designwire daily | Worldchanging Becomes Part of Architecture for Humanity

Worldchanging Becomes Part of Architecture for Humanity

by Ian Volner | Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Founded in 2003, media group Worldchanging has been a regular on the green journalism circuit, covering the environmental beat through books and online articles from a host of advocates and writers. Last November, however, the site announced that it was closing up shop as a 501(c)3; by law, the organization’s assets were required to pass into the hands of another outfit with a comparable mission—and now it looks like they’ve found their heir apparent: Architecture for Humanity, the 12-year-old public interest and sustainability outfit, will absorb Worldchanging though its social-practice resource, the Open Architecture Network.

By Worldchanging’s lights, the switch is part of a strategic move that reflects the evolution of the green movement. Says group co-founder and former executive editor Alex Steffen, “Last decade was about imagining the solutions that could help us meet big planetary problems. This decade will be all about putting those solutions to work.”

Both Architecture for Humanity and Worldchanging share a common background, having first emerged as TED Prize winners for innovation in social entrepreneurship. With contributors plucked from former Worldchanging staff and editors, the revamped Open Architecture Network will act as an open-source toolkit for community-focused designers, a one-stop online resource for practical and socially-responsible responses to design problems at every scale.