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.

Thursday, 3 May 2007

Bonk, Bonk, Bonk!


We spent the morning knocking about with a sledge hammer to test for the resistance of the slabs and also checking for any space under them.

The results were not comforting. It seems that 75% of the slabs are either week or sitting on air. Monday with and engineer we’ll try and understand the true extent of the problem and its possible solution.

It seems to me at the moment that there are 2 main options. Take all the slabs away and fill properly casting then a slab on what would be a stable ground. Or creating columns and beams on which we would then cast our new slab, this one not ground bearing thus not being exposed to any problems of terrain settlements.

In the mean time we are proceeding with work on other sectors of the building in order not to slow down too much the site.

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