In a development that shocked many in the world of architecture, the architecture for January 19 humanity - undoubtedly leading architectural charity in the world - was reported to have failed, the closure of its San Francisco headquarters. In itself, this news was catchy enough, but after two interesting things happened: first, many began to wonder what would become many local chapters of the organization in the United States and au of the; on the other hand, some authors have begun to discover the small but longstanding disagreements over how advertising the central organization had courted - General Director of Architecture for the New York chapter of Rachel Starobinsky of humanity, for example, was quoted by Fastco design saying "always the visibility went to relief projects in disaster headquarters that worked on" and that "the chapters are not really identified or evaluated as they could be "all of a sudden a lot of people -. this writer included - spoke of the importance of creating two strong networks and information sharing in the creation of a strong humanitarian outfit design.
None of these ideas, however, was new for the members of architecture Sans Frontières . Although it was founded two decades earlier is that Architecture for Humanity, from France in 1979, ASF has never really shared the public profile of some of his contemporaries. There are reasons for this - lack of active justice chief desire of attention among them - but none of them has anything to do with the ASF's capacity to do good in the world
"I would say it is not for us to go and build things," Rubbina Karruna the current president of the Architecture Sans Frontières UK, told me. Instead of the development of ASF-UK has been on the creation of networks, both among themselves and other industries that compose ASF-International, but also with local government departments, NGOs and organizations smaller humanitarian charity that can benefit from their help and expertise.
"I know it is a term that is used a lot, especially in international development, it can become quite meaningless - but I think the development capacity is critical. " Karruna would know about the first point: trained in economic planning and development, it presents itself as "a kind of non-architect ASF-UK," adding that he believes "it's so great is that not only for architects. - it is a large multidisciplinary group of people "
Dr Beatrice de Carli, another member of ASF-UK, which sits on the ASF-International Council, its back on this point: "for us, even be called architecture Sans Frontières "and not" Architects without Borders "is important because we have always discussed how the built environment in general, it is not a profession. Of course, as architects and designers we have a strong hold on the built environment and a certain type of expertise, but it is not the only type of organization that is changing the way cities are doing and how people live in space. To make cities more equitable somehow we must be able to engage with all these different knowledge. "
one of the major initiatives undertaken by ASF was not only to engage with this basic varied knowledge, but to bring the architects of a digestible manner. Challenging practice , a training course developed through a collaboration of ASF members Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and the UK, aims to introduce interested architects and professionals built environmental working basic principles within disadvantaged communities.
" Challenging practice actually started as our own internal reflection from different organizations within the ASF network, "says Carli, who helped develop the course as part of ASF -Italia before moving to the UK to teach at the University of Sheffield. "We all had somehow formed our own way in the organization - often, volunteers ASF does not have a formal education in issues of community development and international before approaching the organization. It began as a discussion between the chapters on the fact that we wanted to be able to train us and also to train the many volunteers and students who come to our organization wishing to contribute somehow. "
road through Challenging practice develops from the first step, a free online course that educates participants on topics such as different forms of discrimination and how they might be manifested in the built environment, different theoretical frameworks and how they could help to understand deprivation, poverty and inequality. from this point, learners can participate in a live seminar who "built a bridge between theory and practice and creates a protected environment for the participants to start testing that some of these ideas might mean in a real context." In the third step, participants are able to put what they learned into action, either by one of the workshops in the field of ASF, or working an internship with ASF or one of its many partner organizations.
"The idea is that the course does not affect one of the fundamental questions that are normally part of the architecture or design education, we start from the assumption that this is the background of most people who approach us, "said Carli. Fundamental to the idea of Challenging practice , she adds, is "looking at the gaps in architectural education and recognizing that good intentions do not always translate into good practice." - At least not without adequate knowledge
But the idea that Challenging practice [ is somehow outside of architecture teaching areas began to change last year in the UK, the course has been recognized by the RIBA and is now certified as a recognized form of continuing professional development (CPD) study - and a total of about 1,300 participants from 70 countries since the course was launched, it is also popular.
Challenging practice also feeds into other major ASF-UK programs. Change by Design and Resilience by Design focus on the treatment of socio-spatial inequalities and environmental, respectively, and both primarily involve connecting with local communities around the world - in developed and developing countries those - to help residents, local governments and NGOs address the underlying issues that cause problems in the built environment. These programs are adopted by a variety of methods, awareness of live projects, but the main component of both is scheduled field workshops -. The same workshops Challenging practice Participants attend the third phase of learning
Although ASF-UK and other member organizations around the world, do occasionally engage in time in construction projects, this is not the focus of the organization. "ASF-UK has always been to build knowledge and exchange knowledge with local organizations and has its own path," says De Carli, but increasingly other member organizations follow this example. "This is a conversation and a significant change in the paradigms for ASF-International as a whole to start thinking that this is not going to places and build things, but - in our country, as well as others - it is the sharing of knowledge that we can generate by working with local communities in different places. "
If the power of the ASF approach is in the sharing of knowledge, networks are the means by which they implement this authority, and ASF itself is perhaps be the most impressive of all these networks. Because for Architecture for Humanity left behind a network formed under the aegis of a leading organization, ASF is an organization born of the network itself.
"There is no such thing as the headquarters of ASF-International. "De Carli said." But there is always a board composed of representatives of the various chapters, and has the role to create links between them. Somehow "chapter" is the wrong word to use, in the sense that ASF-International was created after most local organizations; there were all these local ASF who knew each other and at some point, they decided to get together to start exchanging ideas and practices, and collaborate. "
ASF is now focusing on using new branches to start in various parts of the world organization has nearly 30 member organizations including outfits in India, Nepal, one in Colombia and more coming soon in Latin America, and organizations in Congo and Mali. as the General Assembly this year when ASF all organizations come together to organize seminars and share their approaches with other members, held in Nepal. - the first time the GA will be held outside of Europe
"I think this is very consistent with the way we try to reach a global impact, "says de Carli. "To support networks of architects and practitioners of the built environment that are interested to make a strong contribution to the local level, then we try to develop from the local level."
As architects, it is almost natural for us to measure success in terms of buildings. But at some point, we should take the time to admire the invisible things that still need careful design and construction. Architecture Sans Frontières - the organization, its programs and its approach - are an excellent example of
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