Architecture for Humanity Closes

John Hill

23. January 2015

Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis, Haiti. Photo: AFH

News broke last weekend that the non-profit organization closed its San Francisco offices, and yesterday AFH issued an official statement announcing they will be filing for bankruptcy.

According to an SFGate article by John King 17 January, "With no formal announcement at this time, all staff was laid off Jan. 1 by the board, and the nonprofit shut its office near Union Square." This news came about a year after co-founders Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr left AFH to take on new ventures. Started in 1999 by the couple, now married, AFH grew exponentially to over 60 chapters in the United States and abroad. In time it also gained an appreciation in the architecture community for its design work, much of it done in response to distasters such as in Haiti after it was hit by a category-7 earthquake.

Sinclair and Stohr issued a statement the same weekend as King's article:

Thank you for designing like you give a damn. We just heard the news that Architecture for Humanity, the organization we started more than 15 years ago, has pivoted its mission and is planning to close. We are deeply saddened by this.

Our hearts are with the staff and chapter members who worked so hard to build a wonderful organization that did so much for communities around the world. We made so many wonderful friends and will continue personally to support your work.

We ran the organization and grew it from just a small circle of volunteers to an international organization with chapters in 25 countries. For more than 10 years, together we led the movement to bring social design where it is needed most. We built award-winning buildings, ran innovative programs, personally raised more than $5 million in annual funding, year in and year out, and established more than five community design centers that set the standard for rebuilding after disaster.

We hope the profession will continue to design like a give damn--in whatever form that takes... And we urge the chapters to continue their much needed work.

Thank you,
Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr
Co-founders, Architecture for Humanity

And yesterday's official statement from AFH's Board of Directors:

It is with great regret that we announce that Architecture for Humanity, LLC will be filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Board expects that the bankruptcy will be filed within the next two weeks. This decision was made after serious consideration and review of all options. All staff was laid off as of January 1, 2015 and the physical office in San Francisco has been closed. As of January 1, 2015, the organization also stopped accepting donations. It is important to distinguish that while Architecture for Humanity as a 501c3 company is filing for bankruptcy, many of the international chapters of Architecture for Humanity, while they share a common name, are separate legal entities and will continue their work without pause. Additionally, the U.S. based chapters of Architecture for Humanity are managed by all volunteer directors, and those directors have vowed to continue the work of the organization, though it may be under a different name. It is a testament to what Architecture for Humanity has meant to the profession that the work will continue.

Architecture for Humanity has had incredible partners and funders that made our work possible over the last 15 years but, like many charity organizations, we have had serious funding challenges. Our leadership worked to overcome the funding gaps to the best of their ability, but the deficit combined with budget overruns and an overall decrease in donations finally became an insurmountable situation.

Even with this sad news, it is important to remember what the thousands of Architecture for Humanity volunteers and staff accomplished and inspired over the last 15 years. In 2006, the TED Prize was given in recognition of this work and spawned the Open Architecture Network, a platform that allowed a community to be born surrounding open source design and connected the world of humanitarian design globally in the digital space like no one had done before. Architecture for Humanity has provided important public interest design services to communities with critical needs across the globe, including post-disaster reconstruction in the United States, Haiti, the Philippines, South Africa, and Japan. We encourage everyone to take a look at the incredible work that has been done. “Design Like You Give A Damn”, a phrase coined by co-founder Cameron Sinclair, became a motto and transformed into an annual conference and two published books showcasing public interest design. Further, this motto became a part of architecture as a profession. In many ways, Architecture for Humanity helped to begin the humanitarian design movement. We now look to chapter members, volunteers, former staff, and the profession at large to lead the way.

The Board will continue to share any new updates with you via the Architecture for Humanity website.

We are extremely proud that Architecture for Humanity has been able to positively impact millions of lives through the power of design. We humbly thank you for all of your support.

Matt Charney
Board Chair
Architecture For Humanity

While the news is sad, given the commendable work done by AFH, the statement from the Board leaves room for optimism, since the global chapters and volunteers shepharding the local U.S. chapters will continue to work in the vein of the principles that Sinclair and Stohr established 16 years ago.