Know more about this initiative in this Greater Good Philippines interview with Illac Diaz, social entrepreneur and founder of My Shelter Foundation.
Design Against the Elements is a global architectural design competition meant to find a solution to the problems presented by climate change. Spurred by the devastation wreaked in the Philippines by tropical storm Ondoy (Ketsana) and driven by a powerhouse multidisciplinary group of organizations from the private, institutional, and government sectors, the project aims to draw together the most innovative minds in the fields of architecture, design, and urban planning to develop sustainable and disaster-resistant housing for communities in tropical urban settings.
The winning design will be built as a prototype disaster-resistant and livable eco-village in Taguig City, Metro Manila. The village will be the first green and disaster-resistant community in the country. It will provide a model that can be studied and replicated in similar areas. The finished project will house a marginalized community living in an environmental danger zone, giving them a sense of security, ownership, and awareness of sustainability that can be practiced at all levels in their everyday lives.
The Design Against the Elements initiative is spearheaded by My Shelter Foundation. MyShelter Foundation is the same group behind last year’s Millennium Schools project, an international design competition for ecologically sound school buildings in tropical developing countries such as the Philippines. Other organizations involved in the Millennium Schools project are the Philippine Green Building Council, the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the United Architects of the Philippines, the Private Sector Disaster Management Network, Redeye, and the Department of Education The global competition solicited the best architectural designs from around the world, from among which the first prize winner, Eleena Jamil of Malaysia, was selected; the winning design was recently built in Camarines Sur, Philippines.
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