Designing for Disaster Relief: Enter the Future of Shade Competition 2017 Humanitarian Challenge

This category challenges you to create the next best innovative design for disaster relief or a refugee crisis.

ARCHITIZER IS EXCITED TO PARTNER WITH SUNBRELLA® FOR THE FIFTH ANNUAL FUTURE OF SHADE COMPETITION, WHICH IS DEDICATED TO EXPLORING SPACE-BUILDING POTENTIALS OF FABRIC. OVER THE YEARS, THE COMPETITION HAS GENERATED INTEREST FROM ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS ALL OVER THE WORLD, ATTRACTING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS THAT ADVANCE THE TECHNOLOGICAL AND AESTHETIC POTENTIAL OF SUNBRELLA PRODUCTS. THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER IN EACH CATEGORY WILL RECEIVE $10,000 AND HAVE THE CHANCE TO HAVE THEIR DESIGN REALIZED WITH SUNBRELLA FABRICS.

The Future of Shade Competition is now open! We are pleased to introduce the second of three categories available for entry: the Humanitarian Challenge.

Now more than ever, architects and engineers are looking for ways to create more sustainable and durable structures as social-minded architecture is taking center stage. Changing weather patterns, political instability and a global shift toward smaller, more mobile dwellings are all forcing the industry to find creative designs to build for human shelter.

That’s why the Future of Shade Competition’s humanitarian category is challenging architects to focus on designing for relief during a natural disaster or refugee crisis. Entrants have the opportunity to design a temporary shelter that can be easily transported and quickly assembled using simple tools in emergency situations.

Using Sunbrella® fabrics as the primary element in their proposal, entrants should design for a wide range of conditions that could be encountered around the world. They must also consider both the practical and emotional issues that the user might be facing during a time of great loss. Sunbrella challenges entrants to use its textile materials in an innovative way to design these habitable dwellings that not only protect an individual, but empower them with a sense of place and ownership.

2016 Sunbrella Future of Shade – Humanitarian Grand Prize Winner from Sunbrella on Vimeo.

Last year’s humanitarian challenge winner, “Pull” by Bolivian architect Jonathan Balderrama, envisioned a portable shelter that features a durable hatchback-like fabric roof. These structures are set on a wheeled wooden platform and can be pulled by a bicycle or harnessed to an animal. The modular homes can also be linked together to build an arcade, forming a community of people connected by their need for shelter.

“Pull” by Jonathan Balderrama

Great design has the unique ability to enhance people’s lives through the basic need of shelter. The humanitarian challenge category urges you to conceive the next best design for the future of relief.

“Pull” by Jonathan Balderrama

The deadline to submit to any of the Sunbrella Future of Shade categories is May 14, 2017. View past winners of the competition and more information on how to enter here.