Who can enter?
This is an invitation process for architects and designers. At least one member of your team must speak Portuguese fluently. Registration is as simple as creating an entry.

Designs may be submitted by an individual or by a team.

Award
The winning team will be awarded the commission as architect of record for the project. If the team is not locally licensed then a partnership will be formed.

Schedule
Request For Proposals launched: Dec 16, 2009
Registration Deadline: Jan 1, 2010
Submission deadline: Jan 16, 2010

FAQ Page

| Invitation |

With project partners officially on board and a site secured, we are pleased to welcome you to the Selection Process for Design and Architectural Services of the Homeless World Cup Youth and Women's Leadership Center in Santa Cruz , Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

Architecture for Humanity, Homeless World Cup, and Nike GameChangers are designing and constructing a prototype facility utilizing football as a tool for empowerment and social change for women and youth.

To be considered for this commission, we invite you to review this Request For Proposals and submit your bravest, most intelligent, and elegant design proposal for the community of Santa Cruz.

Through this Request For Proposals we can potentially select both a Local Architectural team (Architect of Record, licensed in Brazil) and a Design Fellow (a Liaison between the Community Partners and Local Architectural Team). Depending on the team and solution this may be one and the same.

Contact Information:
Please direct all questions, comments or concerns to the project team at Architecture for Humanity. Please do not contact our partners directly. If you have specific questions for the partners we will direct them to the appropriate party and post answers to the FAQ Page.

| Background |

During the inaugural Homeless World Cup held in Melbourne in late 2008, it was identified by participating homeless delegations that the Homeless World Cup could establish specific programs for homeless women using football and social enterprise, enabling them to be the drivers behind their own social and economical development and in turn extend their knowledge with the same positive team attitude and leadership skills football brings forth.

With the Homeless World Cup arriving in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in fall 2010, Architecture for Humanity, Homeless World Cup, and Nike are teaming up with local partners Organização Civil de Ação Social (OCAS), and Bola Pra Frente (BPF) to establish multiple Legacy Centers to implement the Homeless World Cup influence beyond the week-long Tournament and Leadership Conference. This program will establish a legacy of the Homeless World Cup with two pilot Legacy Centers, a football-based Youth and Women's Leadership Center in Santa Cruz and the Women's Enterprise Center in Sao Paulo. Defined by the success of the pilot project, Architecture For Humanity and Homeless World Cup intend to expand the influence of the Leadership and Enterprise Centers to a global scale.

| Submission Deadline |

Submissions must be uploaded via Worldchanging by January 16, 2010 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8). See the Requirements tab for additional Submission information.

| Project Outline |

This Request for Proposals is solely for the Youth and Women's Leadership Center, located on the indicated site in Santa Cruz.

| Target Population |

Youth and Women of Santa Cruz

| Site: |

Santa Cruz, Rio de Janiero, Brazil 22°54′9″S 43°42′39″W
Area = 7,316.28 M2

| Greater Community |

Santa Cruz is an extensive, populous, mostly low-income neighborhood in the West Side of Rio de Janeiro, the most distant of the central area of the city, at about 60 km (37 miles) from downtown Rio. Traversed by the Central do Brasil suburban railway, it has a quite diversified landscape, with rural, commercial, residential and industrial areas. Santa Cruz is over 440 years old, having originated from a farm founded in 1567. Like most low-income communities, Santa Cruz has many problems regarding public transportation, sanitation and environmental degradation.

For additional information about Santa Cruz, please reference santa_cruz_ecology.pdf from the Attachments below.

| Partners |

About Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need.

About our partners:
Nike GameChangers believes in the power of sport to unleash potential and actively identifies the sporting heroes of tomorrow; young athletes who use sport to beat the issues that they care about most.

The Homeless World Cup Foundation uses football to encourage and energise people who are homeless to change their own lives. Currently it works with football programmes in over 70 nations reaching 40,000 homeless players every year with an ambition to engage one million players with the benefits of football by 2012.

Organização Civil de Ação Social (OCAS) is a non-profit enterprise that promotes the citizenship and empowerment of homeless and socially vulnerable people in Brazil. The organization is now working in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to address critical social problems and a high incidence of homelessness. The OCAS street paper has been an opportunity for homeless and socially vulnerable people to make an income through the selling of a bi-monthly magazine.

Bola Pra Frente is a non-profit project which aims to stimulate learning, literacy and leadership to the youth of Rio de Janiero both in the classroom and through the organized team sports and self expression.

| The Brief: |

Program: Starting with these base program elements, develop and expand the program as you see fit to establish this facility as a thriving magnet for the entire community, configurable to the elastic needs of evolving groups through the duration of the center's operation. Keep in mind this facility will be a model for leadership and enterprise through sports on a global scale.

Required Program Elements:

Football

* Street Football Stadium (22m x 16m Pitch) focal point of the project, secured during off-hours
The pitch surface will be donated by Greenfields and needs to be incorporated into the site. The substrate will be part of the project construction budget.
* Stadium Seating (100 persons +) encourages community participation and the rush of a stadium presence
* Additional Pitch (approx. 30m x 40m total) practice area, a bigger pitch which can be broken up into multiple areas
* Bathrooms - male and female
* Equipment Room (storage for football shoes, goals, nets, balls and practice equipment will be kept safely on site for users to check out)

Education

* flexible Indoor Classrooms - facilities for a potential capacity of 100 youth or 40 adults
* Administrative Offices with computer and storage capacity for program administration.

Enterprise/Marketplace

* Start-up Business Units - linking social enterprise to the site and activating the facility as a community hub (i.e. workshops, cafe, football memorabilia)

Community

* Community gathering and access/corridor through site
* Outdoor community Gathering Space
* Community Access to Clean Water

Additional Program Elements:

* Locker Rooms - male and female, shower, changing space, benches and lockers
* Fitness Room

* Day Care Facility (for mothers using the site and elder siblings who would like to use the site but otherwise are responsible for their younger siblings)

Your greater vision:
What additional elements would reinforce the concepts of the center?
How is the center a positive icon of the community?
How does it reinforce and connect to existing pedestrian routes?

Project Principles:

Social: The Youth and Women's Leadership Center will promote social sustainability through the implementation of a community center focused on youth and women's empowerment through leadership training, personal skills development, academic advancement, athletic training through involvement in team sports. The emphasis on education and leadership training uses football as the catalyst for change.

Design: This center will be an inventive, flexible, replicable and scalable solution for international communities lacking resources for women and youth.

Resources: The center will be an exemplary project exhibiting sustainable principles of energy efficiency, on-site energy production, water collection, waste reduction/reuse/treatment, and the importance of green space in an increasingly urban environment. Construction materials will be locally sourced with minimal embodied energy and the overall construction process be conscientious of waste, noise, and landscape impact.

Phases: The Legacy Centers will open simultaneously with the Homeless World Cup in September 2010 benefiting from the support, momentum, and media attention of the international event. We imagine that this construction should be organized in scalable phases leading to the fully realized facility.

Phase 1: Emphasizing the construction of the Greenfield pitch and pragmatic program is expected to be realized in early September. It is essential the football pitch and a basic operating facility be open in order to support the Homeless World Cup. Ideally one half of the existing field would be used for the center with the other half open for the community at large.

Phase 2: Visionary arrival expected in late 2010. Your overall vision of the Youth and Women's Leadership Center should be designed and fabricated in addition to the pitch and basic operating facilities expected to be operational for September activities. The program in this phase is equally as important and essential to the Center's future and should be planned as creatively as possible to allow the Center to be fully operational throughout the additional construction. This succession of development should be self explanatory in your presentation.

Project Budget: Base Construction Grant = USD $90,000. The project partners are investigating potential for additional fiscal sponsors. We welcome creative financial solutions and suggested partnerships as part of your design proposal.

| Location |

View Larger Map

| Related Videos |