2018 AIA Film Challenge Winners

John Hill

9. October 2018

Photo: Screenshot from Grand Prize winner, "Past/Presence: Saving the Spring Garden School"

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the winners of the 2018 AIA Film Challenge, which invited architects and filmmakers to contribute "stories of architects, civic leaders, and their communities working together toward positive community impact."

"Design as a catalyst for change," a line spoken in the third-place winner, could easily apply to all four winners of this year's AIA Film Challenge. The topics of the films strongly echo AIA's goal for positive community impact: the renovation of a derelict school in Philadelphia into affordable housing; the restoration and renovation of Cleveland's Karamu House, the oldest operating African American theater in the USA; the design of ChildSafe, a nonprofit serving child-abuse victims in San Antonio, Texas; and the revival of a traditional Hawaiian "hale" building in an effort to save indigenous cultural practices.

Watch the four winners below, each five minutes or less.

Grand Prize: Past/Presence: Saving the Spring Garden School