Architecture for Humanity: Classroom Finalists 

"collaborating with real students in real schools to develop real solutions" 

After 6 months and 4 rounds of jurying, Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to needy communities, just recognized eight team finalists for the 2009 Open Architect Challenge: Classrooms.  The competition attracted 10,000 architects, teachers and students who came together to develop designs for more than 500 schools in 65 countries. "This initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions," explained Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder for Architecture for Humanity and this competition.

The finalists include: Adaptable Hillside Classroom by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios & Architecture for Humanity UK, Bamboowood School by Petr Kostner, Martina Sobotkova, Sona Huberova, Classroom for the Saltpan Community by Cohesion Foundation: Rajesh Kapoor, Prashant Solanky, Bharat Karamchandani, Kiran Vaghela,  Teton Valley Community School by Section Eight Design, A Sustainable Community Classroom by Gifford, House In The Wood by Built Form, LLC / Northwestern University Settlement House, Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transformation by Arquitectura Justa: Wolfgang Timmer, Fabiola Uribe, T. Luke Young, and Blurred Classroom by Gensler.

We would like to congratulate not only the eight finalists, but all participants who dedicated their time, effort and design skills for such an importance cause.

The Adaptable Hillside Classroom was designed for the Lake Bunyonyi Christian Community Vocational Secondary School, a boarding school close to Rwanda that is funded by its sister charity, the Lake Bunyonyi Development Company.  The school needed more classrooms and multi-use space to accommodate their growing number of students.  The classroom design incorporates a cranked plan with opening side walls that enable the space to be used as a large assembly or event space.  The new space follows the slope of the hillside to reduce the amount of excavation.  The levels are staggered to form different tiers angled round in plan and the outer walls open onto a covered external space that face inward, creating a natural gathering space.

Of all the local schools in the Kavre district, Antarastriya Yuba Barsais has the highest potential to be enlarged to a full primary & secondary educational institution with significant impact on the level and accessibility of education.  For the Bamboowood School, one of the main incentives was to focus on the local resources to raise awareness in the community of the merits of traditional architecture.  By utilizing the community's participation and implementing local materials, the new classroom offers a flexible and enlarged learning atmosphere.

The goal of the Sustainable Community Classroom was to not only create a learning environment for a large class, but also make it easy for the teacher to manage the resources and equipment of the school. Working off the idea that a teacher must be able to see all the children from any point in the teaching area, and that the children must feel connected to her and feel included in the class, the teaching area has a linear form with dimensions that allow the teacher to see the whole class easily without the length causing problems.  A teacher's annex that doubles as both a secure storage area and an office, allows the teacher to store valuable commodities such as books and to store furniture when the teaching space is being used for community purposes.  Flat surfaces on doors and partitions can be painted with blackboard paint and have the means to attach children's drawings and work allowing the students to influence their environment and create displays they can be proud of.

The Waldorf Educational and Social Organization is in a section of Bogotá with the lowest socio-economic indices in the city and the highest number of people displaced by Colombia's internal conflict. Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transformation is created on the fundamental premise that architecture should be the interface that allows encounters between society and education.  The project team created a form that will serve as a "classroom of the future" and connect with the surrounding environment. Utilizing ecologically responsive materials, the design creates two new levels where artistic stone, wood, weaving, music and painting classes are held covered by a green roof providing areas for environmental education, open air learning and musical performances. A fusion of art and nature reinforces the school's pedagogy in a project where architecture aims to transform students who in turn will transform society.

 The Blurred Classroom focuses on the fact that the classroom is not a confining box, but rather an open learning environment.  The idea is to unfold and unpack the box, thus blurring the lines of how the classroom is traditionally known.   Certain portions of the existing building are reused, while other parts, such as the corridors, are completely transformed.  The unfolded boxes provide a variety of learning environments that allow for traditional group space to become activated communal space.