Up! Up! And away…

March 9th at 9pm I will fly out and the mission will begin. As a case study for finishing my diploma at FAUP (Porto Architectural School), I've decided to volunteer and join A4A (Architects for Aid) in one of their humanitarian architecture projects. The projected on which I've been assigned is the construction of the LCCU (Lesotho Children Counseling Unit) centre in Lesotho. The building has been halted and an assessment, survey and new proposal and program will be drawn up in order that the building might finish to be built. Once this is completed a second trip will be organized and I'll be overseeing the building on site. The objective of this blog is to keep record of the work that is being done, both for the benefit of the members of A4A in London, FAUP to whom I'll also be reporting, my own record as well as friends and family that might want to know what I'm up to. Please comment on any post that you have an opinion, as this will undoubtedly help me in the completion of my thesis. Disclaimer: The information displayed on this site has not been previously edited or checked by any A4A staff and I'm the sole responsible for it's contents. A4A or any of the other involved organizations are not to be hold responsible on any account for what is published on this blog.

Monday 4 June 2007

A, B, A, B…

Not a musical compass or a rhyme structure…

A, B, A, B… is more or less the way how we are planning to go through the building process from now on. I will explain. After the meeting with the contractor and the foreman it was agreed that the best way to speed up the building is to divide it into 2 blocks and treat them independently. Block A (bedrooms) and Block B (common areas). Like this we will be able to advance work on block A before all the remedial work on block B is completed.

Apart from the obvious advantage in terms of time there is also an added benefit of having teams that will know what they are doing, as they have done it at least one time before, when they move on to block B! This will not only speed up the job but also (hopefully) allow us to aspire to better quality finishes and building!

So it has now been agreed that we will try and complete the building by the 10th of August. The contractor is committed and so am I so let’s all do are best and wait for the results!

The only factors still missing in this equation, and which I am already trying to sort out are when the other two contractors will join in. TED-Biogas hasn’t been too cooperative up to date, but Playpumps should not give me to much of a hard time.

Anyway it’s now time to roll up the sleeves and push on!

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