Architecture for Humanity Launches Community Site

The member list topped 2,500 in the first week.

Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 3/20/2007

“How do you improve the living standards of five billion people? With 100 million solutions," reads the home page of the new site Open Architecture Network (currently in beta). Launched on March 8, the Open Architecture Network is conceived by nonprofit organization Architecture for Humanity as a community-based site dedicated to improving the built environment.

Visitors—designers, community groups, NGO's, and others—can use the site to view and post projects, make comments, discuss, collaborate, and access project management tools. Intended as a network to help create, support, and implement ideas, as well as foster sustainable, replicable, adaptable and scalable design solutions, the site is based on the mission “to generate design opportunities that will improve living standards for all.”

Architecture for Humanity is currently seeking groups interested in submitting more than five projects for 2007. These groups will be given the title of founding content partners, and listed on the sponsors page. Current projects on the site include the Safe(R) House in Dodanduwa, Sri Lanka and an educational facility (shown) at a primary school in South Africa.

To date, the site includes nearly 250 architectural projects and some 3,000 members—2,500 members joined during the first week of the launch.