NEXT STEPS - 2011

well, at the moment we are preparing for the forthcoming summer and the x-mas holidays that see all South Africa stopping with work from mid December to mid January.
But we will be hastily starting to work on the completion of the floor slabs, so that we can get the sandbag walls up as soon as possible.


We are finalising all the details to be able to realise the big roof structure starting with end January so that we can do all the remaining building work under the shadow giving roof up in Tubatse

. . . . . . . . . .


SO HAVE A HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON FOR NOW AND SEE YOU ALL AGAIN IN 2011!!!

First Sand bag structure - the security room

Also a first test run with sandbags has been done . . .






. . . and the security room was realised up to approx. 1 meter,











. . . we only had to undo all of the structure again, because the sandbag wall cannot be put under the natural ground level -









learning from mistakes.

Working on the site

Since August Humana has put Webster, a young man with great experience to the building site, and so finally we are all under control . . . . ,






. . . . as he is checking that the architect takes decisions, Humana gets the money allocated to the project, the volunteers have a clear idea of what they are doing, building materials are on site, machines get hired on time, etc etc etc . . . . ,







. . . so imagine the job Webster has taken over!








but finally the building site has started and the foundations are being done.









so far we have made the foundation and the brick wall that will contain the infill on which the slab will be cast.

Working drawings

Even if little happened on the building site up in Limpopo, we used the time to further develop a series of elements and details:






We elaborated the sections and ceiling details of all rooms as E-Lite has agreed to sponsor these.




Thanks to the help of Doka we have received all the shutterboard panels needed to do our so called DOKA-frames around the Sliding doors (donated by Primador) but as the maximum length was 250 cm we had to change some of the details and re-elaborated all the relevant plans.






We did the electrical layout for which we are still looking for sponsors.

Engineering challenge

After three months of real challenges to find an engineer, we where finally ready to start in August with working on the foundations again. In the meantime we had to delay all our work schedule accordingly.
Eugene van der Walt did the geotechnical analysis and the soil test.



We also defined a building company that would work together with the volunteers from Tubatse to realise the foundations that where defined together with Flemming Gustafsson.







In the meantime Oreneille in our practice in Johannesburg re-elaborated all the foundation drawings as to give the construction company T&M Enterprises all the necessary information to proceed.

lecture on March 1st 2010, 18:00, attention new venue!

"Readymix Architecture" is the term Tusnovics has coined for his extremely rapid construction of community buildings in rural and township areas. This idea runs in counterpoint to the usual "solutions" to "Poverty Relief", as it sets up apolemic which directly engages the contemporary South African "roll-out" of non-urban RDP housing that currently holds us hostage. Tusnovics's are inventive and climatologically sensitive buildings that are consciously “communityforming”.
These projects are not the usual run of the mill NGO fare, but demonstrate a sustainability and design integrity that are able to mount an instant critique of the way most things are "provided" to townships and rural areas.
All these projects directly engage the "public" realm, a realm that is notably unconstructed in most low-cost South African 'urban' developments.

text by Sarah Calburn

workday 4: sand bag workshop starts

Sand from the foundations is moved to the space of the courtyard, as the entire area was freed of all elements, like the JoJo, the plants,
















and Neville, our Vinn partner for the sand bag structure,
















together with his partner Carl,
















and we took of for the clay testing phase, getting samples,
















and trying out what a wall cover could look like,
















getting involved in serious discussions on techniques and methods,
















on adding materials and consistency as well as finishes,
















to apply some samples to see what will happen in the next days,
















finding that the elder ladies had some specific experience on the traditional use of clay!

workday 3: getting the bottles for the facade

whilst the foundation work proceeded,
















another group started to collect bottles, to insert into the walls,
















various bottle stores where plundered,
















and the bottles where brought to the site,
















with three cars,

















transport was sorted quickly, and we started sorting the bottles, and cleaning them,
















the pile grew bigger and bigger,
















in the meantime the digging was finished.

workday 2: digging the foundations

February 5, 2010

the second day was dedicated to the initial digging of foundations, as well as getting all the gardening area re situated as partly covered by the new building,
















the happy face of Motebang,
















and Jason, who both enjoyed there involvement a lot,
















the building site turned into a real one,
















as more and more volunteers came on the scene,
















the first foundations started to look well done and gave more and more of an idea of the entire project,
















Peters was assigned to be the first leader of the building group, that will be getting the training to eventually set up their own business for building,
















but also the ladies of Humana where set up for heavy duty building/digging/working,
















the harder labour was to be done by men, but in the volunteer group, ladies are welcome,
















the emotion was very high as slowly the entire dimension of skills transfer as well as the project dimension become reality,
















towards the end of day two,
















so relaxing in the shade of a tree was a good idea,

workday 1: Measuring the plot

February 4, 2010

as we arrived on the building site, Dustin, Jason and Matiban, (two collaborators from Sarah's office in Jo'burg) we started to explain the projekct and the layout as well as the process of working for the next weeks.

day one: putting the plan on the ground!
















the situation of the varous spaces and the concept of shading under the FBR,

















with professional traduction we managed to explain with Matiban's help to explain everything to the community, that was more then attent to follow every detail,

















we then proceeded on the measuring phase, getting each and every corner of the entire building on the plot!!

















we had a good reaction from the community as they started to see the actual dimension of the project!

Drawings for the first building workshop starting February 2010 on site

Site plan and some square meter indications.
(click image to enlarge!!)



















Floor plan of the main building and toilette facilities.



















East and west elevations.



















South and north elevations.



















Foundation plan.












DOKA window elements.



















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