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TRANSACTIONS 33 BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 34 Business
Giving Back Through Building and Design
Lakeside nonpro t architecture studio provides a ordable and innovative design services to charitable organizations around the world
WBY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
HEN SEATTLE NATIVE Jamie Elderkin started on her ve-year education path
toward becoming an architect, she knew she wanted her work to make a di erence in the world.
By the time she was doing her thesis on humanitarian architectural projects, Elderkin knew there were people out there using their building and designing credentials for work in nonpro t sectors, bene ting people who might not other- wise have access to the buildings or pro- grams running within them.
“I had worked with an organization for my thesis project, so I knew it was out there,” Elderkin said.
But those organizations tend to trend toward students and helping them ful ll their requirements. Rarely does one nd an entire rm with that mission, Elder- kin said, but she found it at 100 Fold Stu- dio in Lakeside.
“I hadn’t seen it in a fully functioning rm,” she said. “I really didn’t know it was possible.”
Based in the Flathead Valley, 100 Fold Studio is a nonpro t architecture rm that provides a ordable and innovative design services to charitable organiza- tions around the world. This includes a years-long project in Cambodia, and oth- ers in Thailand, Bangladesh, Palestine, Mexico, and Kenya.
Founder and architect John Hudson said the genesis of the idea for the stu- dio came to him and his wife, Samantha, while they were on a Christian mission trip to Nepal in 1999. They had some
The design and building teams from 100 Fold Studio’s created these information kiosks for Lakeside. COURTESY PHOTO
to popular demand, they began summer studio sessions for people across a wide breadth of the building industry.
The 2016 summer studio was particu- larly special, Hudson said, because it was all women, including Elderkin of Seattle, with students coming from as far as Zam- bia to participate.
“We started this summer program because we were getting maybe 40 requests a year, almost one every week, about joining the studio,” Hudson said. “(The summer interns) have a passion for Jesus and a passion for architecture and a passion for serving others.”
Part of its local work included design- ing and building new information kiosks in the parking lot of Blacktail Grocery, near the intersection of U.S. Highway 93, Blacktail Road, and Stoner Loop.
Hudson said local projects such as this one give the studio a foothold in Montana while it expands its work glob- ally. Its project in Cambodia includes 12 ministries throughout the city, teaching English, caring for orphans with HIV, women at risk, children at risk, and a co ee shop reaching out to tourists while training local sta .
They’re currently designing a 1,000-student-a-day English center, and just nished a 150-student dorm and 500-person cafeteria.
The mission is Christian-based, Hud- son said, but people of all creeds and reli- gions work with the design crews and use the facilities.
“They share their faith and what inspires them, but it’s given to the peo- ple of Cambodia,” Hudson said. “We work with Christian organizations, but our
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issues with their visas, and the locals there told them they could return with an architectural license to make a bigger impact.
“A few Nepalis said if we had an archi- tect’s license, ‘You could come back with a skill and build safe communities and better communities,’” Hudson said in an interview last week.
The couple came home, and Hud- son immediately pursued a three-year track to earning his license. He went to school at the University of Virginia, and then went back there to get his master’s degree.
Hudson looked for programs in which he could use his degree and license that were also within the nonpro t Christian
sector, but he couldn’t nd any that ful- lled all his criteria. To be able to earn a license, he said a budding architect must work a certain number of hours with a licensed architect and the o ce must ful ll certain requirements. Many of the nonpro t design and building options mean well, he said, but don’t often pro- vide all the requirements.
He spent a couple years bounc- ing around between mission work and market opportunities, but then he and Samantha visited Montana, speci cally the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) group in Lakeside.
Impressed with the organization, the couple relocated to Lakeside and opened 100 Fold Studio. Five summers ago, due
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AUGUST 17, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM