Are you up for the Challenge?

Two weeks ago we launched the AMD Open Architecture Challenge with three clients, three sites and three amazing challenges. Where else can you find a design competition that involves indigenous cacao farmers, young inner-city entrepreneurs and DJs and Himalayan villagers. I may be biased but I truly believe this is the most diverse and life changing design competitions you will ever enter.

We are getting in more information from the clients and we will update every entrant as additional information, images and video comes in. Over the next month I'll be representatives will travel to Ecuador, Kenya and Nepal to do site visits and inspections. If you have any questions for the clients please email them here and we will get answers in the next few weeks.

Here are a short description of each challenge and links to the project briefs;

Challenge - South America
Connect a cooperative of indigenous chocolate producers and artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace by building a chocolate factory and fair trade exchange and off-site satellite technology hubs. [ Word Doc. | PDF ]

Challenge - Africa
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 lab and library. [ Word Doc. | PDF ]

Challenge - Asia
Enable families in a remote rural area of Nepal where there is only one doctor for a population of 250,000 to access healthcare from top physicians and medical professionals all over the world by building a tele-medicine center. [ Word Doc. | PDF ]


. Jury Announcement
Next month we will announce the jury for each of the three sites. They will include professionals from technology, design and international development as well as experts in the field of chocolate production, music and medicine. All of the clients, Kallari, SIDAREC and Nyaya Health, will serve as jury members on their respective projects and each jury will have at least five members. Stay tuned for details.

. Translate the challenge into your language
We are looking for volunteers who can write fluently in a language other than English to translate each of the briefs. Email us if you'd like to take on a brief, or all three, and we will upload them to the site (and recognize you for your awesome deed). The last competition we had everything from Chinese to Swahili, with 11 languages in total. Let's try and beat that this time.

. Spread the word, win a book
We don't do spend funds on press releases or news wires. We spend fund on building solutions. So we need you to help us spread the word. When you forward this email we get a report that says ‘John Doe forwarded this X times'. Therefore we are running a little newsletter competition. The three people who forward this email to the most number of people in the next 48 hours will get a signed copy of design like you give a damn mailed to them. (hint: stick on your intra-office mail and plug it on facebook)

. We heart Treehugger
The awesome guys over at Treehugger are pimping the competition by donating some ad space to promote the AMD Open Architecture Challenge. If you own a blog, write for one or have a personal site – be an online media sponsor and spread the word.

We are moving. Quit your day job, follow your dream and join us...

Thanks to the amazing Dean and Anne Ornish we have been "slumming" in Sausalito for the past 14 months. In October we are relocating into San Francisco and finally getting a place we can call our own. The Architecture for Humanity HQ will be based on Folsom Street and Fourth street just a stones throw from SF MoMA and the Giants ballpark. The office is an incredible loft space and we are working with Steelcase and others to create ‘green incubator' spaces for like minded individuals and small companies. It's $650 a desk all in and we are look for four more folks to join the motley crew which include a natural building design team, environmental bloggers and an emerging design practice. Perhaps you might just need an office on the west coast and we can set up a desk for you. We are also looking for old school plan files and architectural tables to give it that funky AFH flavor - so if you are throwing stuff out we can help.

New on the Network:

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click on the images to check out this months' mystery projects...

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz and Richard Meier Own the Day

All sorts of folks are ‘Owning the Day' making strange bedfellows to support the work of Architecture for Humanity. Our latest donors include a virtual rock band Gorillaz and New York based architect Richard Meier as well as a high school bake sale group. Gorillaz is owning November 5th and 6th the day their 'D-Sides' album hits the streets. So pick a day, donate 8 hours of your salary and help us provide design services and construction funding for projects all over the world.

Donate today and keep us going all year