City Invincible

Design Like You Give A Damn: Architects for Humanity

Lisa Selin Davis and Jeff Muckensturm interview Cameron Sinclair from Architecture for Humanity, in person on April 26th, 2007

Architecture for Humanity is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization “founded in 1999 to promote architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises… Architecture for Humanity creates opportunities for architects and designers from around the world to help communities in need. We believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference.” AFH, Website. Their work can be found all over the world– from the tsunami ravaged regions in South-East Asia, to the devastation of the Gulf Coast in the US.

Architecture for Humanity’s latest milestone is the Open Architecture Network. The Open Architecture Network is an attempt to bring crowdsourcing to building design. The site facilitates the sharing of design information and allows its users to adapt specific designs to fit their local needs. This interview focuses on the Open Architecture Network.
Continue reading “Designing To Make A Difference In The World”

The Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, has been pushing for casinos on Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront for many years. However, it wasn’t until recently that his efforts have started to develop into a reality. The story of slot parlor gambling in Philadelphia, which is mired in deceit, cronyism, and secret deals, is flawlessly told in “Gaming the System” by Matthew Teague.

Even if you live nowhere near Philadelphia, this article illustrates the corruption, at all levels of government, that you don’t want to believe could ever be true. For example, Act 71–the Act that would allow gambling in Philadelphia–was passed late at night on the 4th of July with “no public scrutiny, no hearings, and no input from citizens.”

Many concerned citizens have been organizing against casinos in Philadelphia. During the mayoral primaries, which were last week, Casino Free Philadelphia held a vote on a referendum–which was forced off the “legitimate” ballot by the casino control board–that would keep casinos 1,500 feet from homes, schools, and places of worship. The results showed that 95% of voters do NOT want casinos in their neighborhoods.

There are many problems with casinos including traffic and crime. But my biggest issue is that they’re essentially they’re a tax on the poor. The majority of their income, between 30 and 50 percent, comes from “problem gamblers” which leads to increases in divorce, bankruptcy, suicide, white-collar crime, lost work time, stress-related sickness, anxiety and depression.

As an economist interviewed for Teague’s article put it, “In the end for every dollar of benefits casinos bring to Philadelphia, they will cost us more than three.”

Source: Philadelphia Magazine

Bob Herbert, one of my favorite columnists, wrote a great editorial in the NY Times this week called “American Cities and the Great Divide.”

In it, Herbert expresses his concern for New Yorkers left behind in what’s been considered a successful era for the nation’s largest city. “It’s a measure of how low the bar has been set for success in America’s cities that New York is thought to be doing well, even though 185,000 of its children ages 5 or younger are poor, and 18,000 are consigned to homeless shelters each night. More than a million New Yorkers get food stamps, and another 700,000 are eligible but not receiving them.”

I whole heartedly agree with Herbert’s concern with urban issues being left out of presidential debates, saying, “There was a time, some decades ago, when urban issues and poverty were important components of presidential campaigns. Now the poor are kept out of sight, which makes it easier to leave them farther and farther behind. We’ve apparently reached a point in our politics when they aren’t even worth mentioning.”