An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they cannot live in their previous residence, similar to homeless shelters. The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific type of situation, such as natural or man-made disasters, domestic violence, or victims of sexual abuse. A more minor difference is that people staying in emergency shelters are more likely to stay all day, except for work, school, or errands, while homeless shelters usually expect people to stay elsewhere during the day, returning only to sleep or eat. Emergency shelters sometimes facilitate support groups, and/or provide meals.
Architecture for Humanity was a US-based charitable organization that sought architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brought professional design services to clients. Founded in 1999, it laid off its staff and closed down at the beginning of January 2015.
The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardware. The process is generally facilitated by the Internet and often performed without monetary compensation. The goals and philosophy of the movement are identical to that of the open-source movement, but are implemented for the development of physical products rather than software. Open design is a form of co-creation, where the final product is designed by the users, rather than an external stakeholder such as a private company.
Alex Steffen is an American futurist who writes and speaks about sustainability and the future of the planet. He emphasizes the importance of imagining persuasive, positive possible futures: "It's literally true that we can't build what we can't imagine,... The fact that we haven't compellingly imagined a thriving, dynamic, sustainable world is a major reason we don't already live in one."
Worldchanging was a nonprofit online publisher that operated from 2003 to 2010. Its strapline was A bright green future. It published newsletters and books about sustainability, bright green environmentalism, futurism and social innovation.
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to improve the quality of public participation in urban planning and community design.
Sergio Palleroni is an American architect, professor, and fellow at the new Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He is known for his social and environmental activism, providing with his students and collaborators sustainable design solutions to communities in need. Since 2013 he has been director of the Center for Public Interest Design, the first such design research center in the US, whose mission is, in the words of its mission statement, "To investigate and promote design practices that are a catalyst for the social, economic and environmental change needed to serve the growing needs of communities both locally and worldwide."
Nader Khalili was an Iranian-born American architect, author, and educator. He is best known for his inventive structures that incorporated a range of atypical building materials to provide shelter in the developing world and emergency contexts. His work was heavily influenced by the traditional arid house designs of Iran.
Open Architecture Network was the world's first online open source community dedicated to improving global living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. It was developed by Architecture for Humanity and incorporated Creative Commons licensing within the project management tools.
Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer. He is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE, and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU. Previously he was the Frank Gehry Chair at University of Toronto and a faculty member at Pratt, Columbia, Syracuse, Washington, The New School, and the European Graduate School.
One Peace at a Time is a film by Turk and Christy Pipkin. It was produced by The Nobelity Project and was premiered at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, USA, on April 14, 2009. It is the sequel to the film Nobelity. It has been shown in various countries.
Lucy Orta is an English contemporary visual artist living and working between London and Paris where she has resided since 1991.
The Earth Awards is an aspirational platform for consumer-driven ideas that challenge designers and innovators to build a new economy. It is an annual competition since 2007, aiming to "transform visionary ideas into market-ready solutions by offering finalists the unique opportunities to pitch their project to world business leaders". The Awards are open to students, graduates and industry professionals - the public is invited to submit innovations to be judged.
Brian Joseph Chesky is an American businessman and industrial designer. He is the co-founder and CEO of the peer-to-peer lodging service Airbnb. Chesky was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People of 2015".
Terreform ONE is a 501c3 non-profit architecture and urban think tank that advances ecological design in derelict municipal areas. By formulating unsolicited feasibility studies and egalitarian designs, their mission is to illustrate speculative environmental plans for New York City and other cities worldwide. Their intention is to support community outreach and master plan solutions in underprivileged areas that do not have direct access to qualified architects and urban designers.
Public interest design is a human-centered and participatory design practice that places emphasis on the “triple bottom line” of sustainable design that includes ecological, economic, and social issues and on designing products, structures, and systems that address issues such as economic development and the preservation of the environment. Projects incorporating public interest design focus on the general good of the local citizens with a fundamentally collaborative perspective.
Nicolás García Mayor is an Argentine entrepreneur and industrial designer focused in humanitarian development. He is the CEO of Cmax System INC and other Corp's and NGO's. He worked and lived in Europe conducting various architectural and innovation design projects. Since 2000 he has been working as an Industrial Humanitarian Designer, identifying, designing, developing and implementing innovative solutions in countries in South America and abroad, including China, Austria, Spain, France, United Arab Emirates.
Joseph Gebbia Jr. is an American billionaire designer and Internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Airbnb and Samara, an accessory dwelling unit startup that was formerly Airbnb's design studio, and of Airbnb.org, the company's non-profit foundation. As of July 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$8 billion.
Kate Stohr is an American journalist, data scientist and civic activist based near San Francisco, CA. She was the director of a Data Science initiative at Simon & Schuster. She founded 99 Antennas. In 2016 she covered the U.S. Presidential Elections as a data journalist with Fusion and noted for her coverage of the online dominance of the Trump candidacy and for her reporting on the racial inequality in US prosecutor elections
Jiri Lev is a Czech-Australian architect and urbanist, active in the field of sustainable residential, sacred and public architecture, disaster recovery and humanitarian development.
