The Africatown International Design Idea Competition

02/03/2024

It begins, the Spirit of Our Ancestors Festival...

01/29/2024

We're taking next steps from the Competition with a $25,000 design grant that the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded to M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC

The Award Will Be Used to Advance Its Africatown Blueprint Initiative (Mobile, AL January 29, 2024) —M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast Community Development Corporation is pleased to announce it has been approve…

11/17/2023

Thanks to the Architectural League of New York, particularly Board President Mario Gooden, for giving the three of the top competition winners a platform to explain their collaborative approach to their work on such a massive and important project.

Africatown International Design Idea Competition winners discuss their designs for the historically layered site and the collaborative process behind their submissions.

06/19/2023

In 44 minutes, we're going live from Mobile, Alabama!!!

08/18/2022

THE AFRICATOWN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN IDEA COMPETITION REGISTRATION ENDS SEPTEMBER 19 2022. REGISTER NOW!
This design movement seeks to reward "big ideas" that are architecturally sensitive and appropriate to the preservation, regeneration and future of African culture in Africatown, Alabama, USA.
CASH PRIZES TOTAL UP TO $25,000 U.S. DOLLARS (USD) PER SITE FOR TOP 4 WINNING INDIVIDUALS / TEAMS.
• 1st Prize - $10,000 USD
• 2nd Prize - $8,000 USD
• 3rd Prize - $5,000 USD
• 4th Prize - $2,000 USD
TOTAL CASH PRIZES FOR ALL 4 SITES UP TO $100,000 USD.
You or your design team may register to design:
From One (1), Two (2) , Three (3) or all Four (4) SITES.
Each SITE contains four (4) VENUES.
You must design four VENUES per SITE.
A STELLAR 16-MEMBER JURY of 8 Professionals & 8 Community Leaders will select the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners for each of the four competition SITES.
ALL SUBMISSIONS IN THIS OPEN COMPETITION ARE ANONYMOUS.
All submissions will be published in The Africatown Community Design Catalogue, exhibited internationally, and culminated in The 1st Annual International Conference on Historic Preservation, Cultural Tourism, and the Future of Black Space in the Diaspora, Mobile Alabama, date TBD in 2023.
FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT SITE PROGRAMS, GO REGISTER NOW
www.AfricatownDesign.com

08/16/2022

THE AFRICATOWN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN IDEA COMPETITION REGISTRATION ENDS SEPTEMBER 19 2022. REGISTER NOW!
Join this design movement that leverages the spectacular 2019 Clotilda discovery and Africatown’s history (as highlighted in the new Netflix/Obama backed documentary "Descendant") to "Re-imagine Africatown" as a world-class destination system worthy of the Ancestors, a system that fuels long-overdue community revitalization.
This Open Africatown International Design Idea Competition seeks Individuals or multidisciplinary teams (up to 4 members) including : architects, students, urban designers, planners, landscape architects, artists, historians, design activists and creative thinkers.
You or your team may register to design:
From One (1), Two (2) , Three (3) or all Four (4) SITES.
Each SITE contains four (4) VENUES.
You must design four VENUES per SITE.
CASH PRIZES TOTAL UP TO $25,000 US DOLLARS PER SITE FOR TOP 4 WINNING INDIVIDUALS / TEAMS.
The Competition is organized across 3 cities on 4 sites and 16 venues that include memorial gardens, infill housing, maritime residential housing, school expansion, water-edged pavilions, performance arts centers, Afro-themed museums, boathouses, yacht club, hotels and gateways.
Together, these sites and venues constitute a tourism destination system called THE AFRICATOWN CULTURAL MILE, blending African forms, functions, symbols, and stories across a ten-mile stretch of lands and rivers, for immersive user experiences derived from African & Diaspora history and culture, BY DESIGN.
Therefore, this movement seeks "big ideas" that are architecturally sensitive and appropriate to the preservation, regeneration and future of African culture in Africatown, Alabama, USA, the only 19th century settlement built by emancipated Africans in America after the Civil War.
Are you ready to take on this challenge?
FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT SITE PROGRAMS, GO REGISTER NOW
www.AfricatownDesign.com

08/06/2022

The Africatown International Design Idea Competition’s 16-member jury panel of 8 design professionals and 8 local leaders and professionals is headed by Jack Travis, FAIA NOMAC. Travis -- the architect, author and educator, has deeply explored Afro-cultural aesthetics and mores for decades, long before "Wakanda" and Black Space'' became contemporary catch-phrases representing the culture of Afro-excellence. He calls this Competition "the largest competition for a black site -- asking for a black aesthetic in architecture, probably in the history of the world. The size and scale -- 16 venues in four categories -- I can't think of any competition this large for people of color, or any competition that I know of. And there have been some large scale urban planning projects, but nothing of this scale concerning black identity."

One of the jurors is Africatown community activist and a descendant, Joycelyn Davis (), who is one of the folks featured in the upcoming documentary film "Descendant," which just premiered at the Martha's Vineyards African American Film Festival with appearances from former President and First Lady , whose production company Higher Ground bought the film distribution rights with Netflix. Joycelyn and (an executive producer of the film) are both descendants of Charlie Lewis, one of the Clotilda Africans illegally smuggled from (present-day Benin) to Mobile aboard the last known slave ship, all on a local plantation owner's bet that he could get away with the crime.

08/03/2022

CALLING ALL
Architects, students, urban planners, visual artists, design activists, interior designers, landscape architects, & CREATIVE THINKERS of all nationalities and creeds to
JOIN IN THE WORLD'S LARGEST DESIGN CHALLENGE CONCERNING BLACK IDENTITY IN THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

The Africatown International Design Idea Competition asks designers to "Re-Imagine Africatown" |Alabama|, this unique American place built in the 19th century by the determined genius of emancipated Africans (illegally shipped from Benin to Mobile, Alabama, on a plantation owner's bet), today a strong-minded community threatened by generations of industrial encroachment and neglect.

The sensational 2018 discovery of the Clotilda slave ship (researchers confirmed its identity in May 2019) provided the missing “critical mass” needed to jump-start the Africatown Neighborhood Plan and fulfill long-time desires, needs and wishes of residents' own redevelopment efforts in Africatown.

In 2018, M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC commissioned studio|rotan to devise a master plan to synergize all of Africatown's many plans into one strategic movement for this historic Black Space. The goal is to use the immense excitement generated by the Clotilda discovery for Africatown's economic benefit through cultural heritage tourism.

The design solution that studio|rotan proposed in 2018 is now this global challenge, the AIA/NOMA sponsored Africatown International Design Idea Competition.

Its motto is, "If We Can Save the Ship, We Can Save the Town."

REGISTER NOW AT WWW.AFRICATOWNDESIGN.COM

08/03/2022

CALLING ALL
Architects, students, urban planners, visual artists, design activists, interior designers, landscape architects, & CREATIVE THINKERS of all nationalities and creeds to JOIN IN THE WORLD'S LARGEST DESIGN CHALLENGE CONCERNING BLACK IDENTITY IN THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS!!!!!!!!

The Africatown International Design Idea Competition asks designers to "Re-Imagine Africatown" |Alabama|, this unique American place built in the 19th century by the determined genius of emancipated Africans (illegally shipped from Benin to Mobile, Alabama, on a plantation owner's bet), today a strong-minded community threatened by generations of industrial encroachment and neglect.

The sensational 2018 discovery of the Clotilda slave ship (researchers confirmed its identity in May 2019) provided the missing “critical mass” needed to jump-start the Africatown Neighborhood Plan and fulfill long-time desires, needs and wishes of residents' own redevelopment efforts in Africatown.

In 2018, M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC commissioned studio|rotan to devise a master plan to synergize all of Africatown's many plans into one strategic movement for this historic Black Space. The goal is to use the immense excitement generated by the Clotilda discovery for Africatown's economic benefit through cultural heritage tourism.

The design solution that studio|rotan proposed in 2018 is now this global challenge, the AIA/NOMA sponsored Africatown International Design Idea Competition.

Its motto is, "If We Can Save the Ship, We Can Save the Town."

REGISTER NOW AT WWW.AFRICATOWNDESIGN.COM

07/12/2022

The Architectural League of New York announced recently that Mario Gooden -- one of 8 professional jurors on our Competition's jury panel -- will be its 63rd president. Gooden, director of Mario Gooden Studio: Architecture + Design, was elected at the League’s 141st Annual Meeting at the Harlem School of Arts. He will succeed Paul Lewis, who has served as the nonprofit organization’s president since 2018. Gooden currently serves as The Architectural League’s Vice-President of Architecture.

Gooden is the author of Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity, a collection of essays published by Columbia University Press investigating the construction of African American identity and representation through architecture. In the book, Gooden uses history, theory, and criticism to develop a discourse on the reshaping of the African Diaspora.

Read the story here, https://www.archpaper.com/2022/07/the-architecturual-league-new-york-announces-mario-gooden-new-president/

07/11/2022

Special thanks to the gentlemen at The Architect's Newspaper, whom we met at the AIA 2022 Convention in Chicago last month. True to their word, they wrote this initial article about the design idea competition in Africatown. As a result, our website page views increased, and we have more registrants signed up to participate. And, another article is on the way. Thanks, A'N!!!

Africatown, located in Alabama, is hosting a design competition, architects and designers can submit ideas to revitalize the site.