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humanitarian design

Tierra Grata team members smiling

Eco toilets empower women and save nature in Colombia

Jenifer Colpas spends her days installing toilets, but her work has won her accolades as a Global Changemaker,...

Elon Musk at the The Web Summit 2013, RDS. Photo by Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media

Boring Company confirms plans to use excavated dirt for low-cost housing bricks

Will Elon Musk foray into affordable housing next? Earlier this week, he said on Twitter that The Boring Company...

Rendering of the foldable skyscraper

This foldable, solar-powered skyscraper provides instant shelter in disaster zones

Skyshelter.zip is a mobile skyscraper that can be folded and transported to natural disaster zones. Polish designers...

Net Zero Shelter on a grassy hill

This alpine tiny house is a beacon for lost hikers in severe weather

This mirrored alpine tiny house disappears into the landscape — until it's needed by mountaineers in distress....

Guardians, Rainforest Connection, Guardian devices, rainforest, rainforest canopy

Non-profit uses gunshot detection technology and solar energy to protect the rainforest

San Francisco-based non-profit Rainforest Connection has created a unique, technologically advanced system to defend...

Taste Project, Taste Community Restaurant, volunteer restaurant, community restaurant, fort worth restaurants, volunteers, pay-what-you-can, food, vegans, vegetarians, community kitchen

New pay-what-you-can restaurant opens in Fort Worth, Texas

  A Texas couple have opened a new restaurant that offers a pay-what-you-can model. Taste Community...

Light bulb, light bulbs, light, electricity, power, wood

7 simple designs that solve modern problems - and don't cost a fortune

Clean water. Affordable housing. Renewable energy. These are just a few of the pressing needs that can be met by...

DIY Girls, STEM, girls in STEM, women in STEM

All-female high school team invents solar-powered tent for homeless

Twelve young women from San Fernando High School in California have created a solar-powered tent to serve the...

Michael Reynolds, earthship academy, earthship passive solar houses, a sustainable school program, sustainable public schools, sustainable public schools argentina, sustainable architects, social architectura, education, sustainable schools, green design, sustainable design, clean energy, water harvesting, repurposed building materials, Mar Chiquita school, Mar Chiquita sustainable school, green architecture programs, green architecture schools

Earthship pioneer Michael Reynolds is building the first sustainable school in Argentina

Architect Michael Reynolds is known for his sustainable "Earthship" buildings - and how he's taking his radical...

Jae-Eun Choi, Shigeru Ban,

Elevated bamboo peace bridge for the Korean Demilitarized Zone unveiled by Shigeru Ban and Jae-Eun Choi

South Korean artist Jae-Eun Choi is teaming up with prolific architect Shigeru Ban to bridge a peaceful relationship...

Homed by Framlab, Homed homeless housing, homeless housing parasitic architecture, parasitic architecture, homeless housing designs, homeless housing proposals, 3D printing homeless housing

3D-printed pod homes for the homeless could hang from NYC buildings

Creative agency Framlab has proposed a new type of architecture for housing New York City’s growing homeless...

Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Project in Guangming Village, Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Project in Guangming Village WAF, Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Project in Guangming Village World Building of the Year, WAF World Building of the Year 2017, The Chinese University of Hong Kong & Kunming University of Science and Technology

Post-earthquake home in China wins World Building of the Year 2017

A humanitarian project built with affordable, low-tech materials has won this year’s World Building of the Year...

Calefactores, ceramic design, nest heaters, Estudio äCo, Design Week Mexico, energy-efficient design, green design, small spaces

These beautiful ceramic heaters help Mexico’s vulnerable communities stay warm

These wonderful ceramic Nest heaters are designed to provide much-needed warmth to vulnerable communities in the...

SOLARKIOSK, E-HUBB, Buckminster Fuller Challenge, solar energy, community empowerment, entrepreneurship, local empowerment, local economy, local energy, resilience, resilient communities, Africa, Asia, Latin America, solar power, clean energy, clean water,

SOLARKIOSK E-HUBBs put goods, services, and power back into Africa's hands

The game-changing power of solar energy is a gift to all of the global community. Nations of the world, having...

Paperfuge, Manu Prakash, centrifuge design, health saving designs, humanitarian designs, sustainable health design, index award 2017, Stanford bioengineers, Stanford medical inventions, hand-powered centrifuge, medical technology

This 20-cent, hand-powered centrifuge is set to revolutionize off-grid healthcare

Centrifuges separate blood components to make pathogens easier to detect - and they're essential to diagnosing...

Zipline Medical Drone, Fly Zipline, drone design, medical drone service, INDEX: AWARD 2017, green design, drone services, medical drone services, drone design, medical technology, medical delivery, humanitarian design,

Zipline drones deliver life-saving medical supplies in under an hour

83% of rural Africans lack access to critical healthcare services - and delivering emergency supplies is often...

Syria, Syrian children, Syria schools

Edible schoolyards sprout across war-torn Syria

As Syria's civil war continues into its sixth year, millions remain in the divided, war-torn country. To meet basic...

OffGridBox, container with water and power, off grid water and electricity, OffGridBox locations, off grid container box, off grid water, offgrid power

Compact OffGridBox provides drinking water and power where it's needed most

An Italian company has developed a compact solution for communities that lack access to clean drinking water and...

Shigeru Ban, refugees housing Shigeru Ban, Shigeru Ban refugees, kenya refugee housing, Shigeru Ban kenya, humanitarian design, refugee housing, sustainable design, sustainable shelter design, green design, naturally-sourced building materials, kenyan building materials, refugee crisis, UN agency, UN habitat, Kalobeyei Settlement

Shigeru Ban designs 20,000 homes for severely overcrowded refugee camp in Kenya

World-renowned architect, Shigeru Ban, is taking his talents to those who need it most. Working in collaboration...

Studio Elmo Vermijs, Skaeve Huse, netherlands tiny house, tiny house design, tiny house living, homeless shlterrs, tiny homes for homeless, urban design, tiny homes urban design, mass tiny home construction, tiny house villages, small spaces, Tiny house villages netherlands energy-neutral tiny homes, green design, sustainable design, energy efficiency, Eindhoven tiny home village,

Dutch studio unveils colorful solar-powered village for area homeless

Studio Elmo Vemijs from the Netherlands has created a beautiful tiny home village on the outskirts of Eindhoven...

Bluebonnet Studios, social housing,Austin, Forge Craft Architecture + Design, Texas, natural light, occupancy sensors, recycled materials, recycling, green architecture

Energy-efficient Bluebonnet Studios offers sustainable housing to Austin’s most vulnerable citizens

The Bluebonnet Studios social housing development in Austin supports a healthy lifestyle through the design. The...

The Netherlands, Dutch, prisons, refugees, Syria, war,

The Netherlands is converting prisons into homes for refugees

Unlike the United States of America, the prison population and crime rate in the Netherlands has been steadily...

Tateh Lehbib Breica, United Nations Refugee Agency, refugee, refugees, refugee camp, refugee camps, Algeria, plastic bottle, plastic bottles, plastic bottle home, plastic bottle homes, plastic bottle architecture, architecture, refugee home, refugee homes, refugee shelter, refugee shelters

Extraordinary man builds 25 plastic bottle homes for refugees in Algeria

A Sahrawi refugee in Algeria is rebuilding lives - literally. Born and raised in the refugee camp in Awserd near...

Conceptos Plásticos, Fernando Llanos, Óscar Méndez, recycled materials, recycled plastic, LEGO bricks, LEGO like bricks, LEGO home building, recycled plastic bricks, recycled plastic materials, green building, green construction, humanitarian desig

This $6,800 house was built from recycled bricks in just 5 days

While it may look unassuming at first glance, this house is truly revolutionary. The 430 square foot home is made...

ikea, ikea refugee shelter, better shelter, flat pack refugee shelter, flat pack design, solar homes, refugees, social entrepreneurship

IKEA's Better Shelter is being redesigned due to safety concerns

IKEA’s groundbreaking flat-pack refugee shelter may have won acclaim and industry awards, but project's deployment...

Maidan Tent, Maidan Tent design, Maidan Tent for refugees, refugee public space architecture, refugee multifunctional design, Ritsona refugee camp

Maidan Tent aims to improve life in refugee camps with pop-up public space

A Milan-based design studio created a portable pop-up building that aims to improve the lives of refugees. Named...

Cameron Sinclair, Airbnb, Architecture for Humanity, Airbnb refugees, Airbnb displaced people, Cameron Sinclair small works, Small works, #weaccept, humanitarian housing, humanitarian projects, architecture for good, Airbnb housing

Cameron Sinclair joins Airbnb to provide housing for 100,000 displaced people

Airbnb wants to provide temporary housing for 100,000 displaced people, and to help reach that goal, the home-sharing...

Nof Nathansohn, Bedouin communities, Home Made, affordable homes, digital architecture, green energy, Israeli Bedouin, green design, green building, digital building, architecture software, sustainable design, humanitarian design, temporary structures

Student invents computer program to help Bedouin villages build better homes

Architecture student Nof Nathansohn is on a mission to provide decent living solutions for the marginalized Bedouin...

ChuChu Design, Chu Chu Design, ChuChu Design in Myanmar, ChuChu Design Burma, eco-friendly Burma, eco-friendly Yangon, eco-friendly Myanmar, recycling in Yangon, recycling Myanmar, upcycling Myanmar, environmentally friendly Yangon, recycled materials social enterprise, Wendy Neampui, Friedor Jeske, eco-tourism Myanmar, eco-tourism Burma, green design in Myanmar, green design Yangon,

Myanmar’s eco-friendly startup transforms trash into treasure—and jobs

Trash is a big problem in Myanmar. Garbage is scattered in the streets with smells of burning trash never far behind—but...

Made Collective, Otra Nation, trump border wall, solar energy, mexico wall, Hyperloops, solar farms, and an entirely new form of nation, border wall design, utopia design, us politics, border wall mexico, shared nation, eco communities, solar communities, collective designers, architecture, humanitarian archiecture,

Solar-powered 'ecotopia' proposed as alternative to Trump's border wall

In response to Trump's maddening determination to build a wall along the US and Mexico border, one group of fed-up...

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