The Winner of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom is Announced - Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho

VICTOR, Idaho -

- www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

- Innovative designs for schools in Colombia, India, Uganda and the United States also recognized.

Teton Valley Community School in Victor, Idaho and architecture firm Section Eight [design] receive the top award of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. An emerging practice, Section Eight [design] partnered with Teton Valley Community School to design the classroom of the future. Currently based out of a remodeled house, students at Teton Valley Community School are now one step closer to getting a real classroom.

View the winning designs and finalists: www.openarchitecturechallenge.org Challenge Winner: Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho, USA Designed by: Section Eight [design], Victor, Idaho, USA View at: bit.ly/OACWinner Founders’ Award: The Corporacion Educativa y Social Waldorf, Bogota, Colombia Designed by: Arquitectura Justa, Bogota, Colombia View at: bit.ly/OACfounders Best Urban Classroom Upgrade Design: Rumi School of Excellence, Hyderabad, India Designed: IDEO, California, USA View at: bit.ly/NRRbl Best Rural Classroom Design: Building Tomorrow Academy, Wakiso and Kiboga, Uganda Designed by: Gifford LLP, London, UK View at: bit.ly/2xkvHw Best Re-locatable Classroom Design: Druid Hills High School, Georgia, USA Designed by: Perkins and Will, Georgia, USA View at: bit.ly/1lQS4T

Cindy Riegel, President of the School Board says, “We are thrilled. The evolution of Section Eight’s classroom design for the Teton Valley Community School was a truly collaborative process involving students, parents, teachers, and community members. It exemplifies the school’s philosophy of real world learning and community engagement.”

The need for safe, sustainable and smart classroom design has never been greater. Worldwide, 776 million people are illiterate. With less than six years left to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals the World Bank estimates ten million new classrooms are needed to reach its target on education. In addition, tens of millions of crumbling classrooms — including many in the United States — are in urgent need of upgrading. Meeting this demand for better learning environments will constitute the largest building project the world has ever undertaken.

In response, the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge was launched by Architecture for Humanity and principal partner Orient Global in collaboration with a consortium of other partners from around the world. This truly global 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. Collectively more than 10,000 individuals participated in this global initiative.

More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition. The winning design was selected from more than 400 qualified entries by a team of interdisciplinary online jurors. (See Jury Bios: bit.ly/oac09jury) Each design was rated on feasibility, sustainability, and innovation in the learning environment.

“The response to the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge has been remarkable. It has clearly captured people’s imagination,” said Richard F. Chandler, Chairman of Orient Global. “We congratulate the winning teams and everyone who took part in this international effort. Education is the first step in building prosperity for tomorrow’s world. The challenge now is to implement the best of these designs in classrooms across the globe.”

Many schools around the world share the facilities constraints faced by the Teton Valley Community School. Operating out of makeshift classrooms converted from residential use, a lack of space and an environment ill-suited for learning impedes students’ opportunities. The winning classroom design developed by Section Eight [design] provides cost-effective and sustainable teaching spaces and extends the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom. Movable panels allow students to reconfigure their space as needed. The building itself is designed to be a learning tool. The mechanical room, a building component normally closed from view, can be seen from the science lab allowing students to learn how heating and cooling systems function first hand.

Teton Valley Community School will be awarded USD $50,000 to undertake the planning and construction of the winning design, and Section Eight [design] will receive a design grant of USD $5,000 to support the school. The school has begun a capital campaign to raise additional funds needed to build their new campus.

In addition to the overall winner, the competition recognized entries in each of three competition categories: best urban classroom upgrade design, best rural classroom design and best re-locatable classroom design. Three building partners, Rumi Schools of Excellence in India, Building Tomorrow in Uganda and Blazer Industries with The Modular Building Institute in the United States have committed to build classrooms based on these designs.

The Founders Award is awarded to the entry that best exemplifies the aims of Architecture for Humanity and the Open Architecture Network. It was awarded to the entry for The Corporacion Educativa y Social Waldorf in Bogota, Colombia designed by Arquitectura Justa for their integrated approach to providing safe spaces for students to learn and play.

Competition finalists will also receive awards, including software from industry leader Autodesk; SMART Board interactive whiteboard from SMART Technologies; Google SketchUp Pro 7; copies of the book the Third Teacher by OWP/P, VS America and Bruce Mau Design and an honorarium from partner Curriki for the best use of the competition design curriculum.

All the design solutions are now available on the Open Architecture Network for designers and school administrators to learn from and adapt to their own context. An international traveling exhibition of the winning designs and notable entries is set to launch in the fall.

To see all the entries and for more information, please visit: www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

About Orient Global

Orient Global is a private investment group based in Singapore and founded by New Zealand-born entrepreneur Richard Chandler. Orient Global’s goal is to be the world’s best capital allocator in financial and social markets. Orient Global Capital is an entrepreneurial, value-oriented portfolio investor which focuses on emerging markets and economies in transition. Orient Global Development combines business and philanthropic approaches to address the root causes of poverty. For more information, please visit: www.orientglobal.com

About Architecture for Humanity

The Open Architecture Network (www.openarchitecturenetwork.org) and the Open Architecture Challenge are programs of Architecture for Humanity, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need. To date the organization has provided shelter for more than 700,000 individuals in 31 countries. For more information, please visit: www.architectureforhumanity.org

Source: Architecture for Humanity

Architecture for Humanity, Diana Bianchini, +1-310-288-0077, press at architectureforhumanity.org; or Orient Global, Paul Gabie, +65-9113-6409, ppg at orientglobal.com