Archaos, the UK national architecture student association and Architecture Sans Frontieres UK are jointly holding an ideas competition for an AIDS orphanage in South Africa.

The purposes of the competition are three fold :

  To generate ideas or a design primer to inform and inspire architects working in this field
  To raise awareness about the problem of AIDS in Southern Africa and in general
  To raise money towards the building of an AIDS orphanage in South Africa.

The competition submissions should be about how to enrich the provision of facilities for AIDS orphans with ingenuity, innovative uses of every-day and recycled materials and careful analysis of spatial and formal relationships that any facility would benefit from.

There will be three prizewinners, each receiving a years’ supply of condoms, and several Honourable mention awards each receiving 1 months supply of condoms. The competition is being run in conjunction with a local charity working with AIDS orphans in South Africa, Hearts of Hope (www.heartsofhope.org.za).

Squire and Partners Architects were pleased to assist and have generously donated sponsorship money for the prizes. Registration for the competition closes on the 03 March 2006, and the final submission deadline is 27 March 2006.

More information can be found at www.asf-uk.org and the competition homepage at www.archaos.org/aids.