This is our first competition in 3 years. (here's the kicker: it's already funded!)
For the past six months we have been in development and research for the AMD Open Architecture Challenge, an open international design competition to build technology facilities in the developing world. AMD is providing funding for the construction one or more of the winning facilities including one years operating costs for the community partner. This is not just about building a structure, but making it sustainable (environmentally and financially).
This summer a team of 40 advisors reviewed over 115 proposals from 35 countries. This week we have selected three clients, each with specific technology needs, located in different continents. South America, Africa and Asia.
The overall winning submission(s) will be constructed in the Summer of 2008.
Also every project/entry will 'go live' the day of the winning announcement, making all entries available to be funded. It's not just about having 3 winning schemes, but hundreds of implementable structures for communities to replicate.
----
I will be posting more information every wednesday till the 12th.
This will certainly be our biggest and most important competition to date. AMD has put up $250,000 for the building of one or more of the facilities. plus the clients are all awesome.
The two aspects I like the most is that 100% of the entry fees are coming back to the entrants plus we are going to end the way traditional competitions are run by making every entry live (on the Open Architecture Network) once the jury is complete. - ie. if the Gates Foundation wants to build 500 technology centers there are designs (and architects) ready.
Same thing is happening with Siyathemba -- we are now speaking with a funder about implementing multiple facilities each with a different design from the 2004 competition.
On September 12th, AMD and Architecture for Humanity will launch the AMD Open Architecture Challenge. Architects, designers, students and others are invited to participate in an international, open design competition to help bring connectivity and computing power to communities in need.
We recieved 115 RFPs from community groups in 35 countries to partner on the Challenge. A huge thanks to the cross-disciplinary panel of 40 reviewers, including professionals from the fields of design, technology, environmental science and international development for helping us read and review each proposal. After a month of intense review - Three sites were selected and they are.. (drum roll);
Kallari Association, Napo Province, Ecuador
Challenge: Connect a cooperative of indigenous chocolate producers and artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace by building a fair trade exchange and satellite rural technology hubs.
Slum Information, Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC), Nairobi, Kenya
Challenge: Empower the youth of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, an informal slum settlement of 250,000, to connect with other youth and create positive change in their community by building a technology media center and recording studio.
Nyaya Health, Sanfe Bagar, Nepal
Challenge: Enable families in a remote rural area of Nepal where there is only one doctor for a population of 250,000 to access to health care from top physicians and medical professionals all over the world by building a tele-medicine center.
Faculty and student groups:
If you are interested in participating in the challenge as a studio, contact us. We will send you a draft of the brief so that you can prepare your studio. Studios and organized student groups will recieve group rates to enter the competition.
Howdy from O'Hare airport. The competition is open for registration - I'm sending out latest newsletter tonight and will be on NPR in Louisville tomorrow to do the formalities.
The clients are already blogging new details and images....
enter one, two or all three sites -- and yes you can win them all.
So I ended up not entering, but next week I'm critiquing a group of students who did. I will no doubt be kicking myself after the review - is there still time to ome up with some sketches? Hmmm....
cameron, that is a good move. several schools in ecuador have the 'north hemisphere winter' as their summer vacation, since it is our hot and rainy season. january and february are slow months, good for competitions. i'll send an email to several students after the holidays, i really would like lots of ecuadorian entries but i can't promise anything.
cameron, where will you be in ecuador? i'm guessing quito and maybe napo to see the site? will you be going through guayaquil at any point? i teach at a university here and it would be great if you could talk to our students, but i know you are a super busy person.
I learned about this comp a bit late in the game but "51" days is still enough time. My one question is if anyone has any cultural information about the local communities in Nairobi who would be using this new site we were invited to design?
The news has lately discussed that the rioting over the elections is between different ethnic groups in the area. I am assuming that these cultural differences have had an impact on the form of this city and how space is shaped there...if anyone out there can critique my assumption or provide any insights with regards to this post that would be greatly appreciated as it would of course, be most beneficial in the end to the communities being served. Thanks.
SIDAREC (our client in Kenya) is really apart of the community in which it serves. They are the voice of the unplanned settlements and the radio station that they are building '99.9 Ghetto FM' has gained a remarkable listenership (650,000).
The area itself has grown considerably with the influx of somali refugees and so there is a strong muslim presence.
The site is located in the industrial area of Nairobi, near the old airport, and many of those in the slums are working as unskilled labor and small businesses.
Given that the competition is for a conceptual solution that will be chosen - hell you could do it this weekend! - each of the 3 site winners will get $5K to travel to the site in either Ecuador, Kenya or Nepal.
THen the overall winning team (designer+community) will get funding to implement and build the winning solution
+i - we got swamped all at once at 11.59 pm, thus the site glitches. all resolved now. all entries checked and accounted for (I'll be sending you an email tomorrow)
AMD Open Architecture Challenge (AFH)
This is our first competition in 3 years. (here's the kicker: it's already funded!)
For the past six months we have been in development and research for the AMD Open Architecture Challenge, an open international design competition to build technology facilities in the developing world. AMD is providing funding for the construction one or more of the winning facilities including one years operating costs for the community partner. This is not just about building a structure, but making it sustainable (environmentally and financially).
This summer a team of 40 advisors reviewed over 115 proposals from 35 countries. This week we have selected three clients, each with specific technology needs, located in different continents. South America, Africa and Asia.
Check out http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge and sign up as an OAN member for further details. The launch is on September 12th
The overall winning submission(s) will be constructed in the Summer of 2008.
Also every project/entry will 'go live' the day of the winning announcement, making all entries available to be funded. It's not just about having 3 winning schemes, but hundreds of implementable structures for communities to replicate.
----
I will be posting more information every wednesday till the 12th.
Cheers
Cameron.
wow...now that's exciting news. Congratulations and thank you cameron
This will certainly be our biggest and most important competition to date. AMD has put up $250,000 for the building of one or more of the facilities. plus the clients are all awesome.
The two aspects I like the most is that 100% of the entry fees are coming back to the entrants plus we are going to end the way traditional competitions are run by making every entry live (on the Open Architecture Network) once the jury is complete. - ie. if the Gates Foundation wants to build 500 technology centers there are designs (and architects) ready.
Same thing is happening with Siyathemba -- we are now speaking with a funder about implementing multiple facilities each with a different design from the 2004 competition.
that's some really impressive groundwork being laid out...wow...
On September 12th, AMD and Architecture for Humanity will launch the AMD Open Architecture Challenge. Architects, designers, students and others are invited to participate in an international, open design competition to help bring connectivity and computing power to communities in need.
We recieved 115 RFPs from community groups in 35 countries to partner on the Challenge. A huge thanks to the cross-disciplinary panel of 40 reviewers, including professionals from the fields of design, technology, environmental science and international development for helping us read and review each proposal. After a month of intense review - Three sites were selected and they are.. (drum roll);
Kallari Association, Napo Province, Ecuador
Challenge: Connect a cooperative of indigenous chocolate producers and artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace by building a fair trade exchange and satellite rural technology hubs.
Slum Information, Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC), Nairobi, Kenya
Challenge: Empower the youth of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, an informal slum settlement of 250,000, to connect with other youth and create positive change in their community by building a technology media center and recording studio.
Nyaya Health, Sanfe Bagar, Nepal
Challenge: Enable families in a remote rural area of Nepal where there is only one doctor for a population of 250,000 to access to health care from top physicians and medical professionals all over the world by building a tele-medicine center.
Registration Begins: 09/12/2007
Must be a member of the Open Architecture Network to enter.
To enter, log on to: http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge
Faculty and student groups:
If you are interested in participating in the challenge as a studio, contact us. We will send you a draft of the brief so that you can prepare your studio. Studios and organized student groups will recieve group rates to enter the competition.
wooohoooooo one of the sites is in ecuador!!!!!
Howdy from O'Hare airport. The competition is open for registration - I'm sending out latest newsletter tonight and will be on NPR in Louisville tomorrow to do the formalities.
The clients are already blogging new details and images....
enter one, two or all three sites -- and yes you can win them all.
Cheers,
C.
90 days to go....
bump.
/ps. I'll be speaking at Berkeley on Wednesday.
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fcsinclair73%2Falbumid%2F5138954136837892913%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
hurumph.
So I ended up not entering, but next week I'm critiquing a group of students who did. I will no doubt be kicking myself after the review - is there still time to ome up with some sketches? Hmmm....
we extended the deadline to Feb. 14th (my valantines to you lb) - making the announcement tomorrow.
C.
cameron, that is a good move. several schools in ecuador have the 'north hemisphere winter' as their summer vacation, since it is our hot and rainy season. january and february are slow months, good for competitions. i'll send an email to several students after the holidays, i really would like lots of ecuadorian entries but i can't promise anything.
we are uploading site photos tonight (i'm in india for the world economic forum)
sweet, a birthday present from cameron
Kenya photos are up on my picasa account
http://picasaweb.google.com/csinclair73/SIDAREC
and on Dan Shine of AMDs
http://picasaweb.google.com/webdano/KenyaAMDChallenge
We are in Nepal next week and in Ecuador in 2 weeks time.
heres the exact site long/lat for kenya http://picasaweb.google.com/webdano/KenyaAMDChallenge/photo#5138517656712827122
gotta love the crackberry gps.
cameron, where will you be in ecuador? i'm guessing quito and maybe napo to see the site? will you be going through guayaquil at any point? i teach at a university here and it would be great if you could talk to our students, but i know you are a super busy person.
ps. i just facebooked you so that invite is less anonymous.
looks like Ecuador in late Dec/early Jan
images from SIDAREC, Kenya and Nyaya Health, Sanfe Bagar, Nepal can be found here
http://picasaweb.google.com/csinclair73/
also check youtube for aerial footage of Nepal.
The extra photos are a huge help, thanks, Cameron!!!
adding video as soon as I get out of Nepal. FYI AFH xmas party in SF on Friday.
I learned about this comp a bit late in the game but "51" days is still enough time. My one question is if anyone has any cultural information about the local communities in Nairobi who would be using this new site we were invited to design?
The news has lately discussed that the rioting over the elections is between different ethnic groups in the area. I am assuming that these cultural differences have had an impact on the form of this city and how space is shaped there...if anyone out there can critique my assumption or provide any insights with regards to this post that would be greatly appreciated as it would of course, be most beneficial in the end to the communities being served. Thanks.
SIDAREC (our client in Kenya) is really apart of the community in which it serves. They are the voice of the unplanned settlements and the radio station that they are building '99.9 Ghetto FM' has gained a remarkable listenership (650,000).
The area itself has grown considerably with the influx of somali refugees and so there is a strong muslim presence.
The site is located in the industrial area of Nairobi, near the old airport, and many of those in the slums are working as unskilled labor and small businesses.
Cheers.
Cameron
Video of the AMD Open Architecture Challenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_wQ1z9oy1M
2 weeks to go.
We have upped the site awards to $5K.
ruralarchitect, 51 days isn't too late... i just registered 3 weeks ago =)
Given that the competition is for a conceptual solution that will be chosen - hell you could do it this weekend! - each of the 3 site winners will get $5K to travel to the site in either Ecuador, Kenya or Nepal.
THen the overall winning team (designer+community) will get funding to implement and build the winning solution
check out the you tube video for site images.
Cheers
Cameron
[although there were a few site glitches with the time posted versus when files were actually submitted]
Yay! It's all over! I can't wait to see the entries!!!! Hurry up jury!
Back from Aus. - Round 1 Jury starts tomorrow!
C
Jury List so far (there are a few stragglers)
http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/node/916/jury
+i - we got swamped all at once at 11.59 pm, thus the site glitches. all resolved now. all entries checked and accounted for (I'll be sending you an email tomorrow)
sweet- thanks Cameron!
and that's an impressive list of jurors!
(editor from Dwell, OMA, Wired, Wes Janz- someone I def admire)
good luck to everyone!
does anyone know if those who have made it through round 1 & 2 be notified? or will we have to wait and see what comes up on "people's choice"?
so it's april....bump
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