International Union of Architects (UIA) Presentation

Afield presented a paper today at the 2017 UIA World Architecture Congress held in Seoul. Kai Wood Mah and Patrick Lynn Rivers, Afield co-directors, provided the most comprehensive design practice and scholarly presentation to date on the integrated processes (social, political, economic, legal, cultural, etc., e.g.) shaping the design, construction, and study of their early childhood development (ECD) centre prototype. The paper was titled “Integration in Design and Early Childhood Development Practice.”

UIA (International Union of Architects) is the largest association for architects and allied professionals in the world and they hold their congress every three years. (Some 30,000 were set to attend the Seoul congress, which was UIA's 26th congress.) The 2020 congress will be held in Rio and the 2023 congress in Copenhagen.

Afield’s prototype ECD centre is funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The project is a collaborative one with the Early Learning Resource Unit (ELRU), an ECD NGO based in Cape Town, and South Africa’s National Development Agency (NDA) which is the agency primarily charged with poverty elimination and alleviation.