Founder member of Architecture for Humanity architect Cameron Sinclair “seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis” by bringing design services to communities in need. Through competitions, workshops, educational forums, and partnerships with community organizations and other activities, Architecture for Humanity creates opportunities for architects and designers from around the world to place resources and expertise where skills and finance are scarce.
At university level, architecture and design programmes around the world have used AFH competitions and design criteria as a model for semester-long projects. Sinclair’s mantra is Design Like You Give a Damn damn/ – also a publication that offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design, providing contemporary solutions to urgent needs such as basic shelter, healthcare, and education. Sinclair relays strong criticism suggesting that the architectural profession is guilty of embracing an ideal, where the perception of the role of the designer is seen as a service for the privileged. Through initiatives such as the Open architecture network, which engages an on-line community of designers in pressing social issues, providing access to open source architectural plans. This year they have issued a ‘real’ challenge to architects, designers and others around the world: to develop a proposal for the design and construction of technology centres in 3 regions across the globe that will support the ‘digital inclusion’ of communities in educational, social and business opportunities via the Internet.
Diary of an astronaut
Oct 13, 02:20 PM
Fragment of Ilan Ramon’s diary
This short article in the Guardian newspaper Saturday October 4, 2008 p.26, stuck with me. The loss of the space shuttle Columbia was an event that many of us will remember and have seen mediated by television, however, the painstaking recovery and reconstruction of Ilan Ramon’s journal and his words seemed remarkable. Not only had the words survived the catastrophe but their two-month long exposure to the wind, sun and rain, as they lay waiting to be found. The pages were tattered and torn, some were pierced with tiny holes, some were tightly stuck to others, while some pieces were compacted into wads as small as a fingernail. The 37 pages were found just over two months after the shuttle explosion, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the U.S. town of Palestine, Texas. That Ramon was an Israeli, and his words were found in a small town called Palestine, seems the strangest of coincidences; that these fragile pages survived at all, seems to defy rational thought.
Making Space - Towards a Public Artwork - Artist in Residence Opportunity
Jun 29, 07:15 PM
fugitivespaces is working with Glasgow Women’s Library to develop and deliver two 6-month Part Time Artist Residencies to be based within the library. The residencies offer an exciting opportunity for two artists to work with the rich resources of Glasgow Women’s Library – staff, learners, users and archive – to achieve the aims and focus of Making space: toward a public artwork for GWL. The residence opportunities are offered to develop ideas, visuals and participatory working methods that can inform GWL’s ambitions to realise a public artwork for their new premises at the Mitchell Library Glasgow. The residencies will support the artists’ investigation of Women’s histories and representation in the Public Realm, as well as potential means of engagement and consultation with diverse constituents of GWL.
For further details please download a job description, cover sheet and application information from Glasgow Women’s Library or call GWL on 0141 552 8345 or e-mail: info@womenslibrary.org.uk
Deadline for applications: Friday 24 July 2009
Open Source Architecture
Jun 28, 10:19 PM
Founder member of Architecture for Humanity architect Cameron Sinclair “seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis” by bringing design services to communities in need. Through competitions, workshops, educational forums, and partnerships with community organizations and other activities, Architecture for Humanity creates opportunities for architects and designers from around the world to place resources and expertise where skills and finance are scarce.
At university level, architecture and design programmes around the world have used AFH competitions and design criteria as a model for semester-long projects. Sinclair’s mantra is Design Like You Give a Damn damn/ – also a publication that offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design, providing contemporary solutions to urgent needs such as basic shelter, healthcare, and education. Sinclair relays strong criticism suggesting that the architectural profession is guilty of embracing an ideal, where the perception of the role of the designer is seen as a service for the privileged. Through initiatives such as the Open architecture network, which engages an on-line community of designers in pressing social issues, providing access to open source architectural plans. This year they have issued a ‘real’ challenge to architects, designers and others around the world: to develop a proposal for the design and construction of technology centres in 3 regions across the globe that will support the ‘digital inclusion’ of communities in educational, social and business opportunities via the Internet.
Diary of an astronaut
Oct 13, 02:20 PM
Fragment of Ilan Ramon’s diary
This short article in the Guardian newspaper Saturday October 4, 2008 p.26, stuck with me. The loss of the space shuttle Columbia was an event that many of us will remember and have seen mediated by television, however, the painstaking recovery and reconstruction of Ilan Ramon’s journal and his words seemed remarkable. Not only had the words survived the catastrophe but their two-month long exposure to the wind, sun and rain, as they lay waiting to be found. The pages were tattered and torn, some were pierced with tiny holes, some were tightly stuck to others, while some pieces were compacted into wads as small as a fingernail. The 37 pages were found just over two months after the shuttle explosion, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the U.S. town of Palestine, Texas. That Ramon was an Israeli, and his words were found in a small town called Palestine, seems the strangest of coincidences; that these fragile pages survived at all, seems to defy rational thought.