“How do you bring architectural stories to life?”—this is the question the AIA asks annually in their I Look Up Film Challenge. This year’s theme, Blueprint for the Better, challenges architects and filmmakers to collaborate and tell the stories of architects making a positive impact on the community.
An esteemed, diverse team of jurors consisting of architects, filmmakers, and board members of the AIA selected the top films which they believed best captured the theme of this year’s challenge. In September, they awarded Grand Prize as well as 1st and 2nd runner-up. The winners will receive an exclusive screening of their film at the Architecture & Design Festival on November 1 in NYC along with cash and distribution prizes. You can read more about the selected winners here.
This week, the People’s Choice Award was announced and awarded to Paul-Vincent Alexander for his film A Roof of their Own, a short film documenting the profound and impacting work of architect, Jose Luis Henriquez, and structural engineer, Raul Hinojosa. Out of the 82 films submitted, Alexander won with nearly half of the 268,000 votes, collecting a grand total of 122,527.
Currently, more than 1 billion individuals live in dwellings either unsustainable for habitation or are built with poor materials and lack basic infrastructure services. A Roof of their Own recounts the partnership of Henriquez and Hinojosa and their work in response to this world housing deficit. Their initiative located architectural and engineering solutions to provide low-cost and sustainable housing systems to impoverished communities susceptible to not only poor economic standards, but also inclement and weather patterns. Henriquez and Hinojosa’s remarkable work has the power to aid the world housing deficit and create the possibility of a future where everyone can have a roof of their own.
An exclusive screening of A Roof of their Own along with the other selected winners will be shown at the NYC Art & Design Festival on November 1.