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.

Wednesday 29 August 2007

And it did move fast!

Amazed was I when today the dome nearly completed…

I had seen it start two days ago, but had not looked at it since, so today when I went to site in the morning and it was 5 courses away from being complete, I was more than surprised!

The structure is self supporting and easy to build, when I asked Christopher (TED) what was the biggest they had ever built he said 4,5m radius. I think that there’s potential here for something else, it just needs to be refined and maybe it could be used a simple and cheap housing solution?

There were also some big changes on the rest of the building. The roof structure (not braced, yet) is up on Block B in all of the small section and in 1/3 of the large one. The thatchers have finally showed up, all four of them, and that also seems to be picking up speed. And Tau and his men have nearly finished the last partition walls. The foundations for the courtyard have also started to be dug.

The QS showed up today and promised to bring me tomorrow, the emended version. He also claims that that is the way that they always do it… Maybe it’s just me, because this is my first time checking this sort of documents but I do believe that the way I asked him to do it is a lot better.

No comments: