Finalists Named in Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom

The teams are vying for a grand prize of $5,000 along with $50,000 for its partner school to help implement the winning idea.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 7/27/2009 12:00:00 AM

When Architecture for Humanity solicited entries four months ago for its 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom, 1,066 teams from 342 schools in 65 countries registered, producing 406 qualified submissions. Now, an elite eight have been named finalists in the biannual contest to create innovative classroom designs, ranging from an outdoor classroom for children in inner-city Chicago to a bamboo classroom in the Himalayan mountains.

Designers who entered the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with students in their local schools to come up with ideas on how to improve classrooms. Over 3600 students, along with 500 teachers, ended up joining forces with over 1,200 designers for the contest.

Each submission was rated on feasibility, sustainability, learning innovation, and overall design quality by an online jury of leaders in education, including students and teachers, sustainability, and architecture. On July 2, after three rounds of reviews, the eight finalists were selected at the Aspen Ideas Festival, one of which will go on to win grand prize of $5,000 along with $50,000 for its partner school when the winner is announced in September.

The finalists include the Blurred Classroom by Gensler in New York, the Teksing Bamboo school by Petr Kostner, Sona Huberova and Martina Sobotkova from the Czech Republic, and Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transition by Architectura Justa from Bogota, Colombia.

Images courtesy of Architecture for Humanity. Video courtesy of Gensler.