CHICAGO – The team of Chicago-based architecture firm, Built Form, LLC and Rowe Elementary School are among only eight finalists of Architecture for Humanity’s “Classroom of the Future” international design competition.

Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need, launched the competition as part of a global initiative to generate ideas from around the world.  The architecture, design and engineering communities were asked to collaborate directly with real students and teachers to improve their school’s learning environment. More than 1,000 design teams from 65 countries registered for the competition.

The Built Form entry, “Extending the Classroom,” is a distinctive design using a rural satellite classroom located in southern Wisconsin as an extension of an urban Chicago classroom.  By providing an alternative rural setting for learning that is tied to the urban location, students develop an awareness of their environment and learn about new and different places and cultures.  This extension of the classroom will help teachers educate students about positive lifestyles, leadership skills, self-motivation and awareness of the world outside one’s immediate surroundings. To integrate students into a lifestyle of sustainable living, the design features the use of sustainable design strategies including passive environmental control, modular construction methods and recycled materials.

Each submission was rated on feasibility, sustainability, innovation in learning and overall design quality by a team of interdisciplinary jurors. Following three rounds of judging, the field of over 400 qualified entries was reduced to a shortlist of 52 teams. In late July, a panel of jurors who had met at the Aspen Ideas Festival (attended by U.S. Secretary of Education, and former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan), announced eight teams as finalists. The final award winners will be announced in early September with the winning team receiving a $50,000 grand prize to be used to build the classroom.  The design team will receive a $5,000 prize.

As part of the 10th anniversary of the National Design Awards celebrated at the White House on July 24 and attended by Architecture for Humanity co-founders, teachers and administration officials, First Lady Michelle Obama was presented with a portfolio of the finalists.

Rowe Elementary School, a charter school, will be operated by Northwestern University Settlement House, a not-for-profit organization that has been serving low-income, minority families in Chicago for 120 years through a range of programs including education, arts, youth and community services.

The seven other finalists include:

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

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

About Built Form

Built Form, LLC is a 20 person architecture firm located in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago.  The firm is a practice that combines the creative energies of a small design firm with the technical capabilities of a much larger firm that has executed projects of varying scale, type and complexity in various locations throughout the world.  The firm’s design process focuses on team collaboration and intensive project research to provide creative architectural solutions that address the relevant issues of the day.  With an emphasis on projects that help create better communities and address issues of sustainability, the firm is dedicated to producing architecture of lasting significance.  For more information see: www.built-form.net