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Millennium School 2008 (Winning Design)

  • Millennium Schools Contest 1st Place
    Grand Winner
  • Millennium Schools Contest 2nd Place
    2nd Place Winner
  • Millennium Schools Contest 3rd Place
    3rd Place Winner
 Before Design Against the Elements was conceived, the Millennium School competition paved the way for green building in developing nations. With the advent of green building technology in developing countries, poverty-stricken citizens stand a better chance against withstanding the destructive force of natural disasters.

The Design Against the Elements initiative is spearheaded by My Shelter Foundation. MyShelter Foundation is the same group behind last year’s Millennium Schools project, an international design competition for ecologically sound school buildings in tropical developing countries such as the Philippines. Other organizations involved in the Millennium Schools project are the Philippine Green Building Council, the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the United Architects of the Philippines, the Private Sector Disaster Management Network, Redeye, and the Department of Education The global competition solicited the best architectural designs from around the world, from among which the first prize winner, Eleena Jamil of Malaysia, was selected; the winning design was recently built in Camarines Sur, Philippines.

The Millennium Schools competition serves as an inspiring story of what can be done when the right groups work together in pursuit of a common goal. It is hoped that the project will inspire and fuel the drive of a new generation of architects, planners, and designers to put their heads together and develop a solution for the Design Against the Elements challenge. This time next year, your design could become a reality—the basis for the first prototype eco-village in the Philippines, and a blueprint for future developments in tropical countries worldwide.

First Full Bamboo School in the Country
Architecture by Eleena Jamil (Grand Winner of Millennium Schools Competition 2008)

Millennium School Closing Ceremonies at MIT
The official closing ceremony of the Millennium School competition, where the winners had the chance to share their winning designs, was held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. An exhibit was also held at Harvard where the winning designs took center stage. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)