Di Moda Public Relations

The Winner of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom is Announced – Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho

www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Innovative designs for schools in Colombia, India, Uganda and the United States also recognized.

Victor, Idaho, September 8^th, 2009 – Teton Valley Community School in Victor, Idaho and architecture firm Section Eight [design] receive the top award of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. An emerging practice, Section Eight [design] partnered with Teton Valley Community School to design the classroom of the future. Currently based out of a remodeled house, students at Teton Valley Community School are now one step closer to getting a real classroom.

View the winning designs and finalists:

http://www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Challenge Winner:
Teton Valley Community School, Victor, Idaho, USA
Designed by: Section Eight [design], Victor, Idaho, USA
View at: http://bit.ly/OACWinner

Founders’ Award:
The Corporación Educativa y Social Waldorf, Bogota, Colombia
Designed by: Arquitectura Justa, Bogota, Colombia
View at: http://bit.ly/OACfounders

Best Urban Classroom Upgrade Design:
Rumi School of Excellence, Hyderabad, India
Designed: IDEO, California, USA
View at: http://bit.ly/NRRbl

Best Rural Classroom Design:
Building Tomorrow Academy, Wakiso and Kiboga, Uganda
Designed by: Gifford LLP, London, UK
View at: http://bit.ly/2xkvHw

Best Re-locatable Classroom Design:
Druid Hills High School, Georgia, USA
Designed by: Perkins and Will, Georgia, USA
View at: http://bit.ly/1lQS4T

Cindy Riegel, President of the School Board says, “We are thrilled. The evolution of Section Eight’s classroom design for the Teton Valley Community School was a truly collaborative process involving students, parents, teachers, and community members. It exemplifies the school’s philosophy of real world learning and community engagement.”

The need for safe, sustainable and smart classroom design has never been greater. Worldwide, 776 million people are illiterate. With less than six years left to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals the World Bank estimates ten million new classrooms are needed to reach its target on education. In addition, tens of millions of crumbling classrooms ­— including many in the United States ­— are in urgent need of upgrading. Meeting this demand for better learning environments will constitute the largest building project the world has ever undertaken.

In response, the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge was launched by Architecture for Humanity and principal partner Orient Global in collaboration with a consortium of other partners from around the world. This truly global initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions. Collectively more than 10,000 individuals participated in this global initiative.

More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition. The winning design was selected from more than 400 qualified entries by a team of interdisciplinary online jurors. (See Jury Bios: http://bit.ly/oac09jury) Each design was rated on feasibility, sustainability, and innovation in the learning environment.

“The response to the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge has been remarkable. It has clearly captured people’s imagination,” said Richard F. Chandler, Chairman of Orient Global. “We congratulate the winning teams and everyone who took part in this international effort.  Education is the first step in building prosperity for tomorrow’s world.  The challenge now is to implement the best of these designs in classrooms across the globe.”

Many schools around the world share the facilities constraints faced by the Teton Valley Community School. Operating out of makeshift classrooms converted from residential use, a lack of space and an environment ill-suited for learning impedes students’ opportunities. The winning classroom design developed by Section Eight [design] provides cost-effective and sustainable teaching spaces and extends the learning environment beyond the four walls of the classroom. Movable panels allow students to reconfigure their space as needed.

The building itself is designed to be a learning tool. The mechanical room, a building component normally closed from view, can be seen from the science lab allowing students to learn how heating and cooling systems function first hand.

Teton Valley Community School will be awarded USD $50,000 to undertake the planning and construction of the winning design, and Section Eight [design] will receive a design grant of USD $5,000 to support the school. The school has begun a capital campaign to raise additional funds needed to build their new campus.

In addition to the overall winner, the competition recognized entries in each of three competition categories: best urban classroom upgrade design, best rural classroom design and best re-locatable classroom design. Three building partners, Rumi Schools of Excellence in India, Building Tomorrow in Uganda and Blazer Industries with The Modular Building Institute in the United States have committed to build classrooms based on these designs.

The Founders Award is awarded to the entry that best exemplifies the aims of Architecture for Humanity and the Open Architecture Network. It was awarded to the entry for The Corporación Educativa y Social Waldorf in Bogota, Colombia

designed by Arquitectura Justa for their integrated approach to providing safe spaces for students to learn and play.

Competition finalists will also receive awards, including software from industry leader Autodesk; SMART Board interactive whiteboard from SMART Technologies; Google SketchUp Pro 7; copies of the book the Third Teacher by OWP/P, VS America and Bruce Mau Design and an honorarium from partner Curriki for the best use of the competition design curriculum.

All the design solutions are now available on the Open Architecture Network for designers and school administrators to learn from and adapt to their own context. An international traveling exhibition of the winning designs and notable entries is set to launch in the fall.

To see all the entries and for more information, please visit: http://www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

About Orient Global

Orient Global is a private investment group based in Singapore and founded by New Zealand-born entrepreneur Richard Chandler. Orient Global’s goal is to be the world’s best capital allocator in financial and social markets. Orient Global Capital is an entrepreneurial, value-oriented portfolio investor which focuses on emerging markets and economies in transition. Orient Global Development combines business and philanthropic approaches to address the root causes of poverty. For more information, please visit: www.orientglobal.com

About Architecture for Humanity

The Open Architecture Network (www.openarchitecturenetwork.org) and the Open Architecture Challenge are programs of Architecture for Humanity, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need. To date the organization has provided shelter for more than 700,000 individuals in 31 countries. For more information, please visit: www.architectureforhumanity.org

These “Random Thoughts” were sent on email and would like to be credited Anonymous.

Random Thoughts of the Day:




More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.


Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.


I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?


Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.


I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.


The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again.


Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it w ouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.


There is a great need for sarcasm font.

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.


Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what [on earth; cleansed for DIS boards] was going on when I first saw it.


I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.


How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?


I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.


I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.


The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.


A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.


Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.


I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.


Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.


How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?


While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.


MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.


Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.


I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.


I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.


Bad decisions make good stories


Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.


Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from; this shouldn’t be a problem….


You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.


Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.


There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.


I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.


“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.


I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’


While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don’t win, they are executed.


I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?


I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.


When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.


I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.


Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…


As a driver I hate pedes trians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.


Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.


It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.


I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.


I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.


My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ranover a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?


It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.


I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.


I think the freezer deserves a light as well.


I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Project Angel Food’s 17th Annual Divine Design Invites Leading Fashion & Home Designers and Companies to Participate in West Coast’s Premiere Shopping Fundraiser

Executive Director of the CFDA, Steven Kolb to be Honored as Man of Style BARBIE is Divine Design 2009 Fashion Icon with Featured Runway Show
*ELLE DECOR’s Editor in Chief, Margaret Russell, & Interior Designer Michael Smith to Serve as Honorary Home Co-Chairs* *ELLE Magazine’s Joe Zee is Honorary Fashion Chair*

HOLLYWOOD (August 19, 2009)- Project Angel Food is receiving once again a stellar line up of support from the fashion and design communities, on both the east and west coasts, as donations to the marketplace begin to arrive from fashion and home designers and companies for Divine Design.  Every year Divine Design is the largest charity shopping event on the West Coast.

Divine Design, to be held in Beverly Hills from December 3rd through December 7th, is an annual ‘must-attend’ for more than 10,000 shoppers. The beautifully merchandised 30,000 square feet marketplace will be brimming with new fashion, beauty, home and accessory merchandise; for the last 16 years, top fashion and home designers and companies such as Alberta Ferretti, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Monique Lhuillier, Catherine Malandrino, Oscar de la Renta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ted Baker London, Baker Furniture, Blueprint, Brown Jordan, Jonathan Adler, Minotti, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, and Rose Tarlow have donated beautiful products. All donated merchandise is sold to Divine Design shoppers at charity prices. 100% of Divine Design sales benefit Project Angel Food whose mission is to nourish the body and spirit of men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Project Angel Food is the only free meal-delivery program serving all of Los Angeles County. More than 13,000 meals are lovingly cooked and delivered each week, with the involvement of 1,500 active volunteers.
For the opening night gala, Project Angel Food honors the commitment of Celebrities, Corporate Humanitarians, Designers, and Philanthropists who have made a significant impact on behalf of people in need. Past Divine Design honorees include Annette Bening, Ross Bleckner, Adrien Brody, Kenneth Cole, Tom Ford, David Furnish, Lauren Hutton, Donna Karan, Kiehl’s, Jessica Lange, Macy’s, M.A.C., Catherine Malandrino, Nicole Miller, People Magazine, Sally Sirken Lewis, Tadashi Shoji, Sharon Stone, Rose Tarlow, and Ted Baker London.

This year, Project Angel Food will honor Steven Kolb, Executive Director of the CFDA, as Man of Style, and Barbie as Divine Design Fashion Icon with a glamorous runway show.

“I am deeply honored and very grateful to be recognized by Project Angel Food and look forward to further strengthening the fashion industries involvement in Divine Design.”-Steven Kolb, Executive Director, CFDA.

Joe Zee, Creative Director of ELLE Magazine is serving as Honorary Fashion Chair. ELLE DECOR’s Editor in Chief, Margaret Russell, and Interior Designer Michael Smith will be this year’s Honorary Home Co-Chairs. A Woman of Style will also be honored.

Joe Zee, Creative Director for ELLE Magazine shares his support to Project Angel Food by stating, “I am both touched and honored to serve as this year’s Honorary Chairman for Divine Design Fashion 2009, not only because it invites the fashion world to take part in such a wonderful charity event but also because of what it benefits-Project Angel Food. It’s no coincidence that this unique organization has attracted so much support from some of the world’s top designers and continues to garner more attention every year.”

Celebrated Interior Designer Michael Smith, who is currently working on the décor of the White House for President and Mrs. Obama, is serving as Honorary Co-Chair and reinforces his commitment to Project Angel Food by stating, “As an interior designer, I recognize that two of the most important elements to any home are love and healthy food. Project Angel Food delivers both, every day, to the homes of people struggling with illness.”

Margaret Russell, ELLE DECOR’s Editor in Chief, is serving with Mr. Smith as Honorary Home Co-Chair.  A Project Angel Food supporter for many years and a Board member of God’s Love We Deliver, its “sister” agency in New York City, Ms. Russell says, “I am dedicated to helping to ensure that those struggling with a life-threatening illness never have to face the additional burdens of loneliness and hunger.  I’m honored to contribute to Divine Design and to help Project Angel Food provide their nutritious, freshly cooked meals throughout Los Angeles County.”

Corporations that loyally sponsor Divine Design include Wells Fargo, American Express, American Airlines, Creative Artists Agency, Mercedes-Benz, Macy’s, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Divine Design will take place in the heart of Beverly Hills at 9900 Wilshire Blvd.  This year’s opening gala will be held Thursday December 3, 2009. Shopping is open to the public from Friday December 4, 2009 through Monday December 7, 2009.

Divine Design fashion (women’s, men’s and children’s), home décor, accessories and beauty donations, are now being accepted. To learn more about the many benefits and public recognition extended to Divine Design donors, please contact - FASHION Lauren Gurvich, Fashion Director, at Lauren@laurengurvich.com, or 323.447.5266  and HOME Nora McGarry, Home Co-Director, at nora@divinedesign.org or 323.851.9933 or Jeff Valenson, Home Co-Director, at jeff@divinedesign.org.  The Divine Design website www.divinedesign.org includes a wonderful event video. 

For more information and an event history reel, go to www.divinedesign.org.

For all press inquiries and media sponsorship, please contact Diana Bianchini, Di Moda Public Relations, diana@dimodapr.com, 310.288.0077.
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Eight Teams Named as Finalists in International Architecture Competition for Innovative Classroom Designs

Teams vie for US$ 50,000 to improve schools’ learning environments

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2009— Eight teams were recognized today as finalists of the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom.  Finalists submitted designs ranging from an outdoor classroom for children in inner-city Chicago, learning spaces for the children of salt pan workers in India, safe spaces for youth in Bogota, Colombia and a bamboo classroom in the Himalayan mountains.

The 2009 Open Architecture Challenge was hosted by Architecture for Humanity and principal partner Orient Global in collaboration with a consortium of other partners around the world. This truly global initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions.

More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition. Over a four-month submission period hundreds of ideas were generated around the world.

Each submission was rated on feasibility, sustainability, innovation in learning and overall design quality by a team of interdisciplinary online jurors.  After three rounds of reviews, more than 400 designs were narrowed to a shortlist of 52. On July 2nd, 2009, an international panel of jurors reviewed the designs at the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival and selected eight entries as finalists for the competition. In September one of these teams will be awarded US$ 5,000 and the selected partner school will receive up to US$50,000 to realize their design. The finalists are:

The Blurred Classroom, Gensler, New York, NY, United States

Teton Valley Community School, Section Eight Design, Victor, ID, United States

Teksing Bamboo school, Petr Kostner, Sona Huberova and Martina Sobotkova, Czech Republic

Classroom for the Salt Pan Community, Rajesh Kapoor, Prashant Solanky, Bharat Karamchandani and Kiran Vaghela, Gujurat, India

A Sustainable Community Classroom for Uganda, Chris Soley, Farah Naz, Hayley Maxwell, Edward Crammond and Jessica Robinson of Gifford LLC, United Kingdom

Extending the Classroom, Built Form Architecture, Northwestern University Settlement House, Chicago, IL, United States

Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transition, Architectura Justa, Bogota, Colombia

Adaptable Hillside Classrooms, Andrew Macintosh, Matthew Brown, Nilufer Kocabas of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Buro Happold, United Kingdom

The need for safe, sustainable, smart classroom design has never been greater. Worldwide, 776 million people are illiterate. With less than six years left to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, the World Bank estimates ten million new classrooms are needed to reach its target equal access to primary education. In addition, tens of millions of crumbling facilities—including many in the United States—are in urgent need of upgrading. Meeting this need for classroom space will constitute the largest building project the world has ever undertaken. The world will need to spend in excess of US$ 100 billion just to meet current demand for classrooms.

Serving as a catalyst to build safe, sustainable and smart educational facilities around the world, the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge has created an online portfolio of design solutions, all licensed under Creative Commons and viewable at www.openarchitecturenetwork.org. School districts, independent schools and social entrepreneurs from around the world can now download, adapt and replicate these ideas in their current and future learning environments. Beyond the awarded funds, three building partners, Rumi Schools of Excellence in India, Building Tomorrow in Uganda and Blazer Industries with The Modular Building Institute in the United States have committed to build classrooms based on selected designs. An international traveling exhibition is set to launch in the fall.

2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom

www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

By The Numbers

Teams Registered: 1,066

Qualified Submissions: 406

Number of Schools: 342

Number of Teachers: 500+

Number of Students: 3,600+

Number of Designers: 1,200+

Countries Represented: 65

Jury: More than 50 leaders in education, sustainability and architecture, including students and teachers.

Grand Prize: The winning design team receives $5,000 and its partner school will receive up to $50,000 to help implement the winning idea.

Technical Awards: The winning design teams will receive software provided by Google SketchUp and AutoDesk.

To see all the entries and for more information, please visit: http://www.openarchitecturechallenge.org

Principal Partner: Orient Global

About Orient Global

Orient Global is a private investment group based in Singapore and founded by New Zealand-born entrepreneur Richard Chandler. Orient’s goal is to be the world’s best capital allocator in financial and social markets. Orient Global Capital is an entrepreneurial, value-oriented portfolio investor which focuses on emerging markets and economies in transition. Orient Global Development combines business and philanthropic approaches to address the root causes of poverty. For more information, please visit: www.orientglobal.com

About Architecture for Humanity

The Open Architecture Network (www.openarchitecturenetwork.org) and the Open Architecture Challenge are programs of Architecture for Humanity, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need. To date the organization has provided shelter for more than 700,000 individuals in 31 countries. For more information, please visit: www.architectureforhumanity.org