Taller Capital, atelier masōmī, and Comunal Taller de Arquitectura among 2023-24 re:arc institute grant awardees

The Copenhagen-based re:arc institute has announced its 2023-24 cohort of architecture firms, individual designers, and organizations who are all working at the intersection of a variety of important ecological and social justice causes in ways that help architecture as a discipline move beyond its current narrative limitations.

The institute shares: “Though rarely stated, the world of architecture operates within predefined industry models. Either client-based or competition-based, architectural projects often remain anchored in problematic or extractive incentives. Despite the huge ecological footprint of the industry and transformational potential of the architectural discipline, architecture is often overlooked and underfunded by traditional philanthropy.” Funds are distributed across three categories: Grants, Practice Lab, and Initiatives. 

The full 2023-24 cohort list can be viewed below.

GRANTS

Catalytic Communities: "An NGO mobilizing housing & climate justice via the community land trust model in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. CatComm have been working on-the-ground in favelas for decades to secure social & ecological justice, and now they’ve turned to the Community Land Trust (CLT) model to further facilitate that."

Comunal Taller de Arquitectura: "a female-led architectural practice working together with rural communities and indigenous populations in Mexico on the improvement of living conditions of rural communities. Comunal aims to demonstrate that architecture is a collective social process. They conceive participation not as a matter of good faith or good will, but as a right that implies the recognition of the inhabitants as agents of action."

Climate Emergency Software Alliance or CESA (Indonesia; Global): "An international organization working at the forefront of climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction across South East Asia. They aim to democratize access to real-time disaster information, facilitating coordination for environmental repair, settlement relocation, and risk reduction. Their flagship product, CogniCity OSS, a free and open source software adopted by millions already, which uses a novel humanitarian chatbot model to crowdsource disaster information and display solicited reports in real-time on a web-based, mobile-centric map. Designed, tested, and operationally deployed in Southeast Asia’s monsoon flooding, the system CogniCity OSS government agencies, and first responders." 

Fundación Organizmo: "pioneers in Colombia as educators in low-impact construction techniques, alternative technologies, ecological restoration, knowledge transfer scenarios, and promotion of interculturality. The group has contributed to the strengthening of the cultural identity, the social fabric and the well-being of different Colombian rural communities through projects that manifest themselves from the roots to the territory in the development of sustainable habitats and multiple artistic and cultural expressions." 

Global Alliance for Green & Gender Action (GAGGA): "a network of women-led grassroots groups (community-based organizations or CBOs), environmental justice and women’s funds, and national, and NGOs based in the Global South that focuses on securing women’s rights to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment. They support women and girls who are directly affected by the issues they are addressing with their CBOs by connecting them with global funds and NGOs who can provide them with financial, technical and legal support. These CBOs and movements are playing a pivotal role in protecting important ecosystems like forests and wetlands, pastures and farmland, rivers and coastal zones, and GAGGA believes they are in the best position to advance women's human and environmental rights."

Additional 2023-24 Grants recipients include - African Biodiversity Network (Continental Africa), Fundación Oasis Urbano (Colombia), Kounkuey Design Initiative or KDI (Kenya), and Council of Minorities (Bangladesh).

PRACTICE LAB

Taller Capital: "a Mexico City-based architecture and urban design studio, founded in 2010 by José Pablo Ambrosi and Loreta Castro-Reguera. Their work focuses on “designing the city through densification and infrastructural public spaces.” With a particular attention to water, the studio has applied extensive research to the development of urban design projects that address water management in Mexico City and beyond. Taller Capital was the winner of the 2015 Eco Pavilion and was awarded a silver medal at the 2017 Mexico City Biennial."

Worofila: "a Dakar-based collective, architectural practice specializing in bioclimatic architecture using local materials such as raw earth and typha. Their aim is to promote an architecture that is durable and in harmony with the climate while reducing the carbon footprint of the construction sector. The practice works with local, natural, and little-transformed materials to create high-quality, sustainable, and eco-friendly buildings. The architectural style is influenced by climate, material, and tradition, and the focus is on balancing global issues and local realities to offer comfortable living solutions."

Material Cultures: "a London-based studio bringing together design, research and strategic thinking to make meaningful progress towards a post-carbon built environment. The group provides design services, undertakes hands-on construction and refurbishment projects, and works with public, private and third sector organizations interested in developing and delivering a regenerative, low-carbon built environment."

Other invited practices are: Region Austral (Argentina), Territorial Empathy (U.S.A.), Social Design Collaborative (India), Island City Lab (Jamaica), atelier masōmī (Niger), Cave_bureau (Kenya), AFARAI (The Netherlands), Al Borde (Ecuador), Emergent Vernacular Architecture (London, Lebanon, Haiti), Hand Over (Egypt), PAVA architects (Thailand), urbz (India), and Oficina de Resiliencia Urbana (Mexico)

INITIATIVE COLLABORATORS

Network for Ecological Futures by Taeyoon Choi in collaboration with ArtCom Platform, UnMake Lab & Mina Kim

A Residency for Fugitives* by MAIA Group & the Black Land and Spatial Justice Project

Embodied Restoration Lab by AFARAI

The House We Must Build by Thandi Loewenson & Huda Tayob

Care & Architectures for Collective Life by The Institute for Everything In-Between in collaboration with Gabriella Gomez-Mont

Pororoca: Abraz(ç)o de río e mar by Catalina Mejia Moreno in collaboration with Gabriela Leandro Pereira & Felipe Arturo

It’s Not That Radical School of Organising by Jess Mally & Mikaela Loach

Global South CLT Network by the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation

The funding will therefore be put towards the “development of solutions that address the root causes and consequences of climate breakdown and nurtures the creative reimagining of social and ecological systems” in the hopes of establishing what they call a new “blueprint for philanthropy.”

Learn more about the 2023-24 grant awardees here.