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

„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.”

ASF-Sweden engages in a project of cooperation with the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, which since 1996 has been restoring the ancient fabric and upgrading the infrastructure of the Old Town of Hebron - one of the oldest cities in the world and a cultural heritage for humanity. The aim of the committee’s work is to safeguard Hebron’s architectural heritage, but also to revive traditional craftsmanship, create jobs and allow the inhabitants to stay in their city.

Since several decades, the presence of militant Israeli Jewish settlers in Hebron’s Old Town is a threat to its physical and social survival. Houses are demolished and emptied, and vital streets closed for Palestinians. The inhabitants are expelled or trapped-in, shops closed forcibly or by lack of access, children attacked on their way to school. In this everyday situation the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee work to rehabilitate and restore the houses and to graduate the infrastructure in the Old City.

The role of ASF-Sweden is to spread information about the situation in Hebron and the valuable work of HRC, and to contribute with Swedish experiences of integrating a child perspective in urban planning (start in 2010, end 2012). Methods developed in Sweden by experts, and experiences from practical work of Swedish architects, will be adapted to the local context together with the HRC staff in recurrent workshop sessions in Hebron, in which children from schools of the Old City will participate. The goal is making the child perspective a natural part of the work process of HRC. The project will be followed up and evaluated by HRC, ASF-Sweden and Sida, to see if this cooperation could be further developed and/or applied in other places in Palestine or elsewhere.

As a test project, ASF and HRC have become partners in a cooperation with three universities in Sweden (KTH, LTH and Alnarp), tutoring and supporting four students that have made their master diploma work in Hebron. The common theme for all students is making proposals for buildings, places and/or town/landscaping in Hebron Old City, with a strong child perspective in mind. A presentation by the students will be held in Hebron in November 2009. By the beginning of 2010, the outcome will be subject to evaluation by ASF and HRC.

The San Francisco Javier Hospital, recognized by the National Sanitary System as the public hospital of Assin district, is the reference hospital structure for 41 surgeries, scattered in this area with about 250.000 beneficiaries. Considering the importance of the hospital, a great planning analysis was imperative. A methodological and procedural process of transformation and reorganization of Assin was initiated in order to improve the existing structures and their reciprocal relations, thus guaranteeing a correct and sustainable increase of the new sanitary structure.

ASF ONLUS designed the technical urban project which includes the interventions for the planning and development of the entire hospital center. The master-plan contains measures for the enlargement of the pre-existing hospital buildings, for the reorganization of the connections between the different parts as well as for the realization of new buildings, more functional for the users.

The association Terre Construite/Tierra Construida bases its approach on earth construction techniques, as a political answer to the issues of construction economy. Its involvment inside the Amaicha del Valle community strengthened this position, facilitating the community to build its economic and social autonomy. Natives communities have been recognized since the new Argentinian Constitution in 1994. At Amaicha del Valle, only 52.812 of the 132.000 ha of claimed lands were given back through a cadastral sketch in 2002. The administrative process for the legal restitution of the land is not over yet. Thus the struggle continues for the recognition of the whole territory against big land-owners and the constitutional context.

TC, in partnership with ASF-France, was actively involved in this work by drawing a precise map of the territorial limits, with the help of the “Cedula Real”, a 1716 text in which the king of Spain did recognize the existence of the community. The project manager of ASF, in a frame of action by TC, works closely with the cacique (chief of the community) on several projects:

- Establishment of a urban code

- Recovery of a plot, in order to refurbish it into a community development center (hosteria)

- Building of workshops for a school for the disabled (escuela San Roque)

- Technical support for a bridge construction (la Fronterita)

- Refurbishment of a building for tourism purposes, in order to develop the economic autonomy of the community (Pulperia)

- Survey of Quilmes’ ruins site, to improve the rainwater system which is currently damaging the archeological heritage.

In addition, the “Tierra Construida association house” allows architecture students to get earth construction training with amaicheños (Amaicha inhabitants), who still build with this material.