About AWF
Architecture for everyone.
We connect communities with design expertise to create places for health, learning and belonging.
We design for those who need it most but can afford it least
Who are we?
ARCHITECTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS (AWF) collaborates with communities who have the greatest need for design but the least access to it. We are the largest design not for profit in the Asia Pacific region.
We facilitate the design and construction of health, education and community projects globally, with and for vulnerable communities.
What do we do?
Architects Without Frontiers provides design services for architectural, building and planning projects for communities that normally wouldn’t be able to afford them. We develop project briefs, conduct feasibility studies and provide concept designs and specialist design expertise across our three project focus areas:
- Gender, health, education & livelihoods
- Climate change & building urban resilience
- Indigenous community infrastructure
Impact
Architects Without Frontiers has helped to transform the lives of over 6,500 people since 2010. We have:
- 80+ health and education projects in 24 countries.
- Helped 28 communities to rebuild their social and physical infrastructure.
- Provided pro bono design services through our 14 Network Partners.
- Working with global development agencies including DFAT, ICRC, PLAN International and the World Food Programme.
A voice from Karatu, Tanzania
“The 2020 masterplan you helped shape has been the blueprint for everything that followed. What was a vision on paper is now a working campus in Karatu.
The multipurpose complex is complete — dining hall and kitchen, preschool, career/vocational centre, and administration. Girls’ homes are built and occupied. The first group of about 60 girls moved into the eco-village in late 2023; the centre now cares for more than 75 girls with house mothers on site.
In short: the masterplan is no longer a concept. The girls live, learn, and train on the campus you helped design.”
Rick Morro
Founder, Maasai Girls Rescue Center, Karatu, Tanzania
A voice from Newcastle, Australia
“We would not be here without the love and understanding of our city, and organisations like Architects without Frontiers and Hayball who put people before profit and who believe so deeply in our work.
We only achieved these things because of you and your gorgeous reimagining of what was once a pretty grim space. It was your quiet understanding, your artistry and your intuitive expertise that enabled this transformation.
You have helped us create a new blueprint for our sector, not just for our service. Your architecture radiates light and with beauty back onto a world that shows us it’s darkest side.”
Dawn Walker
CEO, Jenny’s Place, Newcastle
History
Architects Without Frontiers Australia was founded in 1998 by Esther Charlesworth, Beau Beza, and Garry Ormston. Charlesworth had visited Mostar in 1996 as part of an Aga Khan Trust project to rebuild the city. There, she met an Australian engineer working for RedR (Engineers for Relief) in the relief effort and began to question the role of architects in responding to humanitarian crises. Architects Without Frontiers answers this with the belief that architecture can be a powerful tool to help address the urgent global challenges of our time including social marginalisation, chronic poverty, and natural disasters.
Working with Architects Without Frontiers
Architects Without Frontiers and our Network Partners offer the following services:
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Design Advice across a range of design disciplines resulting in design concepts with realistic cost estimates and delivery programs.
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Project Feasibility and Brief Writing assistance to capture key project objectives and functional requirements.
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Design & Technical Documentation suitable for a range of objectives from fundraising to construction.
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Access to Specialist Consultants including architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, quantity surveyors and property developers.
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Project Coordination which starts with building a highly skilled team for each project and results in the delivery of each required project stage.
- Community Engagement expertise to work with the beneficiary community for a consultative process.
Project application (online form)
Reports & brochures
Our work in the world
Design that changes lives.
Make a difference