For the developed world, imagining a world without the Internet is nearly impossible. Despite the Internet’s global significance, less than 20 percent of the world’s 6 billion people currently have access to the educational, social and economic opportunities it can create.
The 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge invited the global community to help address this digital divide. It challenged design professionals and others to develop not one but many solutions for building sustainable, multi-purpose, low-cost technology facilities for those who need them most.
As the winner of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge, The Global Studio will see their ideas come to life for SIDAREC in the heart of the Mukuru Kwa Njenga settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.
2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge: Digital Inclusion Challenge Clients: |
AMD Open Architecture Challenge Winners
| Overall Competition Winner | ||||||||||||||
 The Global Studio (Stephanie Ingram, Geoff Piper, Matthew Sullivan, Ashley Waldron) Location: Seattle, WA, USA |
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| Regional Site Winners | ||||||||||||||
Africa Challenge |
Asia Challenge |
South America Challenge |
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First Place Winner: The Global Studio (Stephanie Ingram, Geoff Piper, Matthew Sullivan, Ashley Waldron) Location: Seattle, WA, USA |
 First Place Winner: Max Fordham, LLP (Gwilym Still, David Hawkins, Bertie Dixon and Thomas Bailess) + Nick Lawrence Location: London, UK |
 First Place Winner: Igor Taskov, Fernando Pagan, ChunSheh Teo, Heather Worrell Locations: Nis, Serbia, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Indianapolis, IN, USA |
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| Finalists | ||||||||||||||
| Africa Challenge |
Asia Challenge |
South America Challenge |
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| Founders Award | ||||||||||||||
 Studio Wikitecture Location: Second Life |
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About the Open Architecture Challenge:
The Open Architecture Challenge is an open, international design competition hosted once very two years on the Open Architecture Network.
It reaches beyond the traditional bounds of architecture by challenging architects and designers to partner with the broader public to address architectural inequities affecting the health, prosperity and well-being of under-served communities.
By harnessing the creativity and energy of the design community and beyond, each challenge offers not one but many solutions to a different systemic issue facing the built environment. All are invited to participate. Funding from partners and sponsors goes towards constructing the winning designs.
The Open Architecture Network 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. Learn more.
About the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge:
The 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge focused on the issue of digital inclusion and tasked design teams to address the issues of facility design that prevent technology labs from succeeding. Three community partners were selected, one in each of three regions. Each site posed a unique set of design constraints and opportunities. While the needs of each client were unique, the hurdles they face in embracing technology to offer access to education, health care and the global marketplace are shared by millions of people in communities all over the world.
One overall winner of the competition has the opportunity to realize their design in partnership with the community partner. Additionally, each of the three winning teams receives a US$5,000 travel stipend to travel on site and work with the respective community organizations to further develop and refine the design. Architecture for Humanity is currently seeking additional funds to construct the solutions for the sites in Ecuador and Nepal.
The three site challenges for the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Challenge were:
South AmericaCommunity Partner: Kallari Association, Napo Province, EcuadorChallenge: Connect a cooperative of indigenous chocolate producers and artisans in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the global marketplace by building a fair trade exchange, chocolate production center and satellite rural technology points. Learn more
AfricaCommunity Partner: SIDAREC, Nairobi, KenyaChallenge: Empower the youth of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, an informal slum settlement of 250,000, to connect with other youth and create positive change in their community by building a technology media center and recording studio. Learn more
AsiaCommunity Partner: Nyaya Health, Sanfe Bagar, NepalChallenge: Enable families in a remote rural area of Nepal where there is only one doctor for a population of 250,000 to access to health care from top physicians and medical professionals all over the world by building a tele-medicine center. Learn more
Competition Links:
Community Review Process | Full list of Community Partner proposals | Jury Members |
Timeline |
FAQs | The Challenge (video)
