“Design like you give a damn.” That’s the signature line in the rousing stump speech often delivered by Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity. While others build luxe lofts and titanium-plated monoliths, Sinclair and fellow cofounder Kate Stohr use architecture to solve social and humanitarian problems. Since starting the nonprofit in 1999, Sinclair, a 32-year-old London-born architect, and Stohr, a 32-year-old American journalist, have led 30 projects in six countries. They’ve organized design competitions for refugee housing in Kosovo, mobile health clinics in sub-Saharan Africa, and a soccer clubhouse in South Africa that doubles as an HIV/AIDS outreach center.
Recently, they’ve been rebuilding hurricane-ravaged homes and businesses along the Mississippi Gulf Coast; they have even designed a laundry structure – the first after the storm – for Waveland, Mississippi (cost: $1,200). And in their forthcoming book, Design Like You Give a Damn, the duo showcases architectural responses to crisis and disaster around the world. Their next big project is to create an open source multilingual network for architects, engineers, NGOs, and government officials in search of blueprints, contracts, and building information. “Right now, people end up reinventing the wheel over and over again,” Sinclair says. “We want to create a community that will embrace your design solution and allow it to evolve and, most important, be implemented.”
– Laura Moorhead
credit Ian White
Kate Stohr and Cameron Sinclair among the rubble of a bed-and-breakfast in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Architecture for Humanity is funding a community design studio to help residents rebuild.
After hurricanes Ivan and Emily destroyed more than 80 percent of the homes in Grenada, Architecture for Humanity worked with Ferrara Design to build transitional shelters made of cardboard. Each hut costs $370 and can be put together in 15 minutes.
In 2004, AFH held a competition to create a soccer pitch that doubles as an HIV/AIDS clinic in Somkhele, South Africa. Sewee Hong Ng, the winner, adapted his V-shaped earthen terraces to the area’s rolling hills.
A rendering of the proposed Tanzania telemedicine center shows the mixed-use space as a mother-and-child health clinic and gathering area. Set to break ground this month, the facility was backed by AFH and designed by Gaston Tolila and Nicholas Gilliland of Paris.
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