Search and rescue, medical relief, and emergency shelter top the list of responses to last week’s devastating earthquake in Bam, Iran. While these efforts go on, Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit agency that seeks and promotes architectural and design solutions to global, social, and humanitarian crises, currently is identifying relief agencies to help provide long-term transitional housing for residents left homeless.

Architecture for Humanity is looking for architects, engineers, and designers to lend design services on a pro bono basis. The organization also is directing financial resources to aid in the rebuilding effort.

Please e-mail Architecture for Humanity Executive Director Cameron Sinclair [csinclair@architectureforhumanity.org] with the subject header "Iran Earthquake" if you can contribute in kind or financially toward this effort. (AIA members: please also notify the AIA [tboone@aia.org] if you are offering to help.)

Architecture for Humanity points out that in addition to the overwhelming loss of life, the architecture world mourns the destruction of the historic district of Bam, a UNESCO world heritage site. Bam lies on the Old Silk Road, the ancient trading route that connected East Asia to Europe, and for centuries flourished as a trading center and pilgrimage site. Founded over 1,500 years ago, the city's inner ramparts enclosed a spectacular palace citadel in addition to many buildings that used the earliest known mud construction techniques.

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