There are dozens of annual awards doled out to architects who build beautiful, expensive work. The European Prize for Architecture provides a much-needed counterpoint in the industry, rewarding architects who make “significant contributions to humanity” above all else. And this year’s winners, Norway’s TYIN Tegnestue, embody that mission completely: Their ingeniously thrifty, locally constructed projects in the developing world often cost less than $10,000 to build—a drop in the bucket in an architecture world often mired in excess.

The four-year-old firm’s principals, Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, work from a simple prerogative: Architecture is pragmatic, and should help people solve their own problems. They believe architects can be social innovators as well as designers. “We don’t want to give people the ‘fish’ but to teach them how to fish so they can catch their own,” the duo explains, citing the famous Chinese proverb. “We start the process with a real problem, not some made-up concept of a problem.”

The Trondheim, Norway-based firm has built seven projects since 2008, six of them in underdeveloped areas of Thailand and Indonesia. One of their earliest projects, a group of sleeping huts for a Thai orphanage on the Burmese border, laid the foundation for their mission as an office. TYIN proposed a series of lofted huts, each with its own multi-level layout. The goal was to give each child his or her own private space—a difficult task given the orphanage had recently doubled in size. But by sourcing the materials locally, the orphanage’s staff and inhabitants were able to participate in the construction of their new homes and easily replicate the design as the community grew.”

Photo: Cassia Co-op Training Centre, an educational facility for Indonesian cinnamon farmers, by TYIN Tegnestue. Pasi Aalto