and regional rock bands and solo performers including: I Love Diane, AO, The Lowbred Watts, Jason Zavala and The Van Buren Boys.  The event will also feature sounds from DJ Tone Terra.

You, the audience will be voting for the winner of each category and the overall winner!! So bring your friends and vote for your favorites! All original, local and regional rock and blues acts will be playing until midnight when the winner will be announced.

Wait! There’s more! From Midnight until 2am, 5D Entertainment will be sponsoring the afterparty music with DJ TONE TERRA!

Advanced, discounted ticket sales online will end on Monday, Nov. 14th! Price at the door will be $20. Or $10 with a valid student ID.

See you there!

Find out more about the sponsors:
http://www.scholarsbostonbistro.com/
http://www.harpoonhelps.com/index.cfm
http://5d-entertainment.com/5dset/

Location

Scholars American Bistro

25 School Street

Boston, MA

Our Facebook event page

If you are interested in volunteering, donating in any capacity, or have questions about the project or event, please contact: info AT afhb DOT org or send mail to katiescanlon AT rocketmail DOT com.

Our annual 5k fundraiser, held on one of the most beautiful May 1sts ever, raised over $5,000 for Architecture for Humanity. Thanks to all the runners and volunteers for coming out and making this a success!

The AfHB Concrete Cup was snatched from Sasaki Associates by this year’s team champions – Behnisch Studio East, [...]]]> EVENTS

Our annual 5k fundraiser, held on one of the most beautiful May 1sts ever, raised over $5,000 for Architecture for Humanity. Thanks to all the runners and volunteers for coming out and making this a success!

The AfHB Concrete Cup was snatched from Sasaki Associates by this year’s team champions – Behnisch Studio East, who narrowly beat The Green Engineer. The top school team was from Tufts. All race results at this link.

Common Boston is coming up, 17-17 June, and 90 Windsor St. will be a part of it. See the Common Boston site for more details. Common Build, a quick design-build event, is happening again as part of Common Boston; the projects will be focused on wayfinding.

PROJECTS

Upward Bound Project: We are still looking for a good place to set up the dome. “Good place” means large enough, secure, and close to public transit. Several new options came up and people are looking into them.

We also discussed what to use to cover the dome (we already have the bamboo for the structure), and are considering using plastic grocery bags, fused together with clothing irons, to create the cover. Regular tarps, or an old parachute, are another possibility, but the fused grocery bags could give us the opportunity to build a solar oven to use instead of the irons; if this works, this might be a feasible method to use in the Kitale housing project.

Kenya – Housing in Kitale slums: We may be able to use the geodesic dome as a housing method. ASH might be looking at a different region of Kitale for the project, and not the Kipsongo slums, but regardless, we will need a way to construct housing with the materials on hand.

90 Windsor Street Community Center: The project package is just about finalized; we need to get an estimate, and then it can be sent out as an RFP! It will also be a stop on Common Boston’s tours.

Long Way Home: Erica is still in Guatemala. They want to get their buildings documented in CAD, for presentation purposes, and would like our help. They are also going to need design proposals for additional projects.

OTHER

You can now be automatically notified whenever there is a new post here – use the Subscribe button in the right sidebar to get updates through email, Facebook, Twitter, and many other services. This is NOT the same as the AfHB newsletter – to get that, go to our “Get Involved!” page and sign up there.

We heard about two recent events, PechaKucha for Haiti, and a karaoke fundraiser for Haiti.

At PechaKucha for Haiti, we heard several interesting presentations, including one from a group at MIT that is helping people in squatter villages map their own communities using cameras attached to balloons. This helps the residents [...]]]> EVENTS, PAST AND FUTURE

We heard about two recent events, PechaKucha for Haiti, and a karaoke fundraiser for Haiti.

At PechaKucha for Haiti, we heard several interesting presentations, including one from a group at MIT that is helping people in squatter villages map their own communities using cameras attached to balloons. This helps the residents claim the space they are living in, and we are thinking about using this in the Kenya project (read on for more on that!).

Karaoke for Haiti was a big success! We had a great turnout, raised $1000 through a fun and whacky raffle, and got some incriminating video to boot.

Our next event, May 1, is the annual 5k fundraiser. The BSA and Sasaki are going to be our main sponsors, and we still welcome additional sponsors.

We still need a t-shirt design! Please bring your brilliant ideas to the next meeting (April 8), or else we will be seeing the star design from the first two races again.

We also need help getting food donations so we can feed the runners and volunteers.

Entertainment at the event will be provided by the Woodrow Wilsons, a local band.

COMPETITIONS

USGBC – Natural Talent: We have a group signed up as a student team.

PROJECTS

Upward Bound Project: Erica Pernell of Upward Bound at UMass Boston is looking for interns to work with Upward Bound and the United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury. Interns need to be 18-25 years old and interested in youth leadership and gardening. There is a small stipend and a $1000 educational grant at the end of the internship. Erica can be reached at erica.pernell AT umb DOT edu.

We also need a space to do the geodesic dome construction. The dome will be 12 feet in diameter, so the space needs to allow that. Outdoor is fine, but we also need a secure indoor space to store materials for a few days while the build is happening. A few possible options were discussed, but if you have a suggestion, please email it to: info AT afhb DOT org.

We're looking at the dome (built from bamboo and wire ties) as a design that may work for Haiti. Bamboo is grown there to help with erosion problems, but we've also heard that it can be invasive. At any rate, it will be a fun and interesting project, whether we use bamboo or another cheap raw material for the struts.

Kenya – Kipsongo Housing: We are working with the Ambassadors for Sustained Health to develop a sustainable housing model for the Kipsongo slums near Kitale, Kenya. The model should address local building methods and available resources so that the residents can replicate it with little or no cost. The ideal model would have no cost, considering that the Kipsongo residents are extremely poor. They are looking for a good map at a cheap price of the area, but in the meantime, developing our own base on the information we have gathered, and we are going to connect with the MIT aerial mapping group. We are also looking into Kitale's waste building materials and low-cost alternative building methods. We hope to do a site visit in August.

The project team is currently in the site research phase and scheduled to meet on March 24th at Wentworth Institute of Technology. If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Sia Herr at: sia.her24 AT gmail DOT com.

90 Windsor Street Community Center: We have very exciting news on this project! The team is putting the final touches on the book, which will be used for fundraising. The project is also going to be submitted to the NOMA (National Organization of Minority Architects) competition, and at the end of this month, members of the team are going to the Structures for Inclusion conference at Howard University.

Another possible construction method for Haiti: We heard from a local builder about a method using large foam sheets and sprayed-on concrete. Some houses using the method have already been built in Haiti (also Arizona, Hawaii, and Mexico), but none – yet! – in the Boston area. There are lots of pictures at the company website.

The foam is EPS, styrofoam like you see in coffee cups, and the concrete is regular concrete plus a special polymer which keeps moisture out. This type of foam is also used in shipping containers, as filler so things don't rattle around during transit (so there may be unwanted foam just lying around in port areas?). The concrete is sprayed on 1/4-1/2 inch thick on walls, and 1/2 inch on the roof. Roof spans can go up to 100 feet! It is a quick method – the foam is glued together, and held to the foundation with rebar – and inexpensive. A 400s.f. house in Mexico was built for $2500. The interior of the structure can be finished with plaster. It is also sturdy – the construction has survived 400mph winds in wind tunnels, and has passed all ICC ratings.

This might also be useful for the Guatemala project, the roof in particular, as that part of the structure has not been easy to work out with the materials they are using.

AIAS – Accessibility Project: We may be working with the AIAS on a project with the Carter School. They want an accessible pool; when the weather get a little nicer, we are planning on doing a tour.

Other projects: We didn't have any news to report on Long Way Home or Nyaya, and little on Tanzania. One of our members has done some research on Tanzania, but we need to know more about the precise site, which hasn't been chosen yet, before we can proceed further.

OTHER THINGS

Build Boston workshop: Build Boston is coming up! In November. But we need a proposal for our workshop really soon! By March 19. Perhaps we will demonstrate how to build a geodesic dome? Send other ideas to mike AT afhb DOT org. 

Not a meeting note, but a request from the person responsible for the website: Please send me pictures! And correction/additions, more information on projects, etc. Email me at: cat AT aq DOT org. Thanks!

You can also donate through the PechaKucha for Haiti site.