Make Architecture Happen, a crowdfunding platform exclusively for architects and designers, has launched. The site is presently featuring 15 innovative projects ranging from a walkable boardwalk made from over 200 pieces of laser-cut recycled lumber to a community center that will provide jobs in a remote Tibetan village.
Make Architecture Happen is designed to connect architectural enthusiasts, practitioners, and educators to fund forward-thinking projects by designers around the world. Initial project submissions arrived from groups like Community Design Resource Center of Boston, Architecture for Change, and Hero Reports.
The site was founded by Boston-based architectural student Daniel Lear as a response to the lack of opportunities that young architects, landscape designers, and urban planners are afforded as emerging practitioners in their field. Lear soon recognized that the site could become a way to democratize the often rarefied world of architecture, making projects happen in neighborhoods lacking access to traditional funding sources. Lear believes that
“Crowdfunding architecture is a way to empower communities and gives designers the freedom to rethink traditional approaches to design problems and methods of building.”
One of the first projects submitted during the site’s open call envisions gathering spaces at a new community garden to be built on a vacant lot in Mattapan, a neighborhood outside of Boston. Massachusetts College of Art and Design has agreed to donate the time and labor for designing these structures. Now all that’s needed is the support for the actual material costs.
“I’m excited about the potential that the site has to create partnerships within and beyond the architectural community, connecting designers with the resources they need,” says Lear.