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Educational centre

Promote integration among children

At ADDIS ABEBA in Ethiopia
In 2006
By Arkitekter Utan Gränser - Sweden
Local partners: Asere Hawariat Moya School
Donors: Private Donors

This project is an extension of a school in Addis Ababa, in the form of an Educational Centre. The school’s target is the poorest families and street children and its pedagogy is based on humanism and everyone’s equal rights. Through the years the school has helped thousands of children to a better life.

Ethnical segregation has increased dramatically in the Ethiopia in recent years. The main purpose of the Educational Centre is to counteract this tendency and promote understanding among different cultures. The idea is that it will become a place where the students themselves can exhibit items from their own cultures and tell each other about them. Another important aim is to create pride in Ethiopia to hinder the brain-drainage and make the children stay in the country and contribute to its development once educated. Moreover, the centre will include exhibitions on the history of Ethiopia and women’s and children’s rights.

The building will be approximately 600 sqm and focus on creating spaces for exhibitions and opportunities for informal and formal meetings. It will also be a useful supplement in the school’s everyday education - for outdoor lectures, drama and music classes - and it will form the main meeting point for students and teachers. Building materials are chosen with sustainability and local availability in mind.

Category: Construction Medium / Technology / Material: local resources Typology: Education
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Dental clinic and blood bank

Tsunami 2004

At JAFFNA REGION in Sri Lanka
From 2005 to 2006
By Arquitectos Sem Fronteiras - Portugal
Local partners: Health Ministry of Sri Lanka
Donors: Doctors of the World Portugal

This project is the outcome of the visit realized by two ASFP technicians to Sri Lanka between the 23rd of November and the 8th of December in the scope of a partnership with the Doctors of the World - Portugal. The involved projects of the Doctors of the World - Portugal in Sri Lanka originated in the context of human relief after the 2004 Tsunami. The partnership between ASFP - MDMP intervened in the northern province of Jaffna and its main objective was the sanitization of two units of Point Peter’s Hospital.

The hospital is in need of critical maintenance work in several areas. Moreover, specific types of surgeries are not possible to carry out because of the inexistence of a blood bank. For example: in order to accomplish a simple appendicitis operation, the patients have to make a trip of one hour until the hospital of Jaffna. MDMP – ASFP will install a blood bank in one of the exterior blocks, in a small building that currently serves as warehouse. Also the redevelopment of the spaces intended for the Dental Clinic is planned. Currently, the Dental Clinic is placed inside of the hospital’s main building and is divided in three compartments.

The new project proposes to establish a connection between those three compartments: two of them will be designed as the operating room of the two dentists; the remaining compartment will serve as an in-between area subdivided into two autonomous spaces. These two compartments combined will work as a supporting area for cleansing and sterilization, and will also comprise of a secretary space.

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dental clinic patients

Cultural Centre

Cultural development

At GUNBALANYA in Australia
In 2013
By Architects Without Frontiers - Australia
Local partners: Injalak Arts and Crafts
Donors: Thomas Foundation

Injalak Arts and Crafts asked AWF Australia to help them to construct a cultural centre for Gunbalanya by providing schematic design and scoping services to help get funding. The new Cultural Centre aims to provide a basis for cultural and economic sustainability and self-determination.

AWF undertook two visits to carry out consultation with local stakeholders. The first meeting involved the traditional owners and many other interested people, and AWF was able to get good feedback on what the community wanted from their Cultural Centre. Returning to Melbourne, AWF’s project volunteers , Garry Ormston, Debra Kunda and Rebecca Adams, worked up a design proposal based on the information they had gathered on their visit. On the second trip, AWF took a model and drawings around to the school and the arts centre to get feedback from people, and left the proposed design set up at Injalak Arts and Crafts to encourage further feedback. Following the response, a number of programmatic changes were made to the design.

The scoping document and costed schematic design was returned to the community in August 2008, completing this phase of AWF’s involvement in this project. The Cultural Centre is currently having a business feasibility study completed, and the outcomes from this with AWF’s scoping report will be used to apply for funding for the Centre.

Category: Construction Typology: cultural centre
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Construction of a new surgical ward in St Francis Javier Hospital

UN Millenium Development Goals

At FOSO in Ghana
From 2003 to 2005
By Architettura Senza Frontiere Italian Network
Local partners: Sagrado Corazon de Jesus
Donors: Manos Unidas

The San Francisco Javier Hospital, recognised by the National Sanitary System as publichospital of Assin district, is the reference structure for 41 surgeries scattered in the area. The New Surgical Ward project proposal is meant to offer an answer to the increasing demand of beds and to create a ward dedicated to the stay in hospital of post-operated patients. The project solution respects the typologies and the constructional techniques of the existing structures.

The application of environmental planning and the environmental impact valuation are the main methodological aspects applied to have a correct and integral organisationand management of the building process in order to guarantee the real sustainability of the work. The benefits that can be obtained by using renewable energies have been optimised by the use of local resources, producing great advantages for illumination, ventilation andcooling. Correlating typological and technical characteristics of the building with the climate characteristics has minimized the contribution of the systems.

Category: Construction Medium / Technology / Material: renewable energies & local resources Typology: Hospital
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Children and staff accomodation

Shelter for children

At AVRANKOU in Benin
From 2005 to 2009
By Architectes Sans Frontières - France
Local partners: GREF - Regard du Coeur
Donors: COOP 92

Following several educational projects lead by the GREF in Benin, a lack of structures to accomodate children with problems was pointed out in the region of Ouémé. “Regard du Coeur”, a local association for the protection of childhood, is associated with the project. Located in the area of Avrankou, the building hosts for 60 internal children and 30 external children from 8 to 16 years old. The programme, linked to the pedagogical project of both associations, includes accomodation for children and staff, a building for educational activities and technical buildings. The plan for the buildings on a 3 ha plot was conceived in order to preserve a maximum of palm trees in the surrounding area.

The project is adapted to the local way of life. Most of the buildings are covered, though not completely enclosed (type “appatam”). The buildings are made of clay bricks and concrete tiles.

Such architectural design choices combine the awareness of the climate with the environment of their construction, while utilising current progessions in construction techniques. This project is devised as a “school construction site” and provides learners with required and desirable skills. The department of Hauts-de-Seine subsidized the first phase of the progress, representing 75% of the whole installation.

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Center for children and juveniles

Homeless children

At TANGUÀ in Brazil
From 2001 to 2007
By Architekten Über Grenzen - Germany
Local partners: AIDA Germany/Munich and AIDA Brasil/Tanguá
Donors: German Ministry for Development

In 1999 the german NGO AIDA started a social project with the construction of a small convention-center for disadvantaged children and youngsters living on the road or in difficult families. The initial cooperation with a German technical college was stopped still in the course of the construction because of utter disagreements. Because of the lack of an adequate location for the children already living on the site, a member of Architekten Über Grenzen (AÜG) was asked in June 2000 to design a residential building for 10 children and their foster-parents. With only little time left, the design-job had to be done by ourself.

The construction of the first children’s home started in March 2001 and was finished in September. Surveilling the erection of the loadbearing structure and the beginning of the interior completition a member of AÜG was on the spot twice. AÜG took over the costs of the flight. A Brazilian architect could be engaged for the surveillance of the completition of the first children’s home and the construction of the following ones. The erection of the last children’s home was sponsored with funds of the BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development). AÜG helped the german NGO AIDA during all stages of the project: from the application scheme to the request of financial transfers until the proof of the expenses. After a lot of initial difficulties with the responsible local staff and repeatedly hold-ups, the project as a whole has finally become successful.

All four children’s homes have been occupied and a last important project has just started in 2007 with the construction of a building for education, job training, staffl ocation and administration. We took part in the overall design of this project as well, but now the new local holder, the 3rd order of the Franciscans has taken over full responsibility for the further progress of the project.

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Building the Guambian Community

Social development and settlement improval

At MORALES in Colombia
In 2007
By Architetti Senza Frontiere Italia
Local partners: Fundacion Horizonte of the socialgroup Asmet Salud

The project has the purpose of contributing to the reinforcement of the social, ethnic and cultural background of the “Guambian” native community of the “Cabildo La Bonanza” by means of the improvement of its habitat, that is to say the living, hygienic, sanitary conditions and infrastructures. Beneficiaries are composed of 205 Guambian families coming from Resguardo of Guambia Silvia and compelled, since 1930, to move into the east part of Morales Municipality for the lack of lands to live on. The Community faced the difficulties coming from settling in a new land, with the risk of loosing its own identity as a native ancestral community.

Gambian Community asked for support in the reinforcement and improvement of its settlement, as well as in the process of social and cultural development. According to this request, ASF Onlus elaborated the following project in cooperation with the local community:
a) improvement of the present hygienic, sanitary, living conditions and infrastructure, necessary to guarantee the available habitat for the community. For this purpose, the project will provide to the building of 20 houses for 20 families together with the basic infrastructures linked to them, in status of “auto-costruzione”;
b) creation of a laboratory for the manufacturing of “guadua” (a kind of material similar to bamboo) and of wood, useful for the houses’ construction;
c) promotion of training activities in communitary organization, leadership, building activities, manufacturing, creation of small factories, with the aim of strengthening the communitary organization and starting up productive activities in favour of the whole community.

The project aims to make all the people involved (target group and local partners) able to develop their own technical and organization abilities by means of a communitary, synergic partecipation between the whole native population and the target group. Thus the project aims to contribute in making it easier to begin a sustainable development process.

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housing
wooden construction

Building houses in recovered land

Social minority communities, social status & living conditions

At CHAMPERICO in Guatemala
From 2005 to 2006
By Arquitectos Sin Fronteras España
Local partners: Coordinadora Nacional Indígena Campesina
Donors: Public funding

The main goal of this project is to support the process of ‘Selfconstruction of Dwellings’ in the Victorias 3 community, founded in 1999 after a long period of organisation and vindication by the community, which culminated in the recovery of the land. With this project we seek, in addition to the symbolic value of the land, to allow for the families in Victorias 3 to improve their health and hygienic conditions as well as their economic situation. Moreover, by providing a stable habitat, living conditions within the family, social relationships, and the degree of empowerment of the community will be improved. Hence, they can proceed with this process of human development, originally set off by themselves together with the organisation for the recovery of Mother Earth. The dwellings will be built with autochthonous equipment, materials and technologies, to facilitate usability and supply and to prevent the risk of technological dependency. The benefi ciaries themselves, who previously followed a capacity building course, will provide labour. Upkeep of dwellings is therefore guaranteed by the owners themselves.

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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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