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Improvement of educational quality with cultural and gender approach

This project is part of an educational program that aims to improve the overall quality of education in rural communities in the municipality of Champerico.

At Champerico in Guatemala
From 2017 to 2018
By Arquitectos Sin Fronteras España
Local partners: ASIAPRODI and PRODESSA
Donors: Xunta de Galicia, private contributions, Municipalidad de Champerico, Caja Navarra and Fundación Roviralta

The construction of a school in the community of El Manchón is part of a bigger educational program which has been developed by ASF, PROYDE -Spanish organizations-, PRODESSA and ASIAPRODI -loca! partners- since 2014. The intervention seeks to improve the condition in eight primary schools and two high schools from an integrated approach, addressing specific aspects with each group involved in the process: teachers, students, parents, communities, local leaders, associations and institutional authorities.

The objective is to adapt, improve and build quality educational spa ces that offer an appropriate, safe and healthy environment for their users, thus establishing an adequate framework for the learning process. The school of El Manchón has bee n designed to achieve the necessary com fort conditions in the building, putting into practice criteria of bioclimatic design, appropriate technologies, optimisation of resources and participation. The construction includes two classrooms, a kitchen, a canteen and a module of ecological dry toilets.The materials used for construction are concrete blocks and reinforced concrete. This solution is adequate to the context according to their effectiveness, viability, sustainability and impact, adapting the design to the availability of resources and !ocal knowledge. The design establishes a modulation in order to red u ce the use of materials, avoid was te and make the construction easier, fas ter and more efficient.

Category: Education Medium / Technology / Material: Concrete blocks & Reinforced concrete Typology: Project
Axonometry
Axonometry
North facade
South view
Interior view
wall details
Students participatpion in design process
Community participatpion in design process
Excavation works

Ambatofotsy Medical Centre, Madagascar

Designed and built a medical infrastructure

At Madagascar
In 2017
By Architecture Sans Frontières Québec - Canada
Local partners: Soeurs Missionnaires de l’Immaculée Conception
Donors: l’Immaculée Conception

Designed and built a medical infrastructure in a remote area with 4,000 inhabitants on the high plateaus of the Red Island Ambatofotsy is a remote location whose 4,000 inhabitants live dispersed across a sprawling, arid landscape with no medical infrastructure. In early 2017, Architecture Without Borders Québec, Engineers Without Borders Québec and the PRECI decided to support the mission of the Soeurs Missionnaires de l’Immaculée Conception, a missionary that has been in Ambatofotsy for years, to finance, design and build a medical centre in a culturally appropriate and sustainable manner. A volunteer architect’s mission in May 2017 allowed us to meet local partners, understand the site and prepare materials orders. Needs were surveyed on site through participatory workshops. The building embodies the vernacular principles of Malagasy construction, while also incorporating modern concepts. Since early February 2018, a doctor has been doing consultations 3 days per week, and a nurse and midwife have been on site full-time to offer first aid and maternity services. With the support of the Roncalli International Foundation, a second phase of construction is now set to begin to complete the centre by adding accommodations for the medical team.

Ambatofotsy Medical Centre
Ambatofotsy Medical Centre
Ambatofotsy Medical Centre
Ambatofotsy Medical Centre

Vulnerability and risk workshop

Seismically vulnerable region

At CHAMOLI in India
By Architecture Sans Frontières - UK
Local partners: SEEDS India and Gomti Prayag JanKalyan Parishae
Donors: Christian Aid and Self funding

In June 2008 the ‘Vulnerability and Risk Workshop’ series continued in India in Langasu Village, Chamoli District, Uttarakhand in partnership with the Indian NGO, SEEDS India and the local organisation, GPJKP. Chamoli district was at the epicentre of an earthquake in 1999 where almost 100 people lost their lives. This region is vulnerable in terms of seismic activities and there is a high probability of another earthquake in the near future.

ASF-UK engaged in a complex two-week programme of investigation, design, procurement, negotiation and construction of a small intermediate shelter behind the local school. This shelter would serve not only as a prototype for the local community, but also as a much needed additional temporary classroom for this school. The brief was ambitious and the context in which the scenario was based broadly introduced the majority of issues development practitioners have to engage with, when working in a post-disaster scenario.

The design for the shelter developed as information on the different technologies/materials/ vernacular was collected in the area. Research into humanitarian standards from secondary sources was fed into the rigorous design process. Locally available materials were procured and local masons hired within a budget of £625. With a very ambitious programme a careful redesign was necessary to remain within the budget and finish the building on time.

The post workshop evaluation process revealed the successes and challenges of the workshop. An interim shelter was designed, procured and built in just 10 days and the group witnessed the process evolve through sketching, building and thinking. The participants had to juggle the overlapping agendas of the intermediate shelter and its future use as a school classroom which added an interesting dynamic to the process. The reflections and evaluation process have been formalized through the production of a publication following the workshop. Another task that a separate team was engaged in was designing solutions for retrofitting the existing school for earthquake resistance and to develop a model school proposal. This has been progressed further since the workshop and ASF-UK are supporting SEEDS and GPJKP to develop a funding proposal. One year on and the interim shelter is in full use as an additional classroom for the school.

Category: Workshop & Disaster Reconstruction Medium / Technology / Material: Timber & Concrete blocks Typology: Housing
design process
community children
building construction

Veterinary school in saharawi refugee camp

Education to animal health in Saharawi refugee camp

At RABUNI in Algeria
From 2007 to 2008
By Architettura Senza Frontiere Italian Network
Local partners: Movimento Africa'70 - Italy and Department of Veterinary, Ministry of Health, Arab Democratic Republic of Saharawi
Donors: Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The project was born in collaboration with the NGO Africa’70, which has operated in Saharawi refugee camp of Rabuni since 2002 with several projects centered on cattle-breeding support, animal health and stray dogs control.

The school includes several didactic spaces (library, classrooms, clinic) as well as a few rooms to host local and foreign students, teachers and Africa’70 staff , for a total floor surface of approximately 500 sqm.

After the school was built, ASF-Italia explored the possibility to conduct further research on the use of adobe and other alternatives modes of construction, foreseeing the possibility to build a small prototype structure together with the local community, to be included in the veterinary school.

Category: Architectural project Medium / Technology / Material: Adobe Bricks & Concrete blocks Typology: Veterinary school & Refugee camp
project model
project plan
wall building
wall plastering
local workers

Public School

International Cooperation

At ANSE-À-PITRE in Haiti
From 2004 to 2005
By Arquitectos Sin Fronteras España
Local partners: Ministère de lâ Education and Jeunesse et Sports
Donors: Public funding

For Phase 2 of this project, we propose to continue supporting the National Primary School in the border town of Anse-à-Pitre in Southwest Haiti. It consists in building two more school rooms, which would add up to the four rooms already in construction, in order to reach the total number of six required for the fi rst cycle of Primary Education. It also consists in the construction of a canteen and a school orchard, plus the instruction of the APA for them to grow and cook the schoolchildren’s breakfast. Moreover, we propose to further all those activities directed toward the creation of egalitarian bonds among the people inhabiting both sides of the Dominican-Haitian border, through joint actions involving teachers, students and parents from both countries.

The whole project is part of a larger process of cross-border development to promote transnational environmental education. It puts special emphasis on the improvement of the educational infrastructures in both border towns, seen as fulcra for the expansion of a new sensibility towards the physical environment, which on the Haitian side is devastated and on the Dominican side is threatened by industrial and touristic activities, incompatible with the preservation of protected areas. The idea of a refectory furnished with cooking devices powered by solar energy is aimed at putting this special emphasis on the preservation of the environment – the use of clean energies reduces the impact of deforestation caused by the production of charcoal, which is the only existing fuel in the area.

Our project is based, therefore, on the potential capacity of instruction to impinge on a tendency which is decimating the student population in the region, while also causing serious damage to its resources and to the good understanding between the people of these two nations.

Category: Architectural project, Education & Education facility Medium / Technology / Material: Concrete blocks Typology: Primary school
school foundations
roof construction
roof construction

Primary school

International cooperation

At TIÉMÉLÉKRO in Côte d'Ivoire
In 2007
By Arquitectos Sin Fronteras España
Local partners: Municipality of Tiémélekro
Donors: Public funding

Tiémélékro is one of the newest towns in Ivory Coast. It has undergone a dramatic demographic growth in a very short time. Because of its lack of resources and the increment in the population of school aged children, part of these children cannot attend school due to lack of rooms. As a consequence, some of them start their schooling later or fail to attend school altogether. In the case of girls, the situation is much worse, since most of them help the women with domestic asks. Therefore, only a minority of them has access to education.

The kindergarten plays a key role in introducing children to instruction. It has such an important role for integration that the Ivory Coast Ministry of Education passed a bill requiring every primary school to be associated with some kindergarten. This project started on January 2007 in Tiémélékro and corresponds to the second phase of the Primary School in the district of Sogephia. It consists in the construction and opening of a kindergarten and a library, plus the urbanisation of the site.

The library complements a number of interventions in the area of education with great value for the community. It will be a public library, open both to students of the primary school as well as to the rest of the inhabitants of the town. As for the book supply, we contacted the French Association Biblionef, which provided new books in French to those facilities built through development cooperation projects.

Category: Architectural project, Education & Education facility Medium / Technology / Material: Concrete blocks Typology: Primary school
local workers
foundations construction
roof construction

Education to Art & Crafts

At BOBO DIOULASSO in Burkina Faso
From 2002 to 2006
By Architettura Senza Frontiere Italian Network
Local partners: Association Siraba, Municipality of Bobo Dioulasso and Khoron Tlé
Donors: Mani Tese, Nando Peretti Foundation and Anlaids Lombardia

Because of its geographical position, Bobo Dioulasso is intrinsically a place of encounters and a carrefour of exchanges between different peoples and cultures.

Here three local associations of artists, Badenya, Sanyon, Farafina Yeleenba together with the Italian organization Koron Tlè, decided to respond to a need of the city by planning and finally realizing a center for education where they could assist and prepare local artists, which are a unique resource to the entire country.

ASF-Italia was invited from the start as a partner to share ideas on the definition of the architectural project, which was expected to be discussed and realized in the same interlocutory, cross-cultural way as the educational project itself.

The site hosting the intervention has a triangular shape andit is located in the periphery of Bobo Dioulasso. The architectural project makes use of a traditional Burkinese spatial structure: it revolves around a few courtyards and open spaces that are functionally independent from each other to guarantee the maximum flexibility in use. This arrangement also allowed the center to be built step-by-step during separate phases, according to the discontinuous fluxes of financial resources. The first phase concentrated on the working space for artistic activities: a large rehearsal room with an open courtyard, fitting rooms and an office. The second phase consisted in the construction of housing units, a building with a kitchen, dining rooms, an office and other small facilities.

12 housing units for teahers and students are organized around one open space and are connected to it through small wooden porches. In order to facilitate cross ventilation and climatic comfort, a small elevated loft was arranged in each unit.

All the building were realized with a concrete structure; walls are made in pierre taillée – earth blocks obtained by mining. This very traditional material was coupled with concrete to increase the overall structural quality of the construction.

Medium / Technology / Material: Adobe Bricks, Stone & Concrete blocks
Side View
Yard
Yard
Front View
Front View
Celebration
Celebration

Housing units for the personnel of Masanga hospital in Sierra Leone

Support a renovated hospital with staff housing

At Sierra Leone
By Arkitekter Uden Grænser - Denmark
Local partners: Danish NGO with local branch in Sierra Leone
Donors: Café Retro and Statens Kunstfond

„Several new housing units for the staff at Masanga Hospital in Sierra Leone. The hospital will thus have an easier time recruiting qualified staff. Today the hospital is functioning well and around 150 patients are treated every day. One of the biggest issues, that they are facing, is the lack of decent staff housing. Without decent housing the staff is left to live in primitive huts and attracting qualified staff is difficult.
DEVELOPMENT TARGETS:
- That Masanga Hospital can attract qualified labour by offering decent accommodation.
- That the hospital, through more and better trained staff, can increase its capacity and provide better service to people living within its catchment area.
ARCHITECTURE:
The project contains several new housing units for the staff of the Masanga Hospital. The specific units is a part of a bigger whole, which gradually can develop and be used by locals as a standard model for developing their village. The units have a longer lifespan and offers a better indoor climate for a lower cost. The country is going to operate the hospital by 2016 and the ambition is to construct 250 staff housing units by then. An important aspect is to secure local ownership by including the community in the construction, so they can take over the future constructions.
It has been of high focus to develop housing that took climate, functionality and local materials into consideration. The intention has also been to integrate parameters such as natural ventilation, daylight and cooling. Because of a very limited financial frame low cost solutions have also been of high priority. Each unit is to be inhabited by a family or three nurses.
PROJECT TEAM: Rasmus C. Hamann, Camilla Kragh, Silje Erøy Sollien

Masanga_dwellings2
Housing units for the hospital's personnel, type 1
Masanga_dwellings3
Housing units for the hospital's personnel, type 2
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