Back in London

All the chaos, the noise, the people of Maseru have now been replaced with more noise, more chaos and more people.

In a way London does not differ that much from Maseru. Transports are better but traffic is worse!? Sometimes I wonder what our Mosotho counterparts would think of London if they'd see it? Would they trust anyone to build something for them, when they’d see it? I guess I’ll never know but it’s a good question nevertheless.

My days since my arrival back in the A4A office, have been for lack of a better word, bureaucratic, apart from the short design exercise of an alternative roof, I’ve spent my days filling in reports, filing papers, things that of course I understand are totally necessary but as you can imagine not the thing that one really signed up to do.

Great part of Humanitarian Architecture is actually done in the office, preparing briefing documents, reports from site visits, proposals, funding proposals, and travel proposals. A lot of this is then not seen and people might imagine, as I did, that it’s all just fun and games. You arrive you do some, research, you’re sent out, and it happens… As I’ve just briefly explained now, it’s not quite like that.

Today I also met with Martin, funny to see him not in flip-flops, and we had a debrief session with Mike (A4A). We now all await eagerly the prices. And as soon as we get them flights will be booked and I’ll return. I have to say that I’m looking forward to that. Despite some of my feelings and the idea of being away for so long form the ones you love, I’m quite committed and interested in seeing the building back on site.

Some of the things that are being considered on my return are a deeper research into local skills, vernacular construction, and art. With this knowledge then to organize a workshop to involve the children in built process to give people a sense of ownership! I’m sure it will be a very rewarding experience both on a personal level as on a built one.

I’ve ordered many books on these aspects, one of which has arrived already! Their tradition associates decoration of the houses to protection against evil spirits and lightning. But I’ll make a proper account of that subject on a later date.

I would like however to make a short comment on the lecture I attended to day, with some of the A4A staff. It was a lecture about Architecture for development: Dealing with different situations. It was given by a spokesman from Oxfam and one from AFHUK (Architecture for humanity UK). It was clear the lack of coordination, that affected us down is Lesotho is again no stranger to London. Oxfam stated and did it correctly that many times they end up going into territories with which they are not familiar because of the lack of architects present. Why then is it that if they acknowledge that something is not done about it? Why are A4A or other organizations not called in to advise on what they know best how to do! Not only produce a building but discover what that building should be.

It’s threw this lack of knowledge and understanding that failure many times occurs and solutions that are meant to aid often become a burden on the lifes of those exact same people.

The second part of the lecture (read-out) tried to get our attention focused on the importance of local knowledge, and the importance of the use of local skills in articulation with our skills. Once again the debate took us into the field of whether we should implement or influence? The issue is a long one and I’ll leave it once more for a further account.

However I’d like to point out that the greatest lesson I learnt from this lecture today, is the need of proper communication, understanding and collaboration between all the involved parts. Alone we can only achieve disaster!

I apologize for not having sorted out some of the posts and photos. But work has kept me rather busy. However I’ve already made a start.

Hopefully I’ll give news once the decision is made on my return and then I’ll resume my account from the glorious lands of Lesotho.

Report 8, 9 ???

I lost count and I’m sorry! All the photos are also a little bit of a confusion. I’ll sorted it out when back in London!

Tomorrow we’ll leave for Johannesburg and then 12 hours later arrive in London.

I’m proud to say that we have achieved all that we sent ourselves out to do! The drawings have now been delivered to the builders and we expect prices by the 2nd of April!

Then it’s all to the funders to sort things out and we’ll be back on track.

The scheme is one both Martin and I are proud of. It solves most of the building’s problems (all the solvable ones) and in the end looks quite good. On my return I’ll do more research into the traditional building types, and some of that knowledge will then be fed into the detailing and decoration.

Not only did we achieve what we came to do, but we have also managed to kick start the (temporary) shelter for the LCCU. We came up with a simple sketch proposal, and as far as we know work will actually start on site with the collaboration of the Technical School of Builders, to get the building back into a useable space.

In all it has been a really busy two weeks, where I feel that I’ve learnt a lot and think that the work done will make a real difference to peoples lives.

I’d like to thank all the people that we met with and that participated in making this first part of the LCCU “salvage” project a success. I just hope that now it will only continue to progress in the same direction.

Pedro Clarke signing off, at least for now!

Maseru, Thursday the 22nd of March 2007

Report 8

Mission Accomplished (or at least part of it anyway!)

Today we spent the day showing the scheme to Lydia, and then the funders.

All were impressed and extremely happy with direction in which were now taking it.
Lydia was happy to see how we had made it a lot safer for the kids, and functional both to run and to use. She liked the new covered cloister, and the rooms, as well as the kitchens (where we agreed that extra fire protection to the already treated roof will be applied) and the work spaces. The only thing that she would like extra was a division for a private counselling chamber (already dealt with). So after this rewarding meeting and a no show from the old builder (not at all unexpected given the circumstances), we headed of to our next commitment and potentially more complicated one, the bank.

We met at Sentebale’s offices and from the start Martin managed to explain them, without alarming them, of the problems of their current building, what had to be done to salvage it, and we then went on to explain what we where planning to do next to deliver a quality building that all could be proud of! And that to achieve that more funds would be needed…

They totally agreed with us, and the solution of continuing only with subcontractors has been disregarded and they now await the quotes from the two builders to whom we’ve already spoke.

All in all it was a successful day! We will continue our work and hopefully have all that is needed for pricing ready on Thursday.

Just a note on the Old LCCU, today it was still smouldering, but it has now started to be cleared out… Baba has tried to contact the technical builder’s school to get them involved, it could be an important study project for them giving them the opportunity to participate in rebuilding the community. But there is still a lot to be cleaned out before any work can start there.

Report 7

We spent the morning in South Africa sorting out the prints! 4 border stamps in one morning not bad!

We then went to do the damage assessment and it was not to our surprise that we discovered that the building was still smoking and nothing was being done to stop it! Some older children (probably not from the centre) were trying but all in the wrong way… We told them not to do it, to take care and to only try and clean out what was not smoking! We would prefer that they weren’t doing it, but they were being helped by an older man, and it was not likely that we could convince them to do it otherwise.

The building is in quite bad condition, however due to it’s structural shape most of the walls can be saved and a temporary shelter be constructed with it. We could lay a flat roof over it, detail already sketched, and shutter up the windows so as to keep the cold out during the winter. But this might prove to be the wrong solution, because although in a tight space the children are better off where they are now (Lydia’s family’s home, where we were assured they could stay for some time) than in the old house! Plus starting prematurely on this might distract people from the construction of the new main building and jeopardise the whole purpose of us coming here. To start on that one now would be also a mistake for no budgets have been agreed and no prices from the builders given, to do it would mean to work on a blind budget and risk escalating costs!

Speaking about architectural terms now, we still believe that thatch should not be abandoned just because of this tragic incident. The fire started in the living room probably because of an electrical short-circuit, and only had these proportions because the roof was untreated grass! And not fire protected thatch!

In my point of view Thatch is still an option, because of the treatments now available, but also because it’s a traditional element that is doing more than just covering an otherwise very hard building to roof. The thatch is the remaining link to the traditional culture of many of the Lesotho houses. It’s true that untreated it is a fire hazard, but treated it is as likely to burn as any other material. We have however revised the scheme and now proposed a fire protected lower ceiling in the area of the kitchen.

Tomorrow we will meet with all the parties involved and hopefully we we’ll come to some sort of agreement on what should be the way from now on!

I’d just like to say that Baba Malephane has been invaluable in helping out both in everyday situations as in this crisis. He has made suggestions that have been spot on and his proposal to try and involve the builders school in the reconstruction of the old LCCU might prove to again the right one.

Fire! (weekend report)

The Children’s home has burnt down!

Today, Sunday the 18th of March, the LCCU’s current home burnt down. It’s a tragedy that was waiting to happen! Their old house was not fit for purpose and unfortunately such a disaster happened before the new one is finished.

Fortunately it was only the House, everyone is ok! But they are now homeless and this puts even more pressure on completing the project! If before it was important now it’s a necessity!

As you can imagine the priorities have now changed… Tomorrow we were to meet Lydia and show her the project but I didn’t know if she’ll be able to do it…

And we now have an added mission of checking the burnt house and make a decision whether to knock it down, or if it’s repairable to put a temporary roof, so that the children might have a shelter until the new one is completed? It probably could still be repaired and salvaged had the fire brigade not made such a farts ass of putting out the fire! Instead of using water to put it out they knocked the roof inside and let it burn… the result was that 4 hours after it was trying to relight again… People in the street breathing all the smoke, Lydia in the house next door crying! A whole tragedy! We called the fire brigade again to come and check it and they said they would but I doubt it… The walls are now cracked and might fall in at any moment. I just hope nothing worse happens! Tomorrow we’ll go and check what can be done?

Before we knew about this we met with another builder to ask for a quote. He was keen on the project and said that it was his company’s policy to get involved in charity projects trying to cut some costs… Might be a good sign?

The rest of our day, in between these two events, was spent at the Mahole Dam, truly an amazing construction and sight for the eyes!

The day would have been a great one if not for this incident that has tragically changed these children’s lifes…

Report 5

This report will be published at the same time as the nr 4. Sorry I didn’t have time to publish them separately.

Today was a busy day, and in the end quite fruitful! We started off by trying to visit some people in the Ministries and from the engeneering department but we weren’t able to do it. So we went down to the local builders merchant to see the prices.

You can’t imagine our surprise to discover that apart from one or two things they have about as much building materials as we do in Europe and for a 10th of the price! (I might be exaggerating but it’s really cheap! Trust me!

With this we thought that with the right builder there should be no reason not to achieve a pretty decent building. The only Item that we needed is the interlocking system, for the retaining wall but we were told that it cold be brought over from South Africa… so no real problem there either!

We also went to the LEC (Lesotho electricity company) and as in the rest of the world burocracy rules and you can’t get a quotation for how much something will cost until you fill in a form, but you can’t fill in a form until you’ve wired the building, so in the end it means that you can’t know how much it will cost you until it’s too late! Not that we’d ever consider not doing it but…

In the afternoon we showed one of the builders, that was chosen to give us a quote, around the site pointing out to him what we were thinking needed to be done… They were a team of an older more experienced builder and a young QS. They feel that the budget might be running a little short but that they’d come back to us.

We were not at all surprised by this especially when you consider that the total size of the building has risen 40% and is now about 400m2!

Tomorrow we’ll try and meet with another builder so as to get another quote, we will then be in a position to negotiate with the bank.

The rest of our time was spent climbing up the tunnel… Last report I said that we could see light at the end of the tunnel, we are now almost sure that we are in the right tunnel!

Report 4

Before I go on to describe today’s work I’d like to do a short comment on the capital of Lesotho.

Maseru is a very strange capital. It spreads for miles and you can’t quite say when it stops and a suburb starts or for that matter when the suburb stops and the rural starts… The whole area where we’ve been to seams to be scattered some way or another with small constructions, and the approach to central Maseru is no different, the density is a bit higher but the rest is the same.

Maseru Central is however quite different. It’s all organized either side of a central road, at one end of it stands the building which to me is the best of the city. A “tourist information/arts and crafts shop”, its design is based on traditional shapes and techniques but it has a very modern and well built look about it! Then further up you’ll find the cinema, cafes, shops, tall buildings, hotels and banks, all that you’d expect to find in a capital but organized in a strange way. Strange but charming!

The administrative buildings and the King’s palace are behind this main street and in between is a gardened square. Once again all looks quite familiar and odd at the same time.

Back to work now! Martin and I spent our day (if I haven’t explained I apologize, Martin Dyke Coomes is the senior Architect that has also volunteered to help out in the LCCU project, his help has been invaluable and I’ve already learnt a great deal from our short time working together!), so as I was saying we spent our time drawing up the existing plan… No easy task, ask me! All the dimensions were really difficult to tie together, but it’s done now! The site’s also been drawn as accurately as possible, but in reality, it doesn’t matter! It’s not like the building is going to go anywhere!

With that done, a third of our work is done. The easy third! Now we just need a solution that we are happy with! Draw it! And convince everyone that it’s the best!

A lot of work still to be done, but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel…

Report 3

The F.A. (football association) is now full with the National Team! They had a preparation game for the game next week against Niger! Today’s game finished with a win 4-0!

But the day was all but fun and games. We started off with a site meeting with TED (who’ll be supplying the Bio-gas system) and managed to agree with the placing of it on site and a common strategy to tackle the landscaping of that part of the site.

We then set off to visit the SOS Children’s Village Lesotho. These villages originated in Austria when a once orphan Austrian decided to set up the first one. Now there exist 131 worldwide! It’s a very well built project and it almost seems not to belong to this place. But those who manage to come here are lucky. They live in houses of 10 with 2 women to take care of them until they are 16 years old then they move to another building to get used to living alone, and from here they move to the youth home where they stay until the age of 23. By this time, they live the house and are expected to have along with primary education, life skills that should allow them to continue their lives with some success.

The rest of the day was spent taking dimensions and trying to locate on the site the building and trees but with a 30 meter tape and 130 meter site it was not always an easy task! During this time 3 different boys came to ask for work, workforce is available and willing. They are probably not trained but it will definitely help to have a lot of them…
One of them returned later to ask for advice about being a film maker… what can you say?

Report 2 13-03-2007

We visited 2 HIV /AIDS clinics (one of them just for children), and a school. It’s hard to see so many people sick and so many children that you know will have no future.

Our purpose for these visits was to try and make an assessment of what are acceptable levels of construction, and what we can hope to achieve.

The first place we visited was the Baphelong clinic, part of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital it’s specialized in the treatment of children. It has only one Paediatrician to take care of all the cases that come here from all the country. (Just as a remainder 31% of the population infected!). This building was inaugurated by Bill Clinton in 2005, it was a “system building”, fibber glass walls on a timber frame, that was brought here and reassembled from another site, possibly a hospital. The building and the adjacent wards for other diseases are decorated with drawings for the children! We also learnt here about the necessity of protection bars and opposite doors in the counselling rooms in order to avoid unnecessary contact and spread of diseases. There is no isolation but the shade of the adjacent trees and buildings kept it quite cool, however in the winter the doctors said it gets very cold and that they have to rely on electrical heaters.

They also expressed their wish for having part of the parking fenced off as a protected playground for the children.

Visit number 2 was to the Mabote clinic. This clinic is not only used for HIV/AIDS treatment but it’s one of it’s main occupations. An extension has been made to it in 1995, using a Chinese contractor with Worldbank funding, and both the original and the extension are of good workmanship and detail. Canopies, seating and open frame trusses in the inside show the care that was put into this project.

Despite these qualities the medical staff told us that it is still too small and that they could really do with and extra block exclusively for the HIV/AIDS treatments.

The School was however the best visit of the day. Having been lucky to see the children sing and dance, we also saw a building that despite not having electricity is a well achieved building and the children and staff seemed happy with it.

It was built with Japanese funds but with a local builder. There are 3 teaching blocks and 3 toilet blocks. The part dedicated to the secondary school is on 2 levels and the rest on 1.

The Head Teacher said that they might need to expand soon due to the increase of the number of children wanting to come to the school.

We went to the bank to speak about the funds for the building and discovered that there is still some left from the original budget and that they are willing to contribute with some more. They are probably underestimating but we’ve organized to meet again with them to show them our findings and proposal.

Final meeting of the day was with TED-Biogas they are funding part of the installation of a septic tank/methane collection system that will both collect and treat the effluents and provide water for irrigation and enough gas for cooking part of the meals. This meeting was very important for it made evident that we cannot use the septic tanks for building the embankments and retain the wall. It also showed the importance of coordination, in this case the lack of it, and we have decided to meet again, so that we can help each other. If we had been called at an earlier stage a more integrated solution could have been achieved but now it’s important to get functionality of the scheme right and then worry about the rest.

Report 12.march

Foreword: I apologize for the untidiness of the first post but the internet was working so badly and I had planned so badly that post that it was bound to happen. As a very quick summary I’d like to tell you that in the first 2 days we met the client, Lydia, went for a first visit to the site and then had a few rides around to get the feeling for the country.

The natural beauty of the landscape is perfectly complemented by the friendliness of it’s People, that are warm and welcoming although poor and very needing. They seem to have a great appreciation for Queen Victoria’s role as alley to their King Mashoeshoe in establishing Lesotho as an independent country! But I divert… The country’s mountain/desert like landscape is unique and produces an effect that is really difficult to explain. Charming and peaceful, that is only broken when you remember how poorly and disease infested these people have to live their lives. Aids is a real problem and with it the ageing of the population becomes an issue that will be hard to tackle leaving more and more children in the hands of elderly women. The Centre as I’ve explained is for children which are even in a worse situation, they’ve been abused or maltreated.

On our small drive we found several examples of traditional forms and were enchanted as much by them as by the landscape. They occupy always prime sites and are built with simple but lasting details, decorated or not but always with an impeccable feel of pride and achievement. Despite these examples, most of the people live in miserable tin roof shacks, the situation of the housing estate is alarming. Yes there are some well built buildings to be found only in Maseru, but those are for the elite, built in total contrast with the housing of the poor. These better houses are surrounded by barb-wire and normally guarded 24 hours by private security. The quality of the others is honestly a problem, walls are badly built and cracked, infra-structures poor or inexistent, the sizes of some of them were as Martin said “smaller than a toilet” (in the UK). Building techniques are still very basic and it was not once that we saw, presumably for a “better house” a double skin wall of brick being built but not even a cavity between or an attempt to tie both walls together.

I think I’ll leave my apologies at that and go on to today’s report.

Report 1

We started the survey and after not long Problems which are many and some of them not that easy to fix where found;

The floor slab in the east part of the building has partially collapsed and is now pushing the retaining wall outwards, the builder tried to fix this and introduced buttresses that are only tied to the non-bearing part of the walls therefore doing nothing. This is our main problem.

Another serious issue is the fact that the building has differences of up to 700mm in the floor levels and the ceiling heights, this means the introduction of level changes and a complicated roof system.

Both the plumbing and the electrical provisions are badly made and in the wrong position. Then there’s finally another major problem, there is only one exit from the building so in the case of a fire or a disaster many could get trapped.

In order to fix these and to try and elevate the general value of the project we have started to think about creating a cloister that would deal with the distribution, creating at the same time a shaded and protected space for the children within the courtyard. Breaking up the building, introducing movement/expansion joints, and using the septic tank to build an embankment and prop up the building would solve a big part of the structural problems of this building. Part of the slabs might have to be re-casted but by keeping most of the building we might manage to keep the final cost of finishing it low and also the have the time to do it.

Another problem to be solved has to do with the servicing of the different spaces, electrical and plumbing provisions are insufficient.

Big part of the discussion has been is whether there is any point in trying to keep what was made. The problem is that if we don’t do it the investors might get scared and cut the funding. At the same time the children need it finished so to restart puts a lot of unnecessary stress on Lydia and the kids. And a restart would obviously bring up multiple other options. Ex. Opening of the building to the Lanscape.

However with a clever intervention it is possible to re-use a big part of the building, making some adjustments to both the program and the spaces in order to still have a chance of finishing it within the original time scale.

A slightly more radical approach making bigger changes both structurally, formal a programmatically pose moral/programmatic issue. Whether one should use a form, that is so full of meaning within the vernacular culture of these people, for another purpose/space. This might be a question that is not a problem, because Lydia (the client) might not feel strongly about it, for she had already proposed to use one of these Rondavlos(circular space, original shape of the Lesotho traditional house) as an office space. However now the issue is the other way around, to put one of the rooms for the children not in one of the Rondavlos but in one of the square link blocks?

first impressions

we arrived on saturday anmd spent the day having a look around. Yesterday we met Lydia and visited the site.there's a lot of work to be done, but we are starting to see places were it can go. Martin and I then went on a a small tour to visit the country! It's amazingly beatiful and the people are very friendly! You'll find more pictures on the link!

We'll be starting the survey today nad I'll post again soon with more information.