Announcing the recipients!2018 New Urban Agenda Local Chapter Grant
The New Urban Agenda (NUA) was adopted at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on October 20, 2016, and endorsed by the UN General Assembly on December 23, 2016. The NUA provides a path for international efforts for the next 20 years, to provide a right to safe and decent housing and communities for everyone.
Many of the principles of the New Urban Agenda have long been espoused by the architectural profession. We wanted to learn about the best projects and programs offered by AIA chapters that support the New Urban Agenda vision.Congratulations to this year's recipients!
1st place | AIA Seattle AIA Seattle lead with a strong declaration of housing as a human right and their proposal had a very clear agenda based on that. Their three pronged approach of using member engagement, advocacy and outreach engages policy and legislation deeply thereby showing architects and the AIA chapter in comprehensive leadership role. 2nd place | AIA Baltimore & AIA ChicagoThese are two excellent examples of how design competitions can begin to impact communities and ideally policy. They demonstrate the value of design to the NUA and we especially appreciated that they engaged with youth—whether students or homeless LBTQ.Baltimore: Baltimore worked to improve the existing historic neighborhood and community context. They engaged the community widely and addressed resilience as well. Chicago: Chicago ability to create a built model and having the municipality move it forward was very impressive.
3rd place | AIA San Francisco AIA SF built awareness by branding their NEXT conference on NUA and by highlighting speakers and pointing members and the public to NUA's message. AIA SF demonstrated leadership by working on this initiative before AIA issued their statement.