Project winners announced for Public Interest Design Global

After tight competition and vigorous deliberation from the jury, six Project winners were selected for the Public Interest Design Global. The winners will present their projects and discuss social impact design at a public global convening at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris on April 18-19, 2014.

The six winners, announced by the Ecole Spécial d’Architecture, Design Corps and the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Network, are:

• Umusozi Ukiza "Healing Hill" - Butaro Doctor Housing - Burera District, Rwanda
• Can City - Sao Paulo, Brazil
• TAEQ Green Building Headquarters - Sakhnin, Israel
• Walk [Your City] - Raleigh, North Carolina
• Comunidad Ecologica Saludable [Healthy Ecological Community] - Lima, Peru
• Joler Jonno Utshob - A Dug Well Pavilion - Dhaka, Bangladesh

Umusozi Ukiza "Healing Hill" - Butaro Doctor Housing - Burera District, Rwanda

Team: MASS Design Group; Rwanda Ministry of Health; Partners In Health

Summary: Located on an adjacent site to the Butaro Hospital, the Butaro Doctors’ Housing is designed to attract and retain skilled physicians at the new hospital. The construction process provided invaluable opportunities to further implement and scale MASS’s on-site job training in sustainable construction for members of the community. The project is a second phase in a campus for world health, a new initiative of the Rwandan national government.

For more details on this project, click here.

Can City - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Team: Alexander Groves, Designer; Azusa Murakami, Designer; Anya Teixeira, Production Assistant; Olivia Faria, PR and Community Organizer; Agatha Faria, Finance; Leonardo Giardini from Preserva Recicla, Collectors of Recyclables; Fabio Esteves; Edson and team from Foundry Metais; Juriaan Booij, Film Maker; Isso Ex, Catadore; Jejo Cornelsen, Artist; Paola Croso, Translator; Renata Padovan, Translator and Artist, Carlos Mancebo; Elcides, Catadore; Que Que, Catadore; Wilson, Catadore; Ricardo, Catadore; Alan, Catadore; Omar and Margareth Faria,; Richard Kovacs, assistant; Team from Heineken Brasil, Sponser; Team from Coletivo Amor de Madre, Project Production; Pedro Faria, Assistant; Fabio de Paula, Researcher

Summary: Can City is a mobile aluminum foundry that melts cans collected on the streets of Sao Paulo to cast new products. The project has been initiated in the largest city in Brazil as a self sustaining system that creates employment and additional income for Catadores- waste collectors who pull carts by hand collecting waste materials to sell at scrap yards. Over 80% of recycling in Brazil is done by independent waste collectors Catadores.

For more details on this project, click here.

TAEQ Green Building Headquarters - Sakhnin, Israel 

Team: Abed Yassem, Lead Architect; Riyad Dwairy, Architect; Hussein Tarabeih, PhD; Mayors of TAEQ’s municipalities: Sakhnin Municipality: Mustafa Abu Raya;  Arrabe: Yasin Yasin; Dier Hanna: Samir Hussein; Eilaboun: Hana Sawed; Kaukab: Nawaaf Hjoje; Buine Najidat: Monir Hamudi; Dr. Shlomo Kimchie; Saleh Waked; Hanadi Higress; Said Khalaily; Bassem Ghanaim, Ali Osman

Summary: The TAEQ Green Building, located in Sakhnin, is home to the first environmental organization to arise out of Israel’s minority Arab sector, which comprises 20% of the total population. Towns Association for Environmental Quality (TAEQ) is a municipal collaborative that organizes funds and resources from the six participating Arab municipalities for social, environmental, and economic development. Located in Israel’s northern Galilee region, TAEQ serves the populations of these towns, about 80,000 residents. The green building hosts 60,000 visitors annually, about half of which are regional high school and university students (Arabs and Jews) completing class projects.

Walk [Your City] - Raleigh, North Carolina

Team: Matt Tomasulo, Director, Walk [Your City], Mitchell Silver, Chief Planning and Development Director – Raleigh NC (Advisor to project); Jeff Speck, AICP, Author of Walkable City and Planner (Advisor to project)

Summary: Started as Walk Raleigh, now Walk [Your City] is an open-sourced “guerrilla wayfinding” project focused on helping anyone create safe and healthy walkable environments. Raleigh, NC is a rapidly growing city, older families are beginning to be displaced from downtown and new construction is forcing people to live closer together, however, there is still a prevalent driving culture.  Walk Raleigh was directly targeting both citizens and municipal leaders who were overlooking the importance of establishing a culture of walkability to deal with grow and support new, denser development patterns.

For more details on this project, click here.