Architecture for Humanity - 2009 Open Architecture Challenge

collaborating in inner city schools in New York City

This is what design is really about; collaboration, innovation and the social condition. Architecture for Humanity is an exciting architectural activitst organization that truly engages the world wide community to help change the way we think about our built environments and the way that our spaces help (or hinder) growth. Their focus is on the long term sustainability of built space, and the competition attached was designed to allow an open forum of design discussion for not just the Architecture community, but anyone in the world to participate and share their ideas. The exciting part, for me, is that this is what Architecture truly is... a tool we can use to help communicate how we choose to live and treat our world, and without communication and exploration we cannot sustain the world we live in nor expect growth. Check out the video attached above and enjoy. I hope that we can all learn to communicate for a more sustainable future, and it starts with how we teach eachother that makes the difference.

Daniel Libeskind's 'Sustainable' Prefab House

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An article posted on Inhabitat, a repository for all things green in this world. The attached article and picture is a showcase of Star Architect Daniel Libeskind. I came across a lot of his work during my 5-years at college. He uses his language (archi-speak) to sell the type of design that he has developed. I never entirely figured out what his design really is other than a form of "pre-manufactured" metal paneling without true regard to shape or dimension. His designs are great at creating space, not neccessarily efficient, and playing with light. Most of the time I struggle with whether or not he truly labors over each and every detail (ie, where light comes into a space) or if his design is purely coincidental and only made valid by his ability to theorize and philosophize. I would have to question the later part of the last sentence and ask "how does one legitimize design if the designer doesn't think about the impact that the entire space will have on the people using it?"

Getting back to the article and some of the comments that were made (myself included), the building is suppose to epitomize Sustainable design. For those of you not totally familiar with Sustainability wikipedia has a great little background to help educate you further. The design looks stunning, not my style, but seems to lack the follow through. For instance, the large angled roof's aren't useful spaces, and do not seem to perform any real functional purpose. I would argue that the roof could be angled for the optimal angle to use Solar Collectors and then each prefab house could be subtly controlled for various regions of the world. Nothing was brought up in all of his marketing information other than a couple buzz words.

For now that is all I am going to say, because I am trying to figure out how I want to tailor these blogs to be more open for whomever ends up reading these. Thank you for any feedback!