ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Cameron Sinclair - Co-founder, Architecture for Humanity
2006 TED Prize winner Cameron Sinclair is co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that seeks architecture solutions to global crises -- and acts as a conduit between the design community and the world's humanitarian needs.

Why you should listen

After training as an architect, Cameron Sinclair (then age 24) joined Kate Stohr to found Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps architects apply their skills to humanitarian efforts. Starting with just $700 and a simple web site in 1999, AFH has grown into an international hub for humanitarian design, offering innovative solutions to housing problems in all corners of the globe.

Whether rebuilding earthquake-ravaged Bam in Iran, designing a soccer field doubling as an HIV/AIDS clinic in Africa, housing refugees on the Afghan border, or helping Katrina victims rebuild, Architecture for Humanity works by Sinclair's mantra: "Design like you give a damn." (Sinclair and Stohr cowrote a book by the same name, released in 2006.)

A regular contributor to the sustainability blog Worldchanging.com, Sinclair is now working on the Open Architecture Network, born from the wish he made when he accepted the 2006 TED Prize: to build a global, open-source network where architects, governments and NGOs can share and implement design plans to house the world.

More profile about the speaker
Cameron Sinclair | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Cameron Sinclair: The refugees of boom-and-bust

Filmed:
443,150 views

At TEDGlobal U, Cameron Sinclair shows the unreported cost of real estate megaprojects gone bust: thousands of migrant construction laborers left stranded and penniless. To his fellow architects, he says there is only one ethical response.
- Co-founder, Architecture for Humanity
2006 TED Prize winner Cameron Sinclair is co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that seeks architecture solutions to global crises -- and acts as a conduit between the design community and the world's humanitarian needs. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:18
A few years ago, my eyes were opened
0
0
3000
00:21
to the dark side of the construction industry.
1
3000
3000
00:24
In 2006, young Qatari students
2
6000
3000
00:27
took me to go and see the migrant worker camps.
3
9000
2000
00:29
And since then I've followed the unfolding issue of worker rights.
4
11000
5000
00:34
In the last six months, more than 300 skyscrapers
5
16000
2000
00:36
in the UAE have been put on hold or canceled.
6
18000
3000
00:39
Behind the headlines that lay behind these buildings
7
21000
3000
00:42
is the fate of the often-indentured construction worker.
8
24000
4000
00:46
1.1 million of them.
9
28000
2000
00:48
Mainly Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan
10
30000
3000
00:51
and Nepalese, these laborers risk everything
11
33000
2000
00:53
to make money for their families back home.
12
35000
3000
00:56
They pay a middle-man thousands of dollars to be there.
13
38000
2000
00:58
And when they arrive, they find themselves in labor camps with no water,
14
40000
4000
01:02
no air conditioning, and their passports taken away.
15
44000
4000
01:06
While it's easy to point the finger at local officials and higher authorities,
16
48000
4000
01:10
99 percent of these people are hired by the private sector,
17
52000
4000
01:14
and so therefore we're equally, if not more, accountable.
18
56000
3000
01:17
Groups like Buildsafe UAE have emerged,
19
59000
3000
01:20
but the numbers are simply overwhelming.
20
62000
2000
01:22
In August 2008,
21
64000
2000
01:24
UAE public officials noted
22
66000
2000
01:26
that 40 percent of the country's 1,098 labor camps
23
68000
4000
01:30
had violated minimum health and fire safety regulations.
24
72000
3000
01:33
And last summer, more than 10,000 workers
25
75000
3000
01:36
protested for the non-payment of wages,
26
78000
3000
01:39
for the poor quality of food, and inadequate housing.
27
81000
3000
01:42
And then the financial collapse happened.
28
84000
3000
01:45
When the contractors have gone bust,
29
87000
2000
01:47
as they've been overleveraged like everyone else,
30
89000
2000
01:49
the difference is everything goes missing,
31
91000
3000
01:52
documentation, passports,
32
94000
2000
01:54
and tickets home for these workers.
33
96000
2000
01:56
Currently, right now, thousands of workers are abandoned.
34
98000
4000
02:00
There is no way back home.
35
102000
2000
02:02
And there is no way, and no proof of arrival.
36
104000
3000
02:05
These are the boom-and-bust refugees.
37
107000
3000
02:08
The question is, as a building professional,
38
110000
3000
02:11
as an architect, an engineer, as a developer,
39
113000
2000
02:13
if you know this is going on,
40
115000
2000
02:15
as we go to the sights every single week,
41
117000
3000
02:18
are you complacent or complicit
42
120000
2000
02:20
in the human rights violations?
43
122000
2000
02:22
So let's forget your environmental footprint.
44
124000
3000
02:25
Let's think about your ethical footprint.
45
127000
2000
02:27
What good is it
46
129000
3000
02:30
to build a zero-carbon, energy efficient complex,
47
132000
3000
02:33
when the labor producing this architectural gem
48
135000
3000
02:36
is unethical at best?
49
138000
3000
02:39
Now, recently I've been told I've been taking the high road.
50
141000
2000
02:41
But, quite frankly, on this issue,
51
143000
2000
02:43
there is no other road.
52
145000
2000
02:45
So let's not forget who is really paying the price of this financial collapse.
53
147000
4000
02:49
And that as we worry about our next job in the office,
54
151000
3000
02:52
the next design that we can get, to keep our workers.
55
154000
4000
02:56
Let's not forget these men, who are truly dying to work.
56
158000
3000
02:59
Thank you.
57
161000
2000
03:01
(Applause)
58
163000
2000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Cameron Sinclair - Co-founder, Architecture for Humanity
2006 TED Prize winner Cameron Sinclair is co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that seeks architecture solutions to global crises -- and acts as a conduit between the design community and the world's humanitarian needs.

Why you should listen

After training as an architect, Cameron Sinclair (then age 24) joined Kate Stohr to found Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps architects apply their skills to humanitarian efforts. Starting with just $700 and a simple web site in 1999, AFH has grown into an international hub for humanitarian design, offering innovative solutions to housing problems in all corners of the globe.

Whether rebuilding earthquake-ravaged Bam in Iran, designing a soccer field doubling as an HIV/AIDS clinic in Africa, housing refugees on the Afghan border, or helping Katrina victims rebuild, Architecture for Humanity works by Sinclair's mantra: "Design like you give a damn." (Sinclair and Stohr cowrote a book by the same name, released in 2006.)

A regular contributor to the sustainability blog Worldchanging.com, Sinclair is now working on the Open Architecture Network, born from the wish he made when he accepted the 2006 TED Prize: to build a global, open-source network where architects, governments and NGOs can share and implement design plans to house the world.

More profile about the speaker
Cameron Sinclair | Speaker | TED.com
THE ORIGINAL VIDEO ON TED.COM