Architecture Sans Frontières – UK (ASF-UK) aims to make community and international development issues integral to the practice and teaching of architecture. Through training & capacity building, live projects and advocacy, we strive to make architecture relevant to the world’s majority – people who are marginalised or living in poverty.

Our actions are focused on three areas:

Training and Capacity Building

Ensuring an understanding of the core principles behind community participation, appropriate design and sustainability becomes an integral part of the education and practice of built environment practitioners by working with universities and bodies such as RIBA and the ARB to influence the way architecture is taught; and developing accessible, online training programmes complemented by practical, hands-on workshops, and marketing these courses to ensure take-up.

These actions are structured into two main programmes: Change by Design and Resilience by Design. These are complemented by the crosscutting programme, Challenging Practice that enable built environment professionals to engage reflexively with the challenges of international development.

Change by Design is a series of international workshops, exploring participatory design as a tool for advocacy and socio-spatial transformation in informal settlements, in collaboration with grassroots organizations, local NGOs and governmental agencies involved in slum upgrading and housing rights. Read more about the programme here.