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, 23 March 2007

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

No comments: