Architecture-in-Development (A--D) is proud to announce the six finalists of the 2021 Global Challenge. A--D will partner with these six teams in a 6-month accelerator programme aiming to match potential partners, collaborators and resources to each project’s critical needs - giving the teams the opportunity to build the necessary capacity to bring their projects to life.
What is the A--D Global Challenge?
The A--D Global Challenge is not your usual competition. The Global Challenge recognises the most impactful community initiatives and helps accelerate their development. It celebrates the ongoing efforts of self-built, community-led initiatives world-wide and offers them the stage they deserve, promoting them amongst our global network of partners and connecting them through meaningful collaborations. Among 202 submissions, we have selected 56 longlisted projects, now published on our website.
THE FINALISTS
Cocina CoLaboratorio, México
Early 2018, at the border of the diminishing Lacandona Rainforest, a group of farmers, researchers, chefs and creatives sat around a kitchen table to exchange knowledge. After years of testing out recipes for climate-resilient food systems, the community has sketched up a plan to develop a Kitchen Lab alongside agroforestry plots. This meeting space will be key for regenerating local ecosystems and maintaining the cultures that nurture from it.
Taller Tropical Moravia 2.0, Colombia
The community center is dedicated to cultural activities and environmental education. It was developed in co-production among the local community of Moravia, Medellín, and architects from Berlin. A small-scale prototype ran successfully from 2018-2021, hosting a multitude of events with over 10.000 visitors. The new project will upscale the concept combining a cooking school, a recycling FabLab, artists residencies, and a multi-use roof terrace.
A School Built By the People, For The People, India
The tea-plantations of Assam are facing an unprecedented socio-economic crisis, fueled in large parts by disempowerment of its 1.2 million labourers with access to even the basic freedoms. A people’s school is the stepping-stone for our vision of community-action based empowerment. Therein, the process of community-architecture is a collective effort to inspire unprecedentedly newer levels of collaboration and trust required for the challenge.
Community Kickstarter: Ger District Viewing Deck, Mongolia
There is no word for “community” in Mongolian. The project is to kickstart the process of community building by creating a viewing deck and neighborhood resource in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar: settlements that lack infrastructure, decent homes, or any social gathering spaces. The project reveals the history of the city and future challenges it will face and creates spaces for the community to develop.
Jaraguá 160, Brazil
We want to transform the status of shared spaces for tenements families, from lack of choice into choice: Jaraguá160 is a house in a fast gentrifying district, where 3 migrant families of the garment industry workers (currently organized in a cooperative) will live, 2 of them led by single mothers. Through a participatory design process, the spaces will be transformed to match their needs, resulting in a home where sharing means joy and pleasure.
Rebuilding the Haadibadi Community library, India
Haadibadi community library strives to uplift the children from marginalised communities by providing a safe space for them to access books. It also encourages children to participate in a range of activities that will widen their horizons outside the classroom. It is located in the backyard of Bengaluru's IT hub, where urban dualism is prominent and inequalities between the affluent class and the underprivileged are starkly visible.
Among them, two projects will each receive a €3,000.- prize:
Although A--D can only partner with these six teams, we consider all the published entries as winners as they aspire to resolve some of the most pressing issues of today and demonstrate the importance of local, global cooperation in architecture. All published entries can continue using the A--D platform to achieve their development goals.
How were the finalists selected?
The six finalists are chosen based on not only their individual excellence but also how they - as a group - exemplify a broad spectrum of Do-It-Together (DIT) practices. These finalists represent today’s sustainable development challenges at a variety of scales, contexts and issues, including but not limited to food, agriculture, climate change, heritage restoration and affordable housing.
We have invited 11 experts to join the jury panel. Our jury members have reviewed, rated and commented on the shortlisted projects individually. On September 10, we hosted a panel meeting to discuss the most relevant entries in respect to our submission & assessment criteria.
Our jury members include our advisory board, alliance partners and renown community architects: Ole Bouman, Cameron Sinclair, Anna Heringer, Johann Baar, Kira Intrapor, David Basulto, Luisa Pastore, David Cole, David Barragan, Pelayo Achondo and Swati Janu.
