winter chapter quarterly

Chapter uarterly

architecture for humanity

Vol 3 December 2013

RecapChapter forum 2013

RemembeRChapteR web inaR12.17.2013

lonDon Chapter‘for Japan’

disasterrespond

hQ

Made possible by:

Layout/coordinator: Tinna Lykke MadsenEditors/coordinators: Garrett Jacobs, Inari VirkkalaFeature Authors: Beth Worth, London Chapter Karl Johnson, San Francisco Chapter Inari Virkkala, Chapter Outreach Team Tinna Lykke Madsen, Chapter Outreach Team Garrett Jacobs, Outreach Coordinator A great thanks to all the people and chapters who contributed with articles, photos and information.

ContaCtArchitecture for HumanityT. +1.415.963.3511F. [email protected] @afh_chapters

thanks for sharing / photo Credits

p. 01 Illac Diaz Liter of Light p. 02 Inari Virkkala Chapter forum 2013p. 07 Yuko Okamura Graphics, Disaster Responsep. 11 London Chapter Fundraising ‘For Japan’p. 12 London Chapter Fundraising ‘For Japan’p. 14 Jana Ašenbrennerová Chapter forum 2013p. 17 Jana Ašenbrennerová Chapter forum 2013p. 18 Auckland Chapter Reclaimed Christmas Forestp. 19 Kelly Holley Houston Chapter Recapp. 20 Portugal Chapter Meeting Spacep. 21 Li Andersson Kouk khleang Youth Centerp. 22 Auckland Chapter Reclaimed Christmas Forest

follow afh

@archforhumanity

FeatuRes

Editorial 06When Disaster Strikes 08

London Chapter Fundraiser ‘For Japan’ 12

Chapter Forum ‘13 16

04 15 years Celebration

05 Chapter Numbers

11 Webinar

20 Network News

23 Thoughts from a volunteer

Contents quiCkies12

08

SPREAD THE WORD

Years 1-5: Inspiration, vision, startup

“Great”?

“disaster displaces3.5 m people” OH NO! AFH

does!

Those people won’t sustain. can I design to ease the pain?

Let's design together and build to last forever!

“Great”?


does!



“Great”?


does!



It is with great pride that we kick-off the celebration of our 15th anniversary this holiday season.

Keep an eye on twitter and facebook the comming Thurs-days where we break down the phases of our 15 years in a se-ries of four commics to mark our Quindecennial of engag-ing and helping communities around the world.

Spread Architecture for Human-ity’s inspiring message to your community and remember to visit our website 15years.org.

CELEBRATING 15 YEARS

Chapter Quarterly i DeCember 2013 i 5

mo

ntgo

mery

Volunteer/MeMber statistiCs

people are now signeD up on the C h a p t e r n e t w o r k

more than

13.430

portlandnew york

m a n i l asan franCisCo

san franCisCo

mem

ber

s

Volu

nte

ers

syd

ney

% %

% %

%

%

57 5

7774

67

72

27 41

hello montgomery!

Chapter growth noVember 13

MontgoMery ChapterThis November our network ex-panded as Malin

Ulmar got the ball rolling in Montgomery, Alabama.Their initial project is an out-door classroom and chicken coup. The design build project will be an element of the master planning for the city. If you are having trouble find-ing Montgomery on our map look East towards the coast of Africa! we’ll get Montgomery back to a more accurate longi-tude shortly!

help the ottawa ChapterAfter a long period of inactivity our Ottawa Chapter

has officially become inactive.We still see a great volunteer interest in the area, we hope to have the chapter back on the map in the near future.Contact Garrett Jacobs if you are interested in helping Ottawa get back on its feet!

To help facilitate growth we need to un-derstand how the network is developing, to this point we are now running monthly reports to generate chapter numbers and growth rates.

Congratulations to our Portland, San Francisco, New York, Sydney and Ma-nila Chapters. These chapters have ex-perienced the largest growth of members and/or volunteers over the last couple of months.

95%

Member-1 +1002 Volunteers

5%

6 i Chapter Quarterly i DeCember 2013

editoRialIn November, for the first time on the job I had the privilege of being in the same room with over 30 chapter leaders. It was a high point of my year. Spending most of the time in front of a screen sending countless emails, Skyping for days and coordinating activity across the net-work just doesn’t compare to being in the same room, sharing the energy of a passionate dedi-cated group of leaders. With everything we have been developing together this past year I can now say that the key to it all – communication. The real challenge is external messaging. Since our shift within the architectural profession is not directly visual our messaging needs to be clear and calculated.

After much discussion over the DLYGAD week-end it is clear that we need to develop metrics and establish best practices for quantifying our local, national, and international impact. This is in an effort to clarify what we do for laymen and possible funders. Additionally, in order to gain stronger footing within the profession itself we need to place our efforts within a historical con-text.

Major changes in architecture have been largely visual over the past few centuries. About 250 years ago architecture shifted, thanks to the likes of Ledoux and Boullée, from a classical set of orders to a representational tool of commu-nication. Since then, a Chicago Architect said something about form and function, a couple living in Pennsylvania liked anomalies and un-certainties, but the design of buildings as sym-bols and icons of the activities within (and those who fund them) has largely drifted to the point of, well, iconicity. The initial shift over two centu-ries ago happened alongside the momentum of social change and how people transfer informa-tion. From monarch to republic, information be-gan to come laterally from freely speaking peers. It was only natural that a new form of built en-vironment was needed to speak this social lan-guage. But the process of architecture has not varied much over the years, instead continuing on the same economically driven paths.

In the last couple of decades architecture has again been subtly disrupted. This time it is the process that is being questioned. With the cur-rent speed and transfer of open sourced in-formation, we now comprehend the long-term effects of our professional choices, from envi-ronmental harm to socioeconomic disparage-ment of labor in the industry. We have asked ourselves: Is this traditional method of architect-ing still relevant? Can architecture help more? Well, we in the Chapter Network have answered it through action. We gather and give our time to those without the benefit of architecture as a voice, using design as a tool to communicate the importance of equality. But it remains the exception to the rule, and we still need day jobs.

We are not attempting to change the end result of architecture as a good functional building, but we are changing the way design is involved in people’s lives, so that the good building is one that is loved and maintained. This is a difficult action to communicate, but the combination of numbers, words, and compelling images of our clients will help develop a language relevant to the markets in which we operate.

During his closing remarks AFH Board Chair and former chapter volunteer Matt Charney poi-gnantly captured this energy felt those attend-ing the Chapter Forum:

AFH defines our generation of architects and de-signers, when Kate and Cameron started the orga-nization 15 years ago I don’t think that they had that in mind, I don’t think that they had that inten-tion of starting a movement. But that’s what hap-pened… The idea of AFH was grassroots, it was enthusiastic, it was sexy... As Cameron put it “the idea alone is no longer sexy.” Grassroots seat of our pants mentality just doesn’t cut it any more... Some of the terms I heard today were: knowing the strengths and weaknesses and limitations of pro-fessional volunteers, grant-writing how to’s, risk analysis toolkits and communicating measurable


impacts. And what that all adds up to is a sustain-able business model for delivering social impact design. And that is the new sexy at AFH.

To develop this new “sexy” we need to treat our efforts like a second year studio project after learning the meaning of Gesamtkunstwerk; you know when you designed a typeface to match the angles of your structure. Putting every activ-ity and plan up to a mission test will ensure its relevance to our ideals. We have largely done this through advocacy, but we need to imbue the belief of design as an inclusive tool for so-cial change into the way we get projects, hold events, give recognition, fundraise, structure the internal leadership…This is why I am excited to hear the New York Chapter’s forthcoming inclusive method of proj-ect selection. I’ve been sworn to secrecy for the moment, but it’s an inclusive method bringing the community into the project procurement process, reinforcing our ideal of inclusion to a new area.

This year the Chapter Forum was a little differ-ent than in the past. Leaders from around the network shared their experiences and tech-niques through engaging presentations, all of which are available on Youtube. In an effort to capture the momentum from the gathering we

launched the chapter leaders Facebook group, increasing communication and will release the Presidio Graduate School’s sustainable network business plan in January. It’s an exciting time for the growth of the network; I am thrilled to be working with so many dedicated, passionate designers for a common good. My goal for this upcoming year is to begin implementing the giv-en recommendations, increasing the communi-cations throughout the network, and celebrating our 15 years of being at the forefront of progres-sive architecture together.

Effectively communicating the impact of our work and time spent will open more opportuni-ties and funding for the network, increasing our collaborative capacity. Acting as a fluid network we can achieve a global resonance empower-ing millions through design. This next year we should leverage my position’s new responsi-bility within Headquarters as communication manager. The more you tell me the easier I can disseminate it to the whole organizational net-work. Remember this is just the beginning of the next phase, stewarding the voice we’ve devel-oped will successfully sustain the growth of the movement. I invite you to read on to hear how others are contributing to the efforts.

Happy New Year! Outreach Coordinator,Garrett Jacobs

AFH members at the night of the 4th DLYGAD.

Remeber to visit our You-tube page where you can find videos from the DLYGAD conference and Chapter Forum


While typhoon Haiyan was raging in the philip-pines and the Autodesk Gallery in San Fran-cisco was buzzing with activity, half the HQ staff was nowhere to be seen - they were all gathered in a small conference room in a dis-tant corner of the gallery, where a swiftly writ-ten sticky note announced: “Occupied - Ty-phoon Disaster Response”.

Most people involved in Architecture for Hu-manity know that our organization defines itself as a ‘last responder’ which is something we have been since the very begin-ning. So why the hectic activity on the day of the disaster? What was going on behind those glass walls during DLYGAD:live, what is Architecture for Humanity’s plan of action when responding to a disaster and how will our participation for the extensive Philippines rebuild look? To answer these questions the Chapter Outreach Team has been bugging the ‘Reconstruction & Resilience Studio’ also known as the ‘Disaster Team’ at HQ to learn more about Architecture for Humanity’s ap-proach to disaster.

why ‘last responders’?It had been a little over a month since Ty-phoon Haiyan hit the Philippines when I be-gan writing this article. We now know that it has displaced more than 3,5 m people (This number had dropped to 921.212 by Dec 13th) and caused over 4400 deaths1. Though these horrifying numbers incite to take immediate

action, it is a crucial time to remember our area of expertise in order to have the biggest impact. At Architecture for Humanity we have specialized in ‘building back better’ by con-tributing to a holistic, contextual rebuild.

In practice this means that we are not an active player in the emergency relief phase immedi-ately after a disaster. At this stage, actions in the affected area are focused on survival and meeting basic needs such as food, water,

shelter and med-icine. The dura-tion of this initial phase mainly depends on the

socioeconomic advancement of the affected country, its preparedness, accessibility to re-sources and the magnitude of the disaster.

When responding to disasters Architecture for Humanity typically becomes visible once the basic needs have been met and emergency relief moves into reconstruction. It is within this stage of recovery we become a valuable expert and it is here we wish to focus our ef-forts.

This doesn’t mean that we are passively wait-ing to play our part, in fact the early months following a disaster are highly critical to our efforts in the reconstruction phase. Why? ‘Cash is Key’ - our funds will define what we are able to do, but more importantly any suc-cessful project builds on through assessment and understanding of the local situation.

At Architecture for Humanity we have specialized in ‘building back better’, in other words to contrib-ute to a holistic, contextual rebuild.

the same Day that we gathereD for the 4th DlygaD:liVe to DisCuss how to “Design for a more resilient worlD”, the worst typhoon eVer reCorDeD at lanDfall hit the philippines, leaVing great parts of the islanD nation in Complete ruin.

when disaster strikes

By Tinna Lykke Madsen


FUNDRAISINGADVOCACY & PARTNERSHIP BUILDING

TRAINING PROGRAM IDENTIFICATIONASSESSMENTS PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

PREPAREDNESSONGOING

EMERGENCY2 TO 3 WEEKS

RELIEFUP TO 3 MONTHS

RECOVERY3+ YEARS

SIZE

AN

D S

CO

PE O

F D

ISA

STER

A

ND

REC

OV

ERY

EFF

ORT

S

RESPONSE PHASECampaign buildingEmergency awarenessGenerating resourcesUnderstanding scope

PREPAREDNESSPreparedness researchCreating public, private, and non-profit partnershipSAP and Chapter trainingadvocacy

COMMUNICATIONS PHASEEstablishing local presenceEstablishing ourselves as a resourceResponding to requestsTargeting local resourcesStrategic planningIdentifying where our resources are most needed

RECONSTRUCTION PHASECommunity empowermentSmall business supportChapter developmentProgram developmentAddressing resiliency

what we do?It is no secret that the majority of outsid-ers know Architecture for Humanity for our post-disaster efforts. Until now our Organization has responded to more than 15 natural and man made disasters, making us highly influential and experienced within disaster response work and resiliency efforts. Our Reconstruction & Resiliency stu-dio is currently managing four programs in-cluding the Haiti Rebuilding Program, Tohoku Rebuilding Program (Japan), Hurricane Sandy Reconstruction Program (New York), Resilient Oklahoma Program and most recently our Na-tional Resiliency Program.

It is important to keep in mind that disaster re-sponse is context dependent, and no post-di-saster stricken area is the same. It takes time to know where the most critical rebuilding needs are located. There is no pre-packaged solution to this course of action. Every time we respond to a disaster we follow a non-lin-ear organic process:

Immediately after a disaster our Headquar-ters Disaster Response Team (R&R studio) monitors the situation and begins fundraising.Tracking back to the day of DLYGAD, this was exactly what was going on behind the closed doors of the conference room. Subsequently we turn to our connections in the area - in the case of the Philippines, the Manila Chapter - to begin early assessment and figuring out the local infrastructure:

• Who are the stakeholders?• Which NGO’s are present in the area?• Who are the governmental contacts?• What are our options for finding funding

partners?

Once the situation within a disaster hit area has stabilized 1 to 2 key people from the R&R studio will travel to the area and assist our lo-cal collaborators. It is key to identify the right funders and programs. The first 7 to 9 months are typically spent assessing the situation and determining our efforts moving forward.

After we have established ourselves locally we can begin the actual reconstruction. As previously stated, the scale and nature of our efforts will be dependent on our assess-ments and the amount of funding we secured. Looking at the Philippines specifically, the re-sponse could be a full blown, large scale di-saster response like the Haiti Rebuilding Cen-ter, a small more community based program like Biloxi Model Homes or a re-grant directly to the Manila chapter.

Our R&R team and Manila chapter are cur-rently formulating a collaborative response to Typhoon Hayian in order to assist in the long-term recovery of the region in the months and years ahead following the challenges of the current relief phase.

Credits: Yuko Okamura


the r&r studio, san franCisCo

The Reconstruction and Resiliency studio team manages programs and projects re-lated to resiliency, long-term recovery, and post-disaster and post-conflict reconstruc-tion.

are you resilient?

Devastating events such as Haiyan should incite us to take a look at our own prepared-ness: Resiliency is becoming the new black in our circles, and with good reason; every $1 spent on disaster preparedness saves $7 in post-disaster economic losses2. As a chap-ter of Architecture for Humanity we encour-age you to actively engage in making your community more resilient; What is your city doing to prepare for potential disasters and how can you contribute to a response plat-form? In the event of a disaster in your area we depend on the insight of our local chap-ters. Take a look at what 4 of our chapter are currently doing here.

how to fundraise

Would you like to fundraise but don’t know how to get started? Have a look at our fund-raising toolkit.

sourCes:

1. www.staff.architectureforhumanity.org/files/OCHA_HAIYAN-INFO-14NOV.v3.pdf

2. World Bank and United States Geologi-cal

Yuko Okamura Design fellow

Audrey Galo, Program Coordinator

Michael Steiner, Senior Program Manager

Eric Cesal Studio Director

Hiromi Tabei Program Coordinator

Chapter inVolVeMentIt is wonderful to see a great interest amongst chapter members to get involved in the re-building efforts in the Philippines. We are nev-ertheless strong advocates of local rebuilding and we believe that working alongside local architects and community members, includ-ing our Manila Chapter, gives us the best op-portunity to implement long-term resilient and sustainable solutions.

Our greatest need at the moment is the help to raise funds. OCHA estimate that $301 M is needed for the Philippines rebuild. So far only 14.4 % of that total has been funded1.

Some of our chapters have already taken ini-tiative and actively supported the concerted efforts in the Philippines, if your chapter is in-terested in helping we hope you can find in-spiration in the London Chapter’s fundraiser ‘For Japan’ featured on the following pages. You can also connect with our Manila chapter coordinators to coordinate network efforts.

We also encourage you to participate in our Webinar on December 17th where we will have the opportunity to go deeper into discussions about disaster response, resiliency and pre-paredness.


Hosted in Webex: if you would like to join us, please contact [email protected]

Illac Diaz, Manila Chapter Current situation

in Manila

Beth Worth, London ChapterLondon’s fundraising campaign for Japan


Garrett and Sherry-Lea, HQ15 years anniversary

campaign

Open Discussion: Think global, act local

Hosted by R&R studio

HOLIDAY CHAPTER

WEBINAR

WITH PRESENTATIONS:

17th DECEMBER 3-5 PM (PACIfIC TIME zONE)


a mag 9 earthQuake shook Japan on 11 marCh 2011. it set off a 30 foot tsunami anD CauseD a nuClear meltDown. though all natural Disasters are unforgiVing anD DeVastating, publiC sympathy for Japan was oVerwhelming.

In the days and weeks following, first respond-ers were busy on the ground . Architecture for Humanity set up a regional office in Sendai, the capital of the disaster- hit Tohoku region. Here in the UK we wanted to do something to help.

A month later Cameron Sinclair had a break-fast meeting with the London chapter of Ar-chitecture for Humanity. He gave me the in-centive to volunteer and lead a fund raiser.

One of the positive aspects of our chapter is that we meet regularly. At our April meet-up, Micah Sarut spoke about his time living and working in Japan. He showed us pho-tos: lovely pictures of cherry blossoms in the spring, the Torii Gates, temples and gardens. The images celebrated the beauty and culture of Japan.

These images inspired a fundraising photog-raphy exhibition which was called ‘For Japan’.

Our first port of call was Metro Imaging, one of London’s top professional printers. They of-fered to print for us for free. They suggested we hold an open call for submissions so we’d have a wider selection of photos to exhibit. They also recommended that we find a gal-lery willing to host us rather than a less formal venue like a pub or café.

It took a lot of phone calls and emails before we had any luck. Hotshoe Gallery in Clerken-

well - which publishes an international pho-tography magazine and mounts numerous exhibitions during the year - agreed to give us a week. The only free slot in their diary was in August, a relatively dead time in London with people away on summer holidays. Even though we wanted to do something sooner, it worked out for the best since there was so much to organize.

Hotshoe’s assistant director, Gregory Barter, was hugely helpful. He placed an ad in Hot-shoe magazine calling for submissions of photographs that evoked the spirit and culture of Japan. He figured out how we might do the auction. His knowledge of photography was invaluable.

We also had great support from Risa Sano, a talented graphic designer, who created the exhibition branding and designed our poster. It was serendipity that we met photographer Shiho Kito, who lent her sensitive eye to the project. (Shiho has continued her involvement with Architecture for Humanity and recently photographed AfH work in Sendai.)

Submissions started to trickle in – but in the end we received over 250 images from all over the world. Some were from leading photogra-phers, many from emerging professionals and talented amateurs. It was a mix of traditional and uber modern, beautiful and kitsch, lyrical and edgy, in color and in black and white. We selected 100 photographs for the exhibition

the london Chapter ‘for Japan’ fundraiser

By Beth Worth

Credits: London Chapter

it took months to organize

+20 10x

tim

e fr

ame

afh london

exhibition raised$ 7,635.69

eVentoVerView

4 VolunteerCommitment

in kinD Donations

£5,000

£1,000

HOURS /WEEK

THE BIGGEST ExPENSE WAS PICTURE FRAMES £3

84

spenD

FOOD // DRINK // PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTING // GALLERY // PAPER STOCK // SPACE // ADvERTISING // POSTER PRINTING // GRAPHIC DESIGN


The exhibition branding poster was created by Graphic designer Risa Sano.


A trail of paper cranes guided people to the Hot-Shoe gallery on the day of the fundraiser


which were printed on 8x10 glossy paper.

Early on we made the decision not to feature disaster images in the exhibition, but we did devote one room in the gallery to the earth-

quake/tsunami with a selection of photo-graphs and a video. Hiromi Tabei at HQ kept us informed about AfH initiatives in Tohoku province. We pieced together snippets of iphone footage to tell the positive narrative of building the Hikado Marketplace in Motoyoshi - the first completed AfH post disaster recon-struction project.

We also went a bit origami. We festooned the outside of the gallery located in a grey narrow street with garlands of paper birds and placed little clusters around the inside space.

We hung a slip of paper next to each photo-graph and visitors could bid on the price they were willing to pay starting at £50. The party atmosphere was helped by our event team who persuaded one of London’s big sushi chains to deliver a mountain of sushi and a wine merchant to send over cases of char-donnay. We also had a donation of Japanese beer (and at one point Alasdair and Simon ran out to buy more). There was a strict time limit and at the stroke of 9pm the highest bidders won the photographs.

Every single photo was sold. We made $7,000 on that night, which we were able to send to HQ for our efforts in Sendai.

MarCh 11th 2011 • A magnitude 9 earthquake erupts off the coast

of Japan and sets off a 30 foot tsunami trig-gering a meltdown at the Fukishima nuclear plant. The catastrophic sequence of events is devastating.

May 2011• Looking for a gallery eventually yields results

when Hotshoe Gallery say they’ll host an AfH exhibition. Date set for August.

• Hotshoe sponsor an ad in their magazine call-ing for submissions of photographs depicting Japanese themes. Deadline for submissions is set for June. We also advertise the open call on the AfH website and through social media, on re-title and other sites.

• Press releases, publicity and marketing mate-rial written. Risa Sano, graphic designer, cre-ates the project logo ‘for Japan’.

June 2011 • The first submission trickle in and by the dead-

line we receive over 250 images. We decide to select 100 to exhibit.

• We try to find a framing company willing to do-nate and in the end buy frames from an online company offering a discounted price.

• We send out hundreds of press releases to get publicity for the event.

July 2011• We compile an invitation list, distribute A5

flyers, make follow up phone calls and pro-mote the event on the AfH website, Twitter and Facebook.

• The curatorial team make the final selection. Four people spend an entire day framing the selected images.

• Meanwhile we source origami for our paper trail leading to the gallery.

• We find a photographer to document the open-ing night auction.

• We arrange for copies of Design Like You Give a a Damn to be displayed.

• We liaise with Hiromi at HQ and edit a video using iPhone footage taken by a volunteer on the ground at Motoyoshi and tell the story of building the Hikado Marketplace.

• The events team score a donation from ‘Feng Sushi’ who agree to donate sushi. A wine com-pany donates 3 cases of Chardonnay and a Japnese beer company donates 3 cases of Asahi.

august 2nd-5th 2011• The exhibition set up team hang the framed

pictures. The opening night/auction sees the sale of every photograph raising over $7,000 for our efforts in Japan.

april 2011• The London Chapter meet with Cameron Sin-

clair who reports on AfH efforts to set up a regional office in Sendai, the capital of the di-saster struck Tohoku region.

• Decide to organise a fundraising event for Japan. The idea for an exhibition and sale of photographs is formulated.

• Search for printing companies leads to Metro-imaging, who agree to support the project with free printing.

timeline

By Karl Johnson

for all of you who DiDn’t get a ChanCe to experienCe this year’s Chapter forum (anD for those who woulD like to reliVe it!), karl bob, a DeDiCateD afh alumni, has agreeD to let us bring an exCept of his blog post Capturing the forum atmosphere. we highly reCommenD you to swing by his blog “kbobblog - An uncovered nArrAtive of people And their environments growing together”, where you Can reaD the Complete post ‘Are we enough’ along with other intriguing sCribblings.

I wouldn’t call myself an expert networker; I don’t quite meet that profile.

Timidity could be brushed into the “introver-sion” bin, but I suspect the attitude depends more, if not completely, on the nature of the crowd. Rubbing elbows with ascendant busi-nesspeople is an act carried out with great deliberation; chatting among a conference of compassionate designfolk – not so difficult. It’s a good sign when you feel comfortable in a crowd of strangers – as though something about shared values makes them all familiar, or family.

Certainly the “warm fuzzy” is a sought-after bonus of the charmingly intimate Design Like You Give A Damn conference held each No-vember in San Francisco. A full day of panel discussions and open mics on healthy urban-

ization, resilience, sustainable materials and community building goes down smooth with accompanying audience nods, fervent note scribbling and emphatic hashtagging.

While DLYGAD (or “Dillygad,” as AFHers mer-cifully abbreviate it) Live! presented issues plaguing the built environment in united states and the wider world, it was on the subsequent day that leaders from many of the localized, volunteer-based AFH Chapters assembled in the AFH headquarters to teach one another how to organize to combat these threats to sustainable communities of every size.

“soCial resilienCe”Following a panel presentation of the six chapter strong (and growing) Resiliency Pro-gram, attendees broke to refill their mugs and

ChapteRFoRum ‘13

mingle. I found a couple of participants on the upper floor, at the precipice of the stairwell

“What did you think of the conference yester-day?”

It was good, they agreed. Really good – re-silience, however much it’s a buzzword right now, truly demands a coordinated effort from cities around the world to share best prac-tices and reduce redundancy. The keynote by Michael Berkowitz introduced a pretty big carrot for this operational shift, in the form of resilience grant funding from the Rockefeller Foundation: the 100 Resilient Cities Centen-nial Challenge. (The first third were just an-nounced Monday, December 2; of those, 11 hail from the US, but only New York overlaps with an AFH Chapter initiative.)

Each of the DLYGAD panels (Sustainable vs Resilient Materials; Population Shock; Active Cities; Resilient Cities) had their moments of insight and inspiration, the colleagues noted, though they could have spoken more to ac-tionable steps for the audience.That said, a striking pattern emerged from the panels.

“…That ‘resilience’ is foremost a social issue.”

Communities could prepare for unknown fu-tures by neighbors strengthening neighbors; in recovery, the most critical element is the psychological and social support we can pro-vide for one another.

weaVing a wisdoM internetIntroductions launched the second part of the Chapter Forum – the “may only be interest-ing to leaders” sessions, described below, but there appeared to be very little drop-off. I jot down places and names as I caught them–where names were indecipherable I marked ellipses in the palm-sized Moleskine. People had truly converged here from around the world, each listing their origin in an appropriate accent: New York–San Francisco–Portland–Finland–London–San Diego–Santa Fe–Los Angeles–DC–Chicago–vancouver–Seattle–New Haven–Beijing–Jordan–Bogota–Phoe-nix–Shanghai–Haiti–Istanbul–Copenhagen.

More impressive than strangers united by mission introducing their work and needs was that in very many cases their chapter was self-made and self-supported. In the first years of nonprofit chapter organizing, the financial model is not necessarily standing on two feet; while such a model would urge development forward, the people among us at the forum were demonstrating just what could be done on the thinnest of shoestrings. In many cases, sheer will was a nascent chapter’s only fuel source.

Just this past Spring, AFH interviewed many those presenting their work here. Ricardo fore-shadowed Bogota’s rapid ascent as a regional authority; I spotted Beth, who’d described London’s provocative experiential manifestos at Clerkenwell Design Week; members from Portland could have expounded on their ex-

Credits: Jana Ašenbrennerová


haustive research and timely collaborations; others who couldn’t make it to San Francisco had joined the live feed online forum.

The sessions led with contributions from AFH Global headquarters, followed by seminars by certain chapters, and then guests:

Garrett and Tinna from HQ intro’ed the forth-coming Chapter Toolkits on fundraising, ac-counting, volunteer management, etc., to ac-company 2013’s extremely insightful as-yet unnamed quarterly publication;

AFH Global Disaster Team Director Eric Cesal, in his distinctive brusque-yet-sincere fashion, laid out the steps to establishing successful programs, from mission tests to partner stew-ardship;

Members from Chicago Chapter, a group that recently won funding to hire full-time admin-istrators, discussed the intricacies and diplo-macies of grant writing;

Rachel from New York Chapter reviewed their practices in leader-ship transition, which in-cluding a moment where she brandished a swollen 3-inch binder of manuals, procedures and notes that the whole room urged be xeroxed;

Public Architecture, headquartered just down the street, sent Amy to draw parallels between the volunteer- and project-based Chapters and the PubArch’s services for both those pursuits (they dovetail quite nicely);

Students from the Presidio Graduate School wrapped up the day with a review of their Chapters Strategic Plan in-progress.

Vessels for ChangeI didn’t need to wait until the end of the after-noon to realize that this meeting was ground-breaking. As someone who’s attended all four, 2013’s Chapter Forum was easily the most informative, engaging, and energizing. This year, determination, wisdom and momentum seemed to have reached critical mass.

How would the participants walk away from it? Business cards, and soon thereafter notional emails, would be exchanged. I imagine a goal of the Forum was using voices of chapter leaders themselves to paint a picture both at-tractive and attainable for new members, and connect on issues that, for better or worse, had been commonly and independently faced by the veteran groups. The obstacles of for-mation and retention; the third-year-in medi-tations on growth and physical construction; have been welcomed here with open arms.

“Clear out the chairs,” the PGS facilitators had instructed us, and make room to form one circle: a “gift circle.” Doubtless the Graduate Schoolers carried a mental arsenal of team

building exercises, but nothing could match a gift circle’s simplicity: each person reveals a problem they’re facing, or a skill set

they’re lacking, and hands go up from those who could tackle it. For nearly every issue there was someone that not only offered help, but already knew the dimensions of a solu-tion; the Network was proving its functionality in real-time.

In that moment nothing could get in the way of this group. With luck, the two-stroke con-ference / forum had generated enough social glue to carry the movement forward.

I didn’t need to wait until the end of the afternoon to realize that this meeting was groundbreaking

inspiring talks anD DlygaD:liVe

Credits: Jana Ašenbrennerová


netwoRknews

auCkland ChapterreClaiM’s ChristMas

“The Reclaimed Christmas For-est” was opened in Aotea Square on the December 9, 2013 to remind everyone of the impor-tance of recycling this Christmas and demonstrate what can be achieved through design collab-oration. Architecture for Human-ity Auckland volunteers helped with the aesthetic design, led by Co-Director Piet Ubels.

Over 5000 recyclable plastic milk and soft drink bottles have grown into the Reclaimed Christ-

mas Forest; a centerpiece seven meter tall Christmas tree sur-rounded by a dozen two meter trees surrounding. This festive celebration of recyclables is a part of THE EDGE’s “Unwrap-ping Christmas”.

The first installation of its kind to be constructed in New Zealand, the Reclaimed Christmas Forest aims to make people more aware of what they are throwing away this Christmas and holiday pe-riod.

The process was sparked by an idea a few months back and with a significant amount of good will, voluntary hours, minds, people power and robust design discus-sions and development we bring you the final product – a new and innovative Christmas Forest that stands proud in the Heart of Auckland City.The initiative was inspired by Re-claim, and constructed by Archi-tecture for Humanity, SKM, Engi-neers Without Borders, Reclaim and Brian Perry Civil. Over 5,000 recyclable plastic bottles were supplied by Frucor, VISY, Fonterra and Reclaim. Construc-tion materials were supplied by Reclaim, Panda Visuals and ISL Industrial. Lighting and design were supplied by Oceania and Marcus McShane.Unwrapping Christmas is pre-sented by THE EDGE, Regional Facilities Auckland, with support from the ASB Community Trust.

what’s moVing

Credits:Auckland Chapter


houston peChaCuCha

Communities are at risk of being left behind in the midst of rapid urbanization in Houston. Architecture for Humanity Hous-ton invited local professionals to present their work on engaging communities in an effort to sup-port their capacity building in what was the return of PechaKu-cha Night - Houston. This event also acted as our chapter’s launch event, so we encouraged all new members and volunteers to participate.

PechaKucha Night is a forum that takes place in cities all over the world as a mix of show and tell, open mic night, and happy hour. It has become an event for peo-ple to share their ideas, explore cultures, and showcase their de-signs. The Atrium, at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston, was live with the energy of social knowl-

edge for community resilience. On November 13th presenters shared how this can happen through art, housing, educational outreach, urban agriculture, eco-logical impacts and community engagement.

More on the presenters here.

Earlier this year, in the fourth largest city in the United States, board members Robin Lourie (co-founding member & Board Chair) and Cedric Douglas, Di-rector of Special Events, began the planning for this free event with an idea between alums of the University of Houston. The idea took flight, as did our core board team, members and volunteers who donated their professional skills and resources to facilitate the event and grow the chapter. PechaKucha Night Houston has helped to define our local chap-

ter mission and team dynamic, along with local support from, the University of Houston Alumni As-sociation, AIA Houston, and co-founding member, Emmanuel Oni (currently studying at Parsons in New York).

Over 180 collective committee volunteer hours contributed to the event coordination, logistics, outreach and graphics. In the months and weeks leading up to the event, Architecture for Hu-manity Houston grew from 2 to 24 members, 37 to 130 volun-teers, 0 to 100 likes, 0 to 75 fol-lowers and 184 people who give a damn about Houston’s com-munities rsvp’d through facebook and eventbrite. The challenge now - to keep Houston connected, collaborate, convergant, and ig-nited for regenerative design for our region.

PechaKucha Night presenters: Susan Rogers, Michelle Jordan, Joe Icet, Carroll Parrott Blue, Joseph Altshuler, Danny Marc Samuels FAIA and guest Jason Flemming, Jay Blazek Crossley, Shannon Bryant, Gwen Fedrick, Anton Sinkewich, Katy Akiss, Roland von Kurnatowski III, Dean Daderko

PechaKucha Night team committee members and volunteers: Akila Raman, Aldo Leyva, Anne Gonzalez Lara, Alison Mandeville, Angela Palmer, April Ward, Audrey Vilain, Bradley Hirdes, Cedric Douglas, Dakota Cooley, DJ Soul One, Kim Raborn, Jake Donaldson, Jon Cordingley, Katherine Sargent Cairoli, Keith Holley, Luis Segundo, Obie Diaz, Robin Lourie, Shelly Pottorf, Stacey Bock

PechaKucha Night in kind sponsors: Karbach Brewing Co., University of Houston School of Architecture Alumni Association; PechaKucha Night poster: Dakota Cooley; PechaKucha Night

Written by: April Ward

Credits: Kelly Holley

Chapter Volunteer inari Virkkala

Inari Virkkala joined the chapter outreach team this November and she sure has been shaking thing up over the last months! Inari is primarily involved with the strategic development plan for the chapter network, and she can take all the credit for our up-coming Chapter Webinar!

Inari is originally from Finland where she graduated as an ar-chitect in 2012. Throughout her studies she has had a strong fo-cus on stainability. Her greatest accomplishment so far is build-ing a Youth Center for two local NGOs in Cambodia, which was completed a few months ago. Next spring she will travel back to Cambodia to work with the NGO Building Trust Interna-tional. Inari is eager to stay in touch with the AFH network. Af-ter January you can find her via www.inarivirkkala.com!

lisbon Chapter Changes title & hosts workshop

As we have multiple dedicated volunteers shattered all over the country our Lisbon Chapter has been renamed - “Architecture for Humanity Portugal.”One of the Portugal Chapter projects is the transformation of an abandoned space in the low income neighborhood of Graça (Lisbon) into a ‘Multi genera-tional & Multi-Ethnic Meeting Space’. The site is located in a city block surrounded by two very busy streets. The intervention will create a more protected public space for the local community. The project was integrated in the workshop MEDS Reaction Lx, from 03 to 18 August 2013, and the team was formed by Arch. Salete Cravo (AfH.Lx coordina-tor and project manager), Arch. Susana Cardigos (AfH.Lx project leader) and 5 international par-ticipants/students. The involve-ment of the community was a key factor in the design of the final proposal. They were very inter-ested in the project, and eager to be a part of it.The Portugal Chapter is current-ly waiting for a Municipality li-cense, and hopes to complete the project by January 14th 2014.

Musings froM seattle

As the end of 2013 approaches, Architecture for Humanity Se-attle is gearing up for the next year of design advocacy with a focus on literacy and commu-nity. This quarter, Seattle AfH collaborated with Makerhaus, Arcade, IDSA, Teague, and Ar-chitects Without Borders Seattle to host Think it. Make it. Build it. The design-build challenge that brought together high-school students and designers to de-velop a “Little Free Library” kit. Resulting work will be on display at the upcoming Arcade Collective Works event and built prototypes will be included in the larger Little Free Library design/build competition next year.

remember tosenD us your

upDates of eVents, eleCtions anD

proJeCts you are working on to be publiCheD in the

marCh issue.

Credits:Portugal Chapter


Working on the Kouk Khleang Youth Center con-struction site with Mr. Srey and Chum Chuon.

Credits: Li Andersson

My main question to which I embark on a yearlong journey to answer - How to work as a social impact designer in an economically sustainable way?

We are all aware of the great impacts that social and human centric design can have on poverty alleviation, crime reduction, com-munity engagement and ecological efficiency. But as customers benefitting from the work aren’t usually the ones with the money, it forms a big question of where to find funding for conducting this kind of design work?

Finding an answer to the question above is a challenge I have posed for myself for the com-ing year. I will do this with the “ethnographic method” of working in four different design practices for periods of a few months to un-derstand how they operate. Besides the of-fice work I will conduct interviews with other designers in the field. The research is funded with a grant from the Finnish furniture retailer Asko’s foundation.

First of these working periods of 2-4 months is happening now at Architecture for Human-ity HQ, where I am working with the Outreach Coordinator Garrett and volunteer Tinna as a chapter outreach volunteer. Appropriately, my task here is to help develop the development plan for the chapter network in order for the chapters to reach greater economic indepen-dence. Fortunately my time here overlaps with the work of 4 MBA students from the Presi-dio Graduate School who are also working towards the same goals. I am very happy to be learning from their discoveries and conclu-sions.

One great article that the Presidio team shared with us was about Nonprofit Funding Models

(Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2009) which states the core problem very well: “...running a nonprofit is generally more complicated than running a comparable size for-profit business. When a for-profit business finds a way to create value for a customer, it has generally found its source of revenue; the customer pays for the value. ... When a non-profit finds a way to create value for a benefi-ciary (for example, integrating a prisoner back into society or saving an endangered species), it has not identified its economic engine. That is a separate step.”

It might seem lofty but identifying that eco-nomic engine is the goal I hope to achieve by the end of 2014. Through sharing our expe-rience we can figure out what this model will look like. Have any insights? Want to help de-velop them? Reach out and let’s continue the work together!

thoughts from a hQ VolunteerBy Inari Virkkala

happy holidays


winter chapter quarterly

Documents

auckland chapter

chapter numbers

chapter growth

chapter uarterlyarchitecture

london chapter fundraising

london chapter fundraiser

inari virkkala chapter

london chapter karl