About AFH-MN

Architecture for Humanity (AFH) has found its way to Minnesota. Founded by seven individuals with varying design backgrounds and driven by shared passion and dedication, the Minnesota Chapter of Architecture for Humanity (AFH MN) upholds the same message to which its founders, Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, originally committed themselves: "To promote architectural and design solutions to global, social and humanitarian crises."

AFH MN has grown to include 20 members and is still growing. The organization is simultaneously a bridge between architects, landscape architects, and planners, as well as between students and practitioners.

When compassionate designers come together to promote humanitarian design, good things will happen. Some of the projects already begun by the newly-formed group include a charrette to help design a community center for Sri Lankan villages affected by the 2004 South Asian tsunami, an innovative idea for a Clean Hub that will provide clean water and energy to communities in disaster, and a building assessment project to help victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S.

AFH MN started out strong during the spring of 2005 in preparation for the arrival of Cameron Sinclair for a lecture at the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota.
Impassioned by Sinclair's wit and enthusiasm during a post-lecture breakfast, the Minnesota group set out to create what he had encouraged them to do: find great projects, unearth ways to raise money to make them a reality, and always "design like you give a damn."