Want to design a youth library in Nairobi, Kenya?  Check out more about AMD’s Open Architecture Challenge to design a library and media space, internet cafe, and research center for SIDAREC, the Slums Information Development and Resources Centre.

Their proposal astutely points out the problem of the digital divide:

“Today’s world prosperity is technologically driven. The world has become a global village where the issue of distance is no longer the case. People interact and do business at the click of a mouse.

Currently people living on less than a dollar a day in the slums must pay the same rates as those with means to access the internet. The high costs of accessing internet means that many people living in the slums would continue to be out of touch with the rest of the world and poverty will continue stalking them. . . .Young people would like to be trained in computer skills that will allow them to compete in the job market, communicate with each other and with the world.”

Prosperity and connectivity are intertwined.  Information is becoming the knowledge economy around the world, and children without access to that are at a disadvantage.

If you’re interested, check out the guidelines page–deadlines are coming up soon!  Submissions from any age group are allowed.

Another interesting school building project, Build African Schools, is being supported by HP to bring accessibility to rural African schools using computers and solar power.

So, what would your design look like?

image credit:  http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge/africa