Cameron Sinclair's wish:
I wish to create a community that actively embraces open-source design to generate innovative and sustainable living standards for all.
As revealed at TED2007:
The Open Architecture Network launched March 8, 2007 -- and on its first day, it was visited by some 25,000 people, who uploaded dozens of new building plans. Its instant success shows how vital a resource this website is.
The OAN is a clearinghouse for designs, but it's also a living network, where communities can connect with designers and donors, and where builders can manage a project from start to finish, with timelines, commenting tools and forums. Clean design and a powerful backend make the network accessible to anyone worldwide, while Creative Commons licensing allows projects to be sampled, remixed and customized.
"One of the first users," Cameron says, "is an indigenous building group from the Hopi nation. They're looking to share their ideas ... so that other reservations can do low-income housing."
Also at TED, one of the OAN's project partners, AMD, announced the establishment of the Open Architecture Prize, given by AMD’s 50x15 Initiative and Architecture for Humanity -- a $250,000 prize for the best open-source design of an "e-community" technology center. The prize money goes to the budget of the new center, and the winning plan will become part of the Open Architecture Network database.
How it came together:
- Sun brought the strength of its technology and the brain power of its engineering team to design and build the Open Architecture Network. It was a global effort, with engineers in the US, Canada and India spending more than 1,000 hours of development time to design and build the back end of the network, using open-source software. The site is powered by Sun Fire servers and Sun StorageTek drives to manage the incredible amount of architectural designs, product specs and databases offered on the Open Architecture Network.
- Hot Studio provided research, strategic concept modeling, user experience and visual design expertise to design a sustainable and scalable interactive system consistent with Architecture for Humanity's vision. Hot Studio started the process by providing a human-centered design methodology. It created a framework to enable full collaboration across the team that fostered innovative and strategic thinking throughout the project.
- AMD agreed to provide Opteron server processor technologies, as well as dedicated hosting services for the OAN server solution for a period of no less two years
- TEDsters Dean and Anne Ornish provided free office space for the Architecture for Humanity team in Sausalito for a full year, enabling them to move from Bozeman, MT, to the San Francisco area, where their tech resources are
- Creative Commons helped to integrate AFH's licensing system into the network, allowing architects to share their designs, including renderings, sketches and even CAD files, on terms of their choosing while protecting their intellectual property rights
- TEDster Laura Galloway of Galloway Media Group has provided pro-bono PR
- TEDster Taylor Milsal has given her time as a development director for Architecture for Humanity
- The Sapling Foundation gave a $125K matching grant to the building of the network, which TEDsters James and Zem Joaquin and Jay Platt have begun to match, along with a number of AFH community members
- TEDster Peter Skillman, of Palm, provided Treos for the Architecture for Humanity team
- TEDsters Saul Griffith (Squid Labs), Amy Smith (MIT) and Martin Fisher (KickStart) have worked as an informal advisory group
- The firms Reno and Cavanaugh PLLC and Jenner & Block LLP provided legal guidance to help protect designers who share their work on the network against unwarranted professional liability.
Into the future:
Now that the Open Architecture Network has launched, we're looking for designers to populate it. Look for more building plans every day as the OAN community hits critical mass.
