Architecture for Humanity UK

We are going to be holding a social event at the Royal Festival Hall, on the South Bank, Central London, on Tuesday 1st April, from 7pm.  

This is a chance for any and all of you to come and meet some of the people who run the charity as well as those who have worked on some of the projects.  You can ask questions about the charity, the projects, how you can get involved and tell us what you are interested in doing.  We’ll be gathered in the bar area on the ground floor (wearing badges) so please come along and join us for a drink or two, and feel free to bring anyone else who is interested in getting involved or finding out more.

We hope to see you then.

Please note that this meet-up supercedes the previously advertised event on the 11th March.

AFHUK are pleased to announce that we will be represented on the panel at the below Artfund Talk. We hope to see you there.

Can Design Save the World? – An Art Fund Talk
Design no longer means just colour schemes and corporate logos.  Avant-garde and forward thinking designers are setting their sights no lower than changing the world.

From eco-fashion and ‘green’ industrial design to architectural solutions to humanitarian crises, today’s designers are changing the way we think about design solutions for our future.

Journalist, author, and curator Henrietta Thompson will chair this debate that brings together designers committed to building a better world to discuss their work and the issues they face.  Panel members include maverick designer Ross Lovegrove known for his design of the first Sony Walkman, ecological fashion expert Orsola de Castro, rising star designers &Made and Chris Medland, from Architecture for Humanity-UK

“This is a call to action to anyone committed to building a better world.”
Cameron Sinclair, author of Design Like You Give a Damn

Monday 10 March
Doors 6.30pm, Talk 7.00pm
Design Museum, Shad Thames, SE1
Nearest tube: Tower Hill
Tickets £12

Our friends at Engineers Without Borders UK has announced their 2008 Placements Scheme. EWB-UK has formed partnerships with 20 organisations in 13 countries to offer 41 work experience placements on projects covering each of our six key knowledge areas: Water, Energy, Habitat, ICT, Industry and Transport. This year there are 8 longer placements of six to twelve months’ duration aimed at recent graduates in:

• NAKRUDA – Dadiya region, Nigeria – 2 placements, 12 months – advanced
• SIBAT – Quezon City, Philippines – 1 placement, 12 months – advanced
• Esibayeni - Jozini, South Africa – 2 placements, 6 months – intermediate/advanced
• PiD – Maputaland, South Africa – 1 placement, 6 months – advanced
• ShelterCentre – Geneva, Switzerland – 2 placements, 6 months – intermediate

Please visit www.ewb-uk.org/programmes/placements  for more information

FareShare Training Centre, Bermondsey 

FareShare is the national charity working to relieve food poverty by providing quality food – surplus ‘fit for purpose’ food from the food industry – and other food-related support services to organisations working with disadvantaged and vulnerable people throughout the

FareShare has 6 operating depots: Brighton, London, Birmingham, Barnsley (South Yorkshire), Dundee and Edinburgh, with 2 new depots due to open shortly in Bristol & Sunderland, and several smaller FareShare operations running in Manchester, Aberdeen and Leeds. From these depots, FareShare provides a food delivery service in 52 towns and cities, with over 16,000 people benefiting from FareShare food each day.

At the National office in Bermondsey Fareshare have recently won Building Regulations approval for a training cente. The centre will provided kitchen training facilities, an IT room, conference room and staff room for the FareShare NVQ training programme, which offers NVQ training in Cookery and Fork Lift Truck Driving, largely to those people whom FareShare comes into contact with through its work with the homeless.

AFHUK Have been working on a voluntary basis with FareShare in suport of their project since May 07, initailly on forming the brief, then outline designs, produced information for the planners and have now completed the building regulations approval. AFHUK have provided architectural, structural and Mechanical & Electrical engineering services on this project – with a truely multidisciplinary team. The project is starting on site this month and is due to be completed by the end of April. Regular updates will be posted on the project page.

ground-floor-plan.pdf

AFHUK are planning a bumper year. We want to carry out more projects, hold more events and develop the charity further so that we can all do our part more effectively. In order to achieve this Kimberly is heading up a fundraising team and the work is to start as soon as possible. If you have any fund raising experience in the voluntary sector or are keen to help in this area please write, with a CV or notes of any relevant experience, to Kimberly at the  info@afhuk.org email address. Please title you email ‘Fundraiser’. We look forward to hearing from you.

The 2008 Architecture Sans Frontières talk series: Being Strategic about Practice, is aimed at bringing together some key speakers from various disciplines within the ‘humanitarian sector’ to discuss, debate and workshop a strategic agenda for built environment professionals. The topics cover a wide variety of issues around the speakers’ expertise. The whole programme is intended to catalyse change in the process of working and thinking towards a more ethical form of practice.

18 March    Nabeel Hamdi       Being strategic about practice

  1 April      Brigitte Piquard     Space and violence

  8 April      Bill Flinn                Disasters and development: the architect’s role

15 April      Brian Phillips         On Global Radical Inequality and Twenty-First Century Violence: Challenges for Ethical Practice

22 April      Caren Levy             Resources and organisations of the poor: the case of the Community-Led Infrastructure and Financing Facility (CLIFF),                                                     Mumbai, India

29 April      John Twigg            Disaster Risk Reduction from a ‘built environment +’ perspective

  6 May      Hugo Slim              Professional Judgement and Practical Wisdom

  3 June     Cassidy Johnson    Adaptability in the reconstruction of housing after disasters

Costs (per talk)

Students £ 15.00

Since late 2007 AFH have connected with FIFA and streetfootballworld to develop 20 centres for 2010 as part for the Football for Hope movement and in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Each facility will include a mini 5-a-side pitch, community facility and will incorporate sustainable materials and renewable energy systems. Each center will be place where football is used as a tool for social change and will be run by a local organization that deals with such issues as health, peace building and reconciliation, education, anti-discrimination and the environment. During the 2010 World Cup, these fields will be seen by an estimated 2 Billion people but more importantly will continue to directly affect the lives of thousands of children. African based and/or practicing firms and former Siyathemba competition entrants who are interested in designing the centers should email  cameron(at)architectureforhumanity(dot)org for more details on this project. Please note your email subject line with “Football for Hope”.