© Joost Hovender & Jan Wingender / Architecture for Humanity, 2003
For more information,
please visit:
www.architectureforhumanity.org
www.vanalen.org
Exhibition
Design Ideas for a Mobile HIV/AIDS Health Clinic for Africa
at Van Alen Institute in New York
includes
work by Amsterdam-based
Joost
Hovender and Jan Wingender
Until January 31,
2003
******
Press Release:
CONTACT:
Cameron Sinclair
646/765-0906
csinclair@architectureforhumanity.org
"…a remarkable project with great possibility…"
Honorable William J Clinton – 42nd President of the United
States
January 2003 - New York, NY – This month sees the opening of an
international exhibition in New York of over 125 highly innovative schemes
for a Mobile Health Clinic to Combat HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Africa. 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 care. In response, Architecture
for Humanity, a non-profit that promotes architecture and design solutions
to global, social and humanitarian crises, challenged designers and medical
professionals from around the world to respond to inability to access
vast areas of the continent with adequately equipped facilities.
At the launch of this initiative in May 2002, Frank Gehry, award-winning architect and Architecture for Humanity advisory board member stated "Architects and designers have not only an opportunity, but a professional obligation to help to end this crisis.” Designers were given six months to develop schemes for a fully equipped, mobile medical unit and HIV/AIDS treatment center that could for not only be used testing, prevention and treatment of the disease, but also to provide basic health care services.
By the project deadline, November 1, 2002, more than 530 teams representing 51 nations answered the call. An international jury of architects and medical professionals met in New York to select four finalists and eight honorary mentions. The finalists included a professional firm from Denmark, a team of students from Troy, NY, faculty members at the University of Dortmund, Germany and two young architects from Paris, France.
On December 6, 2002, designers and representatives from these winning schemes were honored at the Van Alen Institute in New York City. Unlike most international design competitions, where a cash prize is awarded, Architecture for Humanity and exhibition sponsor Virgin Atlantic, gave the winning designers a unique opportunity to take these ideas off the drawing boards and to develop and refine their ideas into working prototypes. In the fall of 2003, designers from the four selected finalists will gather in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa for a one week workshop and work alongside invited African based architects, doctors, and NGO's.
"AIDS is a global epidemic which deserves a global response. Architects and designers have shown that by coming together they can make a real difference in the lives of others," said Cameron Sinclair, Founder and Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity
The Van Alen Institute in New York, which partnered with Architecture for Humanity to administer the competition jury, is hosting the opening exhibit of the winning and selected designs. This exhibit will be on display until January 31, 2003. With the support of Virgin Atlantic, the exhibit is set to travel in 2003 and 2004 in the United States and internationally. Currently, these venues include the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen and the Royal Institute of British Architects Headquarters in London.
Money raised from the $35 submission fee (waived for entries from developing countries), donations and additional fundraising activities will be used to build one or more prototypes of the winning concepts. Once developed, it is hoped that refined versions of these cost-effective and mobile designs can be built for Africa and replicated in other regions around the world.
**********
About Architecture
for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a volunteer organization founded by 29-year
old designer Cameron Sinclair in 1999. A registered nonprofit organization,
Architecture for Humanity encourages architects and designers to seek
solutions to global social and humanitarian crises. With each project
a new advisory board is assembled based on their individual areas of expertise.
For our most recent project, the Mobile HIV/AIDS Health Clinic For Africa,
the nine-member board includes Pritzker-prize winning architect Frank
Gehry FAIA; Ambassador Richard Swett FAIA; South African architect Rodney
Harber; Kenyan Architect Reuben Mutiso; IAVI Vice President Kate Bourne;
Dr. Johannes van Dam of the Population Council; Dr. Sunanda Ray, Executive
Director of SafAIDS based in Zimbabwe; and Dr. Michael Sweat of John Hopkins
University.
"Architecture for Humanity represents the finest of the new breed of architectural leadership, employing architectural skills and directing them for the larger good... ...Committed, unapologetically architectural in name and mission, Architecture for Humanity stands up for people in need." Robert Ivy – Editor-in-Chief, Architectural Record
About Van
Alen Institute
Van Alen Institute is a non-profit organization committed to improving
the design of the public realm through a program of competitions, workshops,
public forums, exhibitions, and publications. The Institute has contributed
expertise, resources, and its gallery space to the Architecture for Humanity
project. Founded in 1894 as the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, the
Institute was renamed in 1996 after William Van Alen, the architect of
the Chrysler Building and its' largest benefactor, and repositioned to
focus on the public realm. Based in New York, the Institute’s projects
initiate interdisciplinary and international collaborations between practitioners,
policy-makers, students, educators, and community leaders. To learn more
visit its' sixth-floor gallery or www.vanalen.org.
About Virgin
Atlantic
Since it was founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain's
second largest long haul carrier serving the world's major cities. The
airline now serves nine US gateways to London, as well as many onward
destinations in Africa and Asia.
Basic Facts
About HIV/AIDS in Africa
In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, close to 6,000 people die of AIDS every day
and an additional 14,000 are infected | More than 40 million people in
the world today are living with HIV/AIDS. | Sub-Saharan Africa alone is
home to over 25 million, or about 70% of the world's cases. | In 2000,
about 5.3 million people around the world became newly infected with HIV,
600,000 of them children. | Some thirteen million African children are
counted as AIDS orphans. | Fifty-five percent of the HIV-positive people
in sub Saharan Africa are women. | In Africa, AIDS will claim the lives
of around a third of today's 15-year-olds. | 1 in 4 South African women
between ages 20 and 29 are infected with the virus.
For more information about Mobile HIV/AIDS Health Clinic for Africa initiative or to help contribute towards building the clinics, visit: www.architectureforhumanity.org or contact:
Cameron Sinclair
Founder/Executive Director
646/765-0906
csinclair@architectureforhumanity.org
**********