(Architecture for Humanity) Ricardo Daza is beyond dedicated to the Bogotá Chapter he himself launched in 2009 with two of his non-architect friends. In four years the Chapter has helped hundreds of people over a dozen projects – all conducted in their own time after work, with the help of other volunteers and interns. It…
(Students Rebuild) In February 2013, I flew to Tohoku, Japan, site of the devastating 3.11 earthquake and tsunami, on behalf of Students Rebuild to track the progress on reconstruction in the region, and the impact of the Paper Cranes for Japan Challenge that funneled support and 100,000 cranes to the region as a symbol of…
On a strangely snowy morning at the We Are One youth center, near the mouth of the Kitakami River, twenty-three students gathered to collectively envision, with their minds and hands, improvements to their town.
(Architecture for Humanity) On February 24, 2013, the residents of the fishing village of Maeami-hama, on a secluded inlet on the Pacific coast of Tohoku, gathered to celebrate the opening of its new community house. The fishermen and their families invited Tokyo-based designers KMDW architects and project coordinators Architecture for Humanity Japan (in Ishinomaki as…
(Students Rebuild) On February 23, Students Rebuild and Architecture for Humanity led a student design charrette at the recently completed “We Are One” Market and Youth Center in Kitakami. Students from grades 1-5 came spent the Saturday morning building their visions from all sorts of craft and recycled market supplies, from paints, pipe cleaners and…
(Architecture for Humanity) Land title and land tenure. Believe it or not, it’s this battle that’s dictating the pace of reconstruction in Haiti–and the issue is hairy. I mean, technical. Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow Frederique “Rickie” Siegel fell into a working group last year bent on addressing the bottleneck on permanent development throughout the…
(Architecture for Humanity) On August 7, the Association of Defense Communities Annual Conference in Monterey was buzzing with conversation and questions about future phases of the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Dozens of American military bases hang on a determination from Congress whether or not to shut down–decisions that will affect the lives of…
(Architecture for Humanity) If there’s a “typical” design fellow, Preeti Sodhi may be the farthest from it. While many of our fellows are out working in rural communities in strange sounding places across the world, Preeti wakes up each morning in New York City and often heads down to the (very) Lower East Side. She’s…
(Students Rebuild) This week (the morning of Tuesday, July 17, in Japan, or 4PM Monday in San Francisco), the Kitakami “We Are One” Market and Youth Center broke ground. Participating in the ceremony were very honorable owner of the Market, Naomi Sato, the market’s architect Fumihiko Sasaki, two Shinto priests, several local contractors and members…
(Architecture for Humanity) For her Mundus Urbano masters program in Barcelona, Nazanin Mehregan spent three months studying and working on Architecture for Humanity’s urban design projects in Port-au-Prince. Specifically Nazanin worked with the Villa Rosa community engagement team on an ambitious community-led urban redevelopment program. Now back in Spain with some free time on her…
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