ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY

GREGORY M LAMB, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - When Cameron Sinclair was an
architecture student, he designed temporary housing for New York's
homeless that would obscure the view of the Statue of Liberty. His
proposal: Once the city could properly house its "huddled masses," it
could have its view of the lady with the lamp back. . . A few years
later, in 1999, he and his wife, journalist Kate Stohr, founded
Architecture for Humanity, with the lofty aim of applying innovative
design concepts to help those suffering around the world.

Today, his methods remain unorthodox:

- He refuses to reveal the locations of AFH projects to television news
crews. . .

- Plans for a building or other structures developed for AFH are
available to anyone - for free. . .

- AFH won't put signs with its name or that of donors on a project it
builds. The building, Sinclair says, belongs to the community, not AFH
or the donors. . .

- AFH doesn't rush in after a disaster. "We shouldn't be there in the
first day or two. That's inappropriate. That's really offensive to
communities," he says, whose first needs are food, clothing, and
information about family members. . .

With just three full-time staff, AFH relies on some 2,500 designers and
other volunteers in 60 or so chapters worldwide.

Some 27,000 people subscribe to its e-mail newsletter

www.architectureforhumanity.org

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