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.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Big test

In the last couple of hours a 15cm thick blanket of snow has just covered the whole of Maseru.

This will be a big test on our slabs… they were cast some time ago but I would still liked if they had covered them for tonight.

Yesterday they wet some of the slabs just before leaving site, that gave us small shrinkage/expansion cracks due to the cold night, I specifically asked them not to repeat it… I went around on my hands and knees checking them and they were only very superficial (a good scrub and they were gone)… But let’s see how they make it through this snow.

The snow will also test how wet it will get under our slabs and how much of it will come through the walls after when it starts to dry out.

But when I arrived on site today what caught my eye were the new partition walls that were being erected. Great that they are doing it already and great that I went there today. They were preparing themselves to align the two doors, if they’d done that I’d end up with no space for the beds! But that has been settled and it will proceed as planned.

Tomorrow will also be a big day as TED will go and start their work. Let’s hope that this snow will not stop that.

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