real life is elsewhere: 6/19/11

educational building in mozambique. sponsered by bergen school of architecture, norway. project team professers: andré fontes, sixten rahlff & bror r. hansen. project team students: gøran johansen, stine bjar, silje klepsvik, laris sarajlija, olafia zoëga, birgitte haug, tord knapstad, kristian endresen, anette m. basso, mathias wijnen, dan paul stavaru, naeem searle, siri nicholaisen, maria flores adamsen, monica xiao, irmelin rose fisch wågen, tale marie haaheim, ina bakka sem-olsen, eirik solheim aakhus. chimundo, mozambique.
the team arrive at sister catarina's daycare centre for disadvantaged children in the small rural village of chimundo in mozambique with no initial intention to build anything. with the help of the non-governmental organization aid global, catarina also runs a trainee centre for teaching adults, which helps her cover expenses on the daycare centre. however, the lease was running out, and threatened the existence of the daycare centre.
in 12 days they build a school-building at catarina's plot for multi-purpose use as trainee centre in the afternoon and as an extended space for the children during daytime. a framework of reinforced concrete makes a permanent bearing structure in the closed room the framing allows for cheaper more temporary materials as in-fillings. they experimented with sandbags in the east & north facade, where they function as thermal mass in the winter, while an extension of the roof prevents sun exposure during the summer. the shaded south facade has a glass-bottle wall for letting in light and keeping dust out. bottles give an aesthetic quality, & make a good alternative to expensive windows.
the roof collects rainwater into a cistern & is made with corrugated iron sheets that sit on low-cost, self made trusses. the trusses give a natural ventilation gap for cooling, & an inner-roof of cheap locally bought straw-mats filter hot air out.
light straw-doors in the open room give a flexible use of space. the room can open up completely towards the inner school-courtyard to the south, and a small mango tree to the north. the two rooms are divided internally with a large sliding door so that they can be used both separately and as one.
the whole project was done for $8,500!
i love reading about these kinds of projects - we have to remember it takes so little to make big changes.
i'm a huge supporter of kiva. org and have done 16 loans of $25 to various people around the globe. i usually do it when i'm feeling crappy about myself and i feel just a little better knowing that i have done something small and good in the world.