The editors of Metropolis Magazine have singled out six innovators and ideas breaking conventions in architecture, advocacy, planning, patronage, research and history for the third annual ‘Game Changers’ issue.
"A great deal of care is spent creating a diverse group of game changers," said Martin C. Pedersen, Metropolis executive editor. "This year we combined people—the legendary historian Vincent Scully; the climate change activist and architect, Edward Mazria; the design patron, Jamie Gray—with big bold projects like SOM's Great Lakes Century; Dream:In's research; and the Women's Opportunity Center. It's an impressive and transformative group."
Here’s a closer look at the Game Changers line-up:
Architecture: Sharon Davis and the Women of Rwanda
The New York-based architect, working in collaboration with the non-profit group Women for Women, is building a woman's vocational center in Rwanda that will serve as a vital community center for teaching new skills like making bricks.
Advocacy: Edward Mazria
In 2003 Metropolis made history when the architect Edward Mazria proclaimed buildings and their architects are key to combating climate change. Since then his organization, Architecture 2030, has lobbied tirelessly on behalf of the cause, turning the planetary crisis into a design problem for architects to do something about it.
Planning: The Great Lakes Project
Philip Enquist and his team of planners at SOM Chicago have created a new vision for the Great Lakes of the 21st Century. Lakeside is the first manifestation of that plan: a huge mixed use development on the site of an old U.S. Steel plant which can serve as a model for sustainable redevelopment for a region that has 20 percent of the world's fresh water.
Design Patron: Jamie Gray of Matter
The New York entrepreneur and retailer is the design patron of the new millennium, promoting not just expensive one-offs but a new generation of emerging talent.
Research: Dream:In
The Dream:In initiative conducted design research at an unprecedented scale—101 youth researchers traveling over 15,000 miles across India, finding entrepreneurial ideas from all sections of society. With their model, Dream:In presents a new way to scale up design in the developing world.
History: Vincent Scully
Pulitzer prize-winning critic Paul Goldberger offered a highly personal essay on Vincent Scully, the legendary Yale architectural historian whose passionate teaching inspired generations of architects, designers, and students to think seriously about architecture.
The magazine has teamed up with sponsoring host, AXOR, for a celebratory event in New York City, honoring the notable group on Feb. 7. Other event sponsors include Shaw Contract Group and Affordable Art Fair NY.
For more on Game Changers 2013, click here and follow the conversations on Twitter with hashtag #GameChangers2013.
Images courtesy of metropolismag.com