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.

Friday 1 June 2007

Rock Bottom…

We have just hit Rock bottom but in a good way!
Digging down to the foundations, to lay the new retaining wall, revealed that the existing footings are actually set into the rock face. Cut into them and flushed in height.

This was great news as it meant that there is no possibility for rotation to occur (or at least any that we should seriously worry about). Best news so far! But not the only one of the day!

We also test the last gable wall for a footing and guess what? This time there was one! I guess the previous Contractor must have been really upset when his men made a mistake and put in a footing where there was no need for one. I can almost hear him “Footing here, you guys really like wasting money don’t you!”

But one man’s mistakes are another man’s fortune and in this case it means it is less a problem for us to resolve.

At 8 o’clock this morning I was out on site ready to assist with the setting out of the blocks. In the 3D sketch, of the retaining wall, I had specified that columns should be placed at approximately 2m CC (the real distance being 2300mm CC as was written on the plans) but as the contractor was showing me this meant we were one column short, at 2m CC.

I explained that that was the approximately part of the drawing that wasn’t being taken into consideration, and that instead of using the dimensions we should use blocks, so every 5 blocks we put a marking, and after one or two tries to centre it we managed to get the needed 8 pylons.

Whilst I was there steel for 6 of these 8 pylons was put in place and the rock face prepared (cut to be at the same height as the existing footing, or the filling of small gaps with concrete for the same purpose). Mesh was also cut into streches of 800mm so as to give 50mm cover to either side of them.

Next week we will cast them, and build the wall from it and that will be the end of this problem.

I’m sure it will not be the last of my problems but let’s go onto the next problem as this one has already taken too long to fix!

For more photos of the existing footings in the rock and of the steels being put up follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/pck.clarke/FootingsAndSteels
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