CleanAcwa Update

A message from our dear friend and founder of CleanAcwa, Sangu Delle: 

Yesterday was one of the happiest days of my life and a big day for us at CleanAcwa. In a single day, in honor of upcoming World Water Day, we provided water infrastructure to about 3,000 people across 5 communities in Suhum: Akropongfomu, Ahafi, Kpladey, Addo Nkwanta and Koko junction. In Akropongfomu, this was the first water infrastructure the community has ever received since its founding in 1846. Why it has taken 170 years for this to happen is another essay for another day. Today we thank God and our amazing team at cleanacwa and our partners ACDEP and the District Assembly for helping make this happen.

As I pumped water, I was joined by my new friends in the picture Noah Ayittey, Emmanuel Tagoe, Gabriel Nyarko and Addantey Aaron, who were so excited to drink clean safe driving water for the first time! The prior source of drinking water was a spring infested with E.coli. Nana Adom Arthur and I had a great time hanging out with them and learning colorful stories about their lives including one about dodging a snake on the way to school.

It starts with water because nsuo y3 nkwa (water is life). But it's bigger than water. In the process of putting in place the boreholes, we set up village Water & Sanitation committees, helped them set up bank accounts, trained pump mechanics and treasurers to ensure sustainability. The community now owns and manages the infrastructure themselves.

We also worked on a development plan with them. They drew a map of their community identifying every single household, water body, and landmark. They articulated their vision of the future and how they imagined that future. They felt empowered and are now using the same WATSAN committee to pool their little resources together to invest in community projects examples building a kindergarten or a market structure. I was inspired and blown away by their resilience, their hope and their commitment to build a better life for their children.

I haven't slept in days but I am overjoyed and thankful to God for bringing us this far. Thankful to the team for all the hard work in making this happen. We spent almost a year doing training, skills development, capacity building and learning. We are so excited that by the grace of God and the generosity of our donors, including many friends on Facebook, we have been able to bring clean water to 3,000 rural poor!

But we can't rest on our laurels. We take today to celebrate but tomorrow the hardwork begins again. As we used to say at Peddie School, Finimus Pariter Renovamusque Labores. We still have over 3 million Ghanaians without access to clean water and we won't stop until every man, woman and child, whether in Aflao or Nandom, Suhum or Bunkprugu, will have access to the most basic fundamental right -- clean safe drinking water.

This is our dream for Vision 2030 where the water you drink and where you come from should have no bearing on your chance to live a full dignified life, free from diarrhea, and water poverty by 2030. I believe together we can make this dream, this vision, a reality. Thank you for supporting us! Back to work on our next cluster. ‪

Sangu Delle

PS: Join us this Saturday for our Walk for Water (details below)

Steve Martin to Curate at the MFA

We here at MIIM Designs are very excited to welcome Steve Martin at the MFA Boston. The actor and comedian is guest curator of an exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts devoted to Canadian modernist Lawren Harris. Some years ago, when our founder, Maryam Eskandari, designed the Phoenix College Fine Arts Building + the Eric Fischer Gallery, both Eric Fischl and Steve Martin made a surprise visit. 

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MIIM Designs partners with Open Architecture Collaborative

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 10, 2016 – On Thursday, the 30-chapter international organization of volunteer humanitarian designers and architects once affiliated with defunct nonprofit Architecture for Humanity announced its new brand and identity as the  Open Architecture Collaborative.

After over a year of development, the Open Architecture Collaborative (OAC) has determined an ongoing, autonomous identity and governing structure, following the January 2015 closure of the nonprofit that originally orchestrated them, while staying true to the shared values and practices of participatory design. In January 2016, while simply calling themselves the Chapter Network, the organization named its Executive Director, Garrett Jacobs. Jacobs has since been guiding the final decisions on organizational name and logo, the launch of a website, assembly of a Board of Directors, and election of 11 regional leaders.

“The OAC’s launch shows that our process works. This past year we turned participatory design on ourselves to create this organization,” says Jacobs. “There are hundreds of people who experienced this process and now feel an incredible sense of ownership over this name and this brand. Imagine what our places would be like if everyone felt as proud in their creation and change. We are working to make such visions realities large and small around the world.”

Currently in development, the Open Architecture Collaborative’s bylaws intend to preserve flexibility for local chapters to conduct their work as needed to be most in tune with their communities. The OAC would then provide oversight and professional resources to guide successful outcomes and equip more members and partners with tools, knowledge, and experience.

 Jacobs continues: “I personally believe that designers and architects have a privileged view to how things get built in this world, and we can use that insight to help others advocate for themselves to gain agency in our cities and rural communities. We need to be intentional about who we work with and the inclusive processes we use so everyone can feel a sense of ownership over what they create.”

 The OAC conducted its first Board of Directors meeting on Sunday, March 6. The board consists of seasoned professionals and experts with backgrounds in architecture and design, affordable housing law and development, academia, innovative business practice, network structures, marketing, and branding.

 “This organization defines good design as something beyond the aesthetic and functional, but that which thrives on inclusivity and empowerment,” said Maryam Eskandari, founder and principal architect of MIIM Designs, LLC. “Personally, I am excited to serve on the Board of Directors, and to continue pursuing MIIM Designs’ passion: ‘design communities and create culture.’ We look forward to contributing to a design platform that betters our communities.”

 The Open Architecture Collaborative is currently completing its bylaws, at which point it will apply to become a United States 501(c)3 organization. The OAC has one remaining Board vacancy for an experienced nonprofit manager with a financial background.

Read More: 
Inhabitat
Curbed
Dezeen
Archinect
Fast Company
Architect Magazine

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MANHATTAN “AMERICA TO ZANZIBAR: MUSLIM CULTURES NEAR AND FAR”

Images courtesy and copyright by Vladimir Baron

New York, NY – January 13, 2016 – The Children’s Museum of Manhattan today announced the opening of America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far, a groundbreaking, new interactive exhibit for children and families that explores the diversity of Muslim cultures in New York City, the U.S. and abroad. The multimedia exhibit and programming at the Children’s Museum (212 West 83rd Street) showcases the cultural expressions of various Muslim communities around the world through age-appropriate experiences with art, architecture, travel, trade, design and more. It will open Feb. 13 and remain open for at least a year.
The 3,000-square-foot exhibit was designed by MIIM Designs in collaboration with  Afsoon Talai of Children's Museum of Manhattan and  Golreezan , Graphic Designer: Tarek Atrissi  , Fabrication by Collab and Roto Group and Academic Adviser Hussein Rashid of Islamicate . 

 

Video Courtesy of VOA News 
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Wim Delvoye to exhibit at Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

Wim Delvoye, Rimowa Classic Flight Multiwheel 971.73.00.4, 2014. Embossed aluminium, 53 x 35 x 80 cm. © Studio Wim Delvoye, Belgium.

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has announced it will devote its entire space to a solo exhibition of the work of the internationally celebrated artist Wim Delvoye.

On view from March 7 to May 13, this remarkable display will be the first time since the revolution that the 38-year-old institution dedicates its complete exhibition space, in- and outdoors, to a non-Iranian artist.

A Belgian neo-conceptual artist, Wim Delvoye is best known for art that cleverly combines philosophical ideas, a fresh use of materials and a love for craftsmanship.

Organized by independent curators Vida Zaim and Leila Varasteh, in collaboration with TMoCA’s Director Majid Mollanoroozi and Deputy Director Ehsan Aghaei, the select survey offers an overview of Delvoye’s practice—from his Delft patterned shovels and gas canisters of the 1980s to recent aluminum suitcases, which are ornately embossed by Iranian artisans in the city of Isfahan. 

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Architecture for Humanity - New Chapter

“This is an opportunity to develop our own voice, and to have a platform [on which more] people can develop their skill and talents within the public interest design movement. I don’t think the profession supports it enough, and this is our way of doing that.”

Congratulations to our friend, Garret Jacobs, the newly appointed Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity. In the past year,  After a year in hiatus,  Fast Company "What's Next for Architecture for Humanity?", Jacobs incredible energy and commitment has allowed for Architecture for Humanity to flourish again. We are thrilled to see Jacobs' experience, exuberance and vision be carried out as Executive Director.  Over the course of the past week, not only have we celebrated this news, so have many of our architecture families. 

Exactly a year to date, Fast Company wrote a profound article celebrating with us, "The Story Behind Architecture for Humanity's Surprising Rebirth", followed by Archinect  and Architect Magazine.  


 
 

 

Health, Water, and Shelter: Using the Built Environment for Social Change

Harvard's WinterSession Program, 2016

Health, Water, and Shelter: Using the Built Environment for Social Change

How can we address refugee crises?
How does our environment affect our physical and mental health?
How can we protect our cities against the rising tides?

Join Adams House and the FDR Foundation on Jan. 21-23

 The space and structures around us shape how we interact with the world, influencing our health, wellness, capacity to innovate, and ability to call a place home. Join the Adams House Global Citizenship team and the FDR Foundation for three half-day sessions of exploring how the built environment affects key global issues. This WinterSession program will focus primarily on discussion, innovation, and design. Students will learn skills that will enable them to enact the change they want to see in spaces around the globe. We will address the ways in which global citizens can interact with and modify the built environment in response to climate change, population displacement, and health-related social injustice. Skills-based training sessions will include public narratives, design thinking, and problem solving.

Sign up at http://goo.gl/forms/08sGRBMscm

https://www.facebook.com/events/1548436888804796/

MIIM Designs Sponsoring CleanAcwa Competition for UN Toilet Day

MIIM Designs, along with Harvard Center for African Studies and Golden Palm Investments are proud to sponsor the CleanAcwa Sanitation + Innovation Prize. 

According to WHO/UNICEF 2012 joint report, about forty (40%) percent of the world’s population practice open defecation or lack of access to improved sanitation facilities, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 700,000 children annually. The sanitation on Millennium Development Goal (MDG7) target is among most off-track MDGs; it is expected that half a billion people will miss the MDG sanitation target. Financing for sanitation is low in comparison to water and abysmal in comparison to other development sectors such as health and education. The World Bank AICD (2010) surveyed 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and found that in most cases investment in sanitation was less than 0.1% of GDP. Lack of sanitation also adversely affects countries’ economies.

Cleanacwa and partners will select ten (10) finalists to pitch their innovative ideas at the Innovation Prize event on World Toilet Day on Thursday November 19, 2015. The best ideas will also be piloted in selected communities in Ghana and the results / outcomes shared among the WASH sector players, donors, academic researchers and government. 

Read More. 

Beyond Tomorrow Conference

MIIM Designs is a proud sponsor “Beyond Tomorrow” — Adams House, Harvard College, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foundation and the El Camino Project are pleased to co-present a three-day conference and concert experience, bringing together a diverse community of scholars, artists, writers and activists dedicated to preserving our past and charting our future in turbulent times. 

When: October 16–18 2015

Where: Harvard University

More Info

 

Remembering This Day in September

Maryam's essay on creating a spiritual architectural identity.

By: Maryam Eskandari

This weekend, the world marks the tenth anniversary of the horrific events of September 11th.  This tragedy pushed the Muslim American community to the forefront, forcing us to discover who we are, as a collective.  This grueling process of defining identity can be traced through architectural designs where various attributes have been explored.  From the relatively unknown Islamic inspired architecture of the World Trade Center, to the Islamic Center in Manhattan, we start to see not only a pattern of expression, but also a community coming into our own.

“World Trade Center’s plaza was, “a Mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area.” ”

The World Trade Center in New York, an iconic masterpiece stood majestically around 1300 feet high.  Designed by Minoru Yamasaki, an architect praised for merging modernism with Islamic architecture, recreated Mecca’s courtyard within the busy Financial District claiming the World Trade Center’s plaza was, “a Mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area.”  Three decades ago, Yamasaki, the desired designer of the 1970’s, was commissioned for his ability to merge Islamic and postmodern design, an amalgamation of defining a renowned form of architecture. He was applauded for his innovation.

He spent project after project perfecting his mathematical obsession for ornamental pattern work on the Eastern Airlines Terminal at Boston’s Logan Airport, the Federal Science Pavilion at Seattle’s World Fair, and at the North Shore Congregation Glencoe in Illinois. In doing so, he merged Islamic architecture into the other Abrahamic faith, Judaism, and we all stood back in astonishment. In fact, we all stood back and commended Yamasaki for his ability to weave the structural ribbed arches, replicating the mosque windows known as the “mashrabiya,” often found in “Islamic architecture”; into a post modern design.  Yamasaki’s intention was never questioned nor viewed through an Islamophobic lens when he stated that the World Trade Center was to be “a Mecca.”

Fast forward 30 years, when a postmodern building, a tenth of the height of the World Trade Center, with its “contemporary ‘exo-skeleton’ mashrabiya” was commissioned to be designed to accommodate the vast growing neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, the Park 51 project. The proposed performing arts center, a 500-seat auditorium theater, swimming pool, basketball courts, gallery/exhibition space, emulated “Yamasakian design style” and mimicked the programmatical functions of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and Jewish Community Center (JCC). The perception that a Muslim developer, or an “Islamic Community Center (ICC),” two blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center, was questioned. Park 51 aspired to be a post-modern icon of pluralism, alongside its other two Abrahamic faiths, Church of St. Peter and Battery Park Synagogue, both a block away from architect Michael Arad’s World Trade Center/National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

“President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the grand opening praised the Islamic world stating, “traditions of learning and rich culture” which have “for centuries contributed to the building of civilization.” ”

Prior to Yamasaki, another architect was already flourishing. Mario Rossi, the Italian-American Architect commissioned in 1949 and completed the Islamic Center of Washington DC in June of 1957.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the grand opening praised the Islamic world stating, “traditions of learning and rich culture” which have “for centuries contributed to the building of civilization.”  The eclectic design of Rossi, played on the concept of memory, was to be a precedent mosque for others in the United States, representing all the Muslim countries. The Islamic Center of Washington DC became the icon of American-Muslims, settling on the concept of cultural nostalgia, with luxurious gifts from Egypt, Iran, and Turkey.

However, three decades later, Skidmore Owing and Merrill (SOM), was commissioned in 1987 to build the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. SOM decided to redefine the American-Muslim identity, departing from “cultural nostalgia” and instead embracing the American-Muslim identity through a post-modern design. Mimicking Yamasaki’s “weaving” of Islamic Architecture through a modern approach, SOM often found itself interrogated for its architectural designs to the 46 Muslim countries sponsors particularly to its key donor Kuwait, who expressed that the “iconic mosque” design should be implemented.  For example, SOM perceived the minaret as juxtaposition between architecture and identity. SOM design of the minaret was just a simple cylindrical form with a balcony on top. However, the Amir of Kuwait did not find this acceptable in a mosque design under the notion that the design was not “Islamic.” Nevertheless, the minaret was built after the completion of the Islamic Cultural Center to appeal to the demands of Kuwait’s Amir.

Conversely, SOM and Kuwait often find themselves designing mosques with a whole new Islamic architecture vocabulary. Most recently, Kuwait commissioned star-architect Zaha Hadid to design a contemporary mosque at the Avenues Mall in Kuwait City.  At Arcapita Bank Headquarters in Bahrain, SOM designed a prayer space emulating the Ka’aba in Mecca, a simple cube form with light being punctured at an angle. Furthermore, even Mecca is at the height of architecture design. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the forefront of cutting edge architecture design, particularly at the Ka’aba. Recently, during the lunar month of Ramadan, the clock tower in Mecca was inaugurated. These bold architectural designs, often question the identity of Muslim-American’s when designing a mosque, or an Islamic Cultural Center. For example, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, a 52,000 sq. ft. facility that serves the whole community with its pool, gym and school, has been under heated debate over its architectural identity.

Granted an Islamic Center in Manhattan, such as Park 51 or the Islamic Cultural Center design by SOM, will differ in design and form in comparison to another: as apparent in Abiquiu, New Mexico, or Dar Al Islam’s design by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in the early 1980’s, of which is one of the most sustainable Islamic Centers in America. Nevertheless the 100-plus Muslim prayer spaces in New York City are unique on their own, and each center across the United States is challenged with design problems to meet the needs and demands of the users andto accommodate the American-Muslim community; but each building should have the ability to serve the community, practice sustainability, celebrate the American culture that surrounds it, and be a design solution that can be easily fabricated in American urban context.

“This generation of architects are well versed in Yamasaki’s design amalgamation and allude to a “higher spirit” by primarily designing their own identity through a more spiritual, and sustainable architecture, and redefining or better yet reverting back to essential elements of a more spiritual “Islamic Architecture”, where the Divine is expressed as light, purification is through elements of water and the earth is preserved.”

As we approach the decadal anniversary of September 11, we must remind ourselves, that the World Trade Center, as the late Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture Oleg Grabar expressed that the “filigree of complex geometries alludes to a higher spiritual reality,” is the ideal and perfect example of another dimension of the multi-faceted design solutions of “Islamic Architecture.” Nevertheless, there is a new generation of architects on the rise who have the ability to continue Yamasaki’s inter-woven, spiritual concepts of “Islamic Architecture”. This generation of architects are well versed in Yamasaki’s design amalgamation and allude to a “higher spirit” by primarily designing their own identity through a more spiritual, and sustainable architecture, and redefining or better yet reverting back to essential elements of a more spiritual “Islamic Architecture”, where the Divine is expressed as light, purification is through elements of water and the earth is preserved.  As Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr once explained that “the elements of the spiritual universe of [the religion of] Islam are not visually symbolized, [rather] there is an inner nexus between ‘Islamic Architecture’ and Islamic cosmology and angelology.”

Maryam Eskandari is principal of MIIM Designs LLC .  Follow us on twitter @MIIMDesigns or Instagram @MIIMDesign 

Originally published in NYC's Elan Magazine

MIIM mini-retreat

Our MIIM Team values.

Every two months, MIIM Designs takes an opportunity to have a mini-retreat. Each retreat can vary and can range from learning how to make pottery, hiking in SF swimming in Walden park in Boston and even, yoga.

During our summer mini-retreat, today, we explored our "Values" on an individual and group level.

We did several exercises on our own to discover our true intentions and deep values and then came together as MIIM Team to explore our values as a group. 

In order to run a successful and creative design studio it is important to touch base with our core values on both an individual and team basis.  

our personal values.

Summer has begun!

Make sure to follow us through-out our summer adventures with our projects as we upload them on Twitter and Facebook. 

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his...

Posted by Maryam Eskandari on Saturday, June 6, 2015

Cultural Poems in Process

In process for a private client, are a series of poems and graphics designed to represent the rich culture of the space. This particular image, describes a poem from Hafiz.

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Remembering A.H. Eskandari, Architect

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