Pro bono design – rebuilding bush-fire Australia

As the 2019 bush-fires begun to claim first homes, Atelier Jiri Lev was amongst the design practices that responded with offer of pro bono design and planning assistance to those who lost everything and did not have sufficient means to start rebuilding their lives and livelihoods.
With the growing scale of the disaster, it soon b ecame obvious that the resources of individual practices will not be sufficient to assist all those requiring help.
Architects Assist was established by Jiri Lev on 4 January 2020 as an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects.
AA acts as a simple referral service between clients and registered architects (it does not itself provide architectural services).
AA currently represents well over 400 practices from across Australia, willing to dedicate some of their resources to pro bono work and over 1100 students and graduates of architecture prepared to help if any opportunity becomes available to involve them in the AA program.
Architects Assist encourage design outcomes that are:
– architecturally considered,
– owner-builder friendly
– resilient in natural disasters
– built with sustainable materials
– compact and spatially efficient
– extremely affordable
The foundation aims to enable those affected by the present and future disasters to rebuild their lives, either by themselves or with help from the community, at once or in stages, with minimum amount of money.
Small businesses or communities which are finding it difficult to replace their lost assets, such as shops, halls, churches or theatres, may also apply for assistance.
If you are an architectural practice and would like to get involved and give assistance click here and if you have been affected by the fires and would like to find out how to get assistance click here.
Next week we will share how the interior design and interior architecture sectors are getting involved.