[co]design 2011: A Future Beyond Concrete is an open invitation to all creative minds to engage in finding low-cost, innovative alternatives to concrete, concrete reduction or concrete re-use within the real world context of low-income housing in Bangalore.  This is a global competition to design materials, techniques or processes that create sustainable ways of building. A strong winning design will be scoped to be prototyped on the ground in India. A Future Beyond Concrete is an initiative of community oriented design ([co]design studio).

El fútbol puede ser uno de los mejores vehículos para el cambio social (asimismo que un deporte sumamente divertido). Como fans del cambio social y la diversión, Architecture for Humanity, Nike, y Fu.De (Fútbol para el Desarrollo) se han unido para organizar un concurso de diseño que consiste en proponer un centro social prototipo para la Liga FOS, que integre fútbol, educación y salud – este es un proyecto que busca promover el desarrollo social a través del deporte, en zonas vulnerables del conurbano bonaerense.

Football is one of the best vehicles for social change (not to mention it’s fun to play). As fans of social change AND fun, Architecture for Humanity, Nike, and Fu.De (Football for Development) have teamed up to host a design competition for a prototype football, education, and health center for Liga FOS -- a project that promotes social development through sport in vulnerable Buenos Aires suburbs.

In an attempt to promote attainable green home building United Way of Long Island, the U.S. Green Building Council Long Island Chapter, and the Town of Babylon have teamed up for the first annual, Attainable Green Home Competition. For the purposes of this competition attainability refers to the ability of Long Island residents, of low to moderate income, to own and live in a single family home.

Using shipping containers as building materials and inspiration, teams are encouraged to create aesthetically pleasing, sustainable core and shell designs for a multipurpose structure in Long Beach. Teams are to be made up of students and young professionals with a variety of backgrounds and a common interest in green building. A strong winning design will be considered by the City of Long Beach for the site at Broadway and Long Beach Blvd. In addition, winning teams will be featured on the USGBC’s website and will receive recognition at the 8th Annual AltBuild Expo in Santa Monica.

Go Play!, an international non-profit that promotes the importance of play for children in the developing world, is sponsoring a design competition to promote innovate playground designs. The winning design will be built for a school for refugee children along the border of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar).

The goal of this competition is to create an identity for Grand Acres, a community garden in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven. Grand Acres is one of the community gardens owned and managed by the New Haven Land Trust (NHLT). The goal of this design competition is to create an identity and a sense of unity and permanence for Grand Acres that could also serve as a model for other community gardens around the city.

Trestles, aka the Yosemite of surfing, is under threat due to safety and environmental concerns. Currently, over 100,000 people each year follow informal trails through marshlands and over a very active railroad corridor to gain access to the celebrated breaks. These shortcuts have led to numerous close calls and threaten the fragile ecosystem of the most pristine natural watershed system remaining in Southern California. In response, a coalition of concerned groups rallied, and with Nike 6.0 support, a solution became foreseeable, however unforeseen. Enter Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organization that, through a network of building professionals, brings design, construction, and development services to communities in need. Together, they launched “Safe Trestles,” an open-to-all, two-phase ideas competition. Cost for submitting an idea: $20.

The Salvation Army joins the U.S. Green Building Council this year in hosting USGBC‘s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition, with the theme Small, Green, Affordable. Entrants will design an affordable, 800 square foot green home for an elderly client in the Broadmoor, New Orleans neighborhood. Winners will be announced after the top four entries have been constructed, inhabited and evaluated.

The First Annual Kids' Digital Design Contest is a digital design competition for ages 0-15. With the help of parents, our goal is to provide a venue for kids to demonstrate, develop and reveal their capacity for creative three dimensional thinking using the digital modeling tool SketchUp (free to download, simple to learn, and amazingly difficult to put down). Our inaugural theme is: "under/over/within" and features an intertidal aquatic site. Age based judging ensures fair competition and lots of cool prizes.

According to the World Bank, educating all children worldwide will require the construction of 10 million new classrooms in more than 100 countries by 2015. At the same time, millions of existing classrooms are in serious need of repair and refurbishment. We asked designers and architects to partner with students and teachers to envision the classroom of the future. We have received some fantastic classroom designs which are now available for viewing.

Architecture for Humanity and Rubicon National Social Innovations invited entrants to create innovative ways of converting used mattresses into useful products. The competition encouraged entrants to form groups capable of creating a consumer product, instructions detailing how to make the product, and a plan for production on a larger scale. Entrants created designs that take into account the volume of mattress waste generated each year. Groups were encouraged to utilize local resources, including existing manufacturing facilities and other waste products.

Nothing connects kids like the power of play. In areas of great need are opportunities to use sports as a catalyst for social change. Where resources are scarce, products can be distributed to deliver vital services. In many parts of the world sporting activities, especially local and traditional sports, are being incorporated into a variety of programs geared toward helping youth address a broad range of issues affecting their lives.

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.

The statistics are staggering. It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s AIDS population lives in Sub-Saharan Africa; most have no access to lifesaving drugs, testing facilities or even basic preventative health care. One of the major factors inhibiting medical professionals in Africa from treating this disease is the inability to access vast areas of the continent with adequately equipped medical facilities.