Designed and built a medical infrastructure in a remote area with 4,000 inhabitants on the high plateaus of the Red Island Ambatofotsy is a remote location whose 4,000 inhabitants live dispersed across a sprawling, arid landscape with no medical infrastructure. In early 2017, Architecture Without Borders Québec, Engineers Without Borders Québec and the PRECI decided to support the mission of the Soeurs Missionnaires de l’Immaculée Conception, a missionary that has been in Ambatofotsy for years, to finance, design and build a medical centre in a culturally appropriate and sustainable manner. A volunteer architect’s mission in May 2017 allowed us to meet local partners, understand the site and prepare materials orders. Needs were surveyed on site through participatory workshops. The building embodies the vernacular principles of Malagasy construction, while also incorporating modern concepts. Since early February 2018, a doctor has been doing consultations 3 days per week, and a nurse and midwife have been on site full-time to offer first aid and maternity services. With the support of the Roncalli International Foundation, a second phase of construction is now set to begin to complete the centre by adding accommodations for the medical team.

The youth center was designed and built as a collaboration between Komitu architects team and two Cambodian NGOs Cambodian Volunteers for Society (CVS) and Khmer Kamputchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Association (KKKHRDA) in a disadvantaged urban neighbourhood of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. CVS provides Cambodian youth with opportunities to learn, get work experience and unlock their potentials in order to do their share in the development of Cambodian society. Volunteering youth make useful contributions to their communities while gaining work experience for their future professional careers. Through CVS, youth from different urban communities meet and find solutions for common problems. KKKHRDA manages the neighbourhood where the center will be built and airs a radio program about human rights.
The bases of Komitu’s work is on culturally sensitive and participatory design. During the design process the voice of the youth was heard through workshops. The building phase also engaged the locals. The design of the youth center is based on the use of local and sustainable building materials and technologies. Earth bricks are a low-emission choice for the bearing structures, while bamboo has been chosen for shadings and decoration because it is rapidly renewable, affordable and traditionally used in Cambodian culture. By developing modern architecture that derives from local esthetics and craftsmanship we can promote the use of these undervalued materials in modern day Cambodia.
The project started in march 2010 on Aalto University’s Cambodia Studio’s field trip, where Komitu members Elina Tenho and Tuuli Kassi organised the first workshops with the youth volunteering for CVS. In December 2010 we travelled back to Phnom Penh to introduce the first design for the youth center and to futher develop it together with the future users. In addition to the design workshop with the local youth, presentations were held at Limkokwing University for students of architecture and at Meta-house culture center for anyone interested.
During the year 2011 Komitu worked on the design and developed the bamboo and earth brick techniques together with engineering collaborators. In March 2012 the construction begun with filling the site and prefabricating bamboo parts. In August 2012 we had a change of constructor, after which the building advanced at a good pace and BQC construction

„Girls’ education has proven to be one of the most effective ways of poverty reduction and community development. Through education, girls acquire the capacity for better livelihoods, and learn how to look after themselves and their future families.
In rural Tanzania, however, going to school may be a challenge:  some girls have to walk up to 30 km to reach their school. The daily journey can also get dangerous, with serious consequences: pregnancy is considered a valid reason for expelling a girl from school – which terminates her education.
To keep the girls safe and save time for their studies, parents and communities often prefer them to stay close to the school. For this purpose, safe and well-designed hostels for girls are needed, to provide them with an environment that supports their education and development.  
Ukumbi NGO and Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects have worked together with Lyra in Africa, to design and build hostels for girls in secondary schools in Iringa region, Tanzania. The first executed hostel opened in October 2018 in Nyang’oro Secondary School. Lyra in Africa is providing the funding for the construction of the hostel facilities, whereas Hollmén Reuter Sandman are providing the architectural design.
Sustainable, environmentally and culturally appropriate architecture is vitally important for the success of the Lyra’s hostel project, and it will set a standard in the future projects in the area. It will also have a strong impact on the community by allowing them to engage in the design and construction on the hostel, thus strengthening their economy, social status and vitality. The next dormitory, with a revised and improved design is being built in Ilambilole, Iringa rural, to be opened in 2020.  

„1to1 has developed a set of core tools that support their work in spatial development projects in South Africa. These tools have been developed to assist with the complexities of socio-technical urban development and have been developed as a means of addressing issues of language, spatial literacy and various positional issues.
Codes of Engagement are the underlying principles that guide the work practice of 1to1. This was co-developed with a diverse set of practitioners, grass-roots leaders and students as means of balancing the iterative nature of spatial development practice in a humanised and accessible way. This set of codes is seen a means of guiding other practitioners in the field, while allowing 1to1 to adapt and update the codes in their practice.
The Kickstarter Pack has been designed as dialogue tool to support the early stages of developing a project brief with residents and grass roots leaders of community-based/grassroots organisations. The first pilot project was developed in Slovo Park and serves as a crucial tool for grass-roots groups to use when determining their project brief, budget requirements and develop funding proposals to establish their projects.  
Time-line Tool is an artefact that has emerged over the 8-year period of 1to1’s work. The tool is seen as a means of physically building a language for development processes that require nuanced facilitation by grass-roots practitioners. The tool was designed as a means of managing expectations and allowing often marginalised voices a physical space to contribute and share in informal settlement development projects.
UISP Roadmap was developed as a visual support tool in support of local government practitioners and informal settlement resident leadership groups in navigating the Upgrading Informal Settlement Policy (UISP). The tool was conceptualised around the idea of a road map, and offers suggestions, warnings, and routes towards actioning the policy in the field as a means of demystifying policy and building a common understanding of governmental developmental mechanisms.”

The project has the purpose of contributing to the reinforcement of the social, ethnic and cultural background of the “Guambian” native community of the “Cabildo La Bonanza” by means of the improvement of its habitat, that is to say the living, hygienic, sanitary conditions and infrastructures. Beneficiaries are composed of 205 Guambian families coming from Resguardo of Guambia Silvia and compelled, since 1930, to move into the east part of Morales Municipality for the lack of lands to live on. The Community faced the difficulties coming from settling in a new land, with the risk of loosing its own identity as a native ancestral community.

Gambian Community asked for support in the reinforcement and improvement of its settlement, as well as in the process of social and cultural development. According to this request, ASF Onlus elaborated the following project in cooperation with the local community:
a) improvement of the present hygienic, sanitary, living conditions and infrastructure, necessary to guarantee the available habitat for the community. For this purpose, the project will provide to the building of 20 houses for 20 families together with the basic infrastructures linked to them, in status of “auto-costruzione”;
b) creation of a laboratory for the manufacturing of “guadua” (a kind of material similar to bamboo) and of wood, useful for the houses’ construction;
c) promotion of training activities in communitary organization, leadership, building activities, manufacturing, creation of small factories, with the aim of strengthening the communitary organization and starting up productive activities in favour of the whole community.

The project aims to make all the people involved (target group and local partners) able to develop their own technical and organization abilities by means of a communitary, synergic partecipation between the whole native population and the target group. Thus the project aims to contribute in making it easier to begin a sustainable development process.

The main goal of this project is to support the process of ‘Selfconstruction of Dwellings’ in the Victorias 3 community, founded in 1999 after a long period of organisation and vindication by the community, which culminated in the recovery of the land. With this project we seek, in addition to the symbolic value of the land, to allow for the families in Victorias 3 to improve their health and hygienic conditions as well as their economic situation. Moreover, by providing a stable habitat, living conditions within the family, social relationships, and the degree of empowerment of the community will be improved. Hence, they can proceed with this process of human development, originally set off by themselves together with the organisation for the recovery of Mother Earth. The dwellings will be built with autochthonous equipment, materials and technologies, to facilitate usability and supply and to prevent the risk of technological dependency. The benefi ciaries themselves, who previously followed a capacity building course, will provide labour. Upkeep of dwellings is therefore guaranteed by the owners themselves.