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.

Saturday, 23 June 2007

Back to square one…


Work on site has been progressing well!

Today I visited the site and am now happy to say that on block A we are nearly where we started… Well not quite…

We have now got 5 new slabs (with a properly made fill, DPM and slab thickness) and we have also started to put the reinforcing for the ringbeams. It’s nice to see some new work being done, as well as some of the “old one” being completed!

I spoke to Ntate Sello about some of the next stages, the roof (he says that if there’s a system that can guarantee a one off application that I have his full support in going for it!), the courtyard, the choice of materials, and it is nice that we are on same wave length.

He is not trying to cut corners and is actually trying to build higher spec than we had originally specified! With him on my side I’m nearly sure that we can convince the contractor on some of our choices.

We now await for a truck to go and pick up the stone that we have already collected at the “quarry” so that we can also finish the slabs in block B. Once this is done, both him and me think that work will ready speed up and we’ll be finished in no time… this no time is of course relative, ideally it will match the 12th of august (my departure date).

But for a Saturday site visit it was one of the most gratifying! The slabs are now at 50% and the ring beam at 33%. If all goes as planned we might be back to “square one” by the end of next week!

No comments: