ArchSociety

Project: ArchSociety.com 
 

ArchSociety.com's goal is to open up design-knowledge and information to support the architects and urban designers through a few different ways. This effort is intended to contribute to the lack of good books, teachers, inspirations and connections to opportunities of the students, architects, urban designers of regionally underdeveloped communities. 
 

We were looking for answers to these questions:
 

We believe: Bad designs are built not because of the lack of creativity of the designers, rather for the lack of communication, inspirations, supports and open-knowledge. And that's what we try to provide with a free, open platform like ArchSociety.com. 
 

What we do at the ArchSociety.com:
We maintain a helpful discussion forum, helpdesk, which is also growing as an open knowledge hub for architects. - We publish news of important design competitions, events and project reviews specially curated to serve the community. - We are developing other ways of improving the library by publishing articles on contemporary design issues and theories, 'downloads' of frequently needed design resources etc. - We host lectures and discourses. 

Open Urban Design Think Tank tries to develop an open archive of solutions to the critical urban problems of fast growing poor developing cities (for example: Dhaka, Mumbai, Lagos etc. or any other cities). 

Currently we are working on with OUT: Collecting and archiving information about cities, it may be a research work, map, statistics or anything at all - Analyzing identified 'problems' to prepare for launching urban design competitions to solve those. - Finally OUT will become an archive of solutions to the critical urban crises along with design and research data to be used in further developments. CLICK HERE to know more about the project. 

 

Who We are

Usually: We are a bunch of young enthusiasts striving for open knowledge sharing, promoting global opportunities to the less developed, less connected communities of architects and designers through free resources, news and discussions with a wish to change the quality and intention of design worldwide.

Legally: The web-portal ArchSociety.com is a project of 'ArchSociety Forum' a non-profit organization registered in Bangladesh (Reg. No: C96113 /11, Public Limited Company by Guarantee, under the Act XVIII-1994 of Bangladesh).

ArchSociety.com Team (Active and Disappearing-Procrastinators) 

Editorial Team: Mohammad Tauheed, Duygu Başoğlu, Ishraq Khan

Moderation & Maintainance: Rubel Raf, Ashraf Islam

Strategic Team: Deanna Alam, Nafisur Rahman, Fahinaz Ferdous, Anika Sara

Writers and Contributors: Taran Zishan Hossain, Mehbuba Tune Uzra, Mehnaz Ahmed, Salma Begum

Event Support: Sanjeed Mahmud

Community Optimist: Shahid Mohammad

The Story Behind.. 
 

From the own words of the ArchSociety founder Mohammad Tauheed: 

"The necessity of a shared open library and a helpdesk for architects and designers was realized when I was a sophomore student in Architecture (2005). Back then I was thinking of a platform that will give the access to free design information and resources to (basically economically poor) students of architecture like me! Situation is pretty different here than most people around the developed world can even think of, I could never afford to buy a good book of architecture other than some pirated photocopies in local market. And in most cases we had no idea what movement, design trends, new philosophies are fuming around the contemporary architecture outside the town. I was dreaming of a free, opensource platform of shared knowledge and resources for architects and designers, a website could be the best fit. 
 

But at that time I had no computer of my own, I was used to submit all my drawings drawn on paper. To make the website obviously I could not think of hiring a webdesigner anyway. So I had to learn web-designing, database-maintenance etc. all by myself spending time in cyber-cafes by snatching money from my subsistence allowance. That's the way I made the whole ArchSociety.com siting in neighborhood cyber-cafes or in the computers of my university. 
 

At the beginning of 2006 I came up with a stable backend system and design of the website and started spreading the idea. From then till now many people joined the ArchSociety team to help in many ways. 'I' became 'we' and we became a great team of fellows contributing from the different locations around the world. 
 

Gradually ArchSociety.com has become one of the important online architecture communities, digital libraries and news hubs. By this time we worked with/for the UN World Habitat Organization, Goethe Institute and almost all important local and international architectural and design events and activities. And ArchSociety has been featured in several medias and awards including in the national daily newspaper of Canada the Globe and Mail, TED Fellows Blog, national daily newspaper of Bangladesh the Daily Star, Institute of Architects' Bangladesh magazine etc. ArchSociety.com now have members from more than 100 countries, many of them are actively participating in the activities. In 2009 I became one of the inaugural TED Fellows. And now I am one of the Senior Fellows of TED specially for being a design and art polymath and the works of ArchSociety and the Open Urban Design Think Tank projects. 

ArchSociety is a registered non-profit organization and we are on the way to get registered in the USA as well with a 501(c)3 status. Write to mailATarchsociety.com to know more or for press related issues.