Portable School - Final Report

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 0

GRAEME BRISTOLThe Portable School

29 OCT 09

The Portable SchoolA Report to Funders

Graeme Bristol Executive Director, Centre for Architecture and Human Rights

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 1


29 OCT 09

Table of Contents

79Next Steps13.76Publicity12.70Opening Day11.68Spending10.65Funding9.56Construction8.52Drawings7.33Method6.31Principles5.29Purpose4.15Problem3.4Background 22Introduction1.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 2


29 OCT 09

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Children of the Sakunacamp in SamutPrakan

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 3


29 OCT 09

This report documents a project by the Centre for Architecture and Human Rights (CAHR) and architecture students from the School of Architecture and Design (SOAD) of King Mongkut’sUniversity of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok.

The project was the design and construction of a portable community space for migrant construction workers and their children.

The report outlines the background to the project, the principles applied to it, the process to achieve it and the outcome. There are two appendices providing information about the overall costs for the project and the as-built drawings for the building.

Graeme Bristol, the Executive Director of CAHR and lecturer at SOAD, authored the report in October of 2009 with the assistance of KMUTT architecture students in his design studio.

Unless otherwise indicated all photos are by Graeme Bristol

1.2 A shy child at home in the Sakuna camp.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 4


29 OCT 09

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 A child getting the day’s water supply while the small electric pump is working.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 5


29 OCT 09

This project was inspired by an SOAD studio I did in 2001 with my 5th year KMUTT architecture students.

On Tuesday, 27 FEB 01, I went with Steve Buttling to a school in one of the communities over in the Lad Praoarea of Bangkok. At a meeting of the Lighthouse Club[1] two weeks before he had asked me if any of my architecture students might be interested in designing a small preschool to replace the existing one we were about to see. Along with replacing this school, though, Steve said the Lighthouse Club wanted to develop a prototype from this design – a prototype that could serve as a portable preschool to be used on construction sites for the children of workers who are living on the site during the construction period.

As he was describing this program to me, we were twisting and turning east from Rachadapisek down one soi after another until it was impossible to remember what direction I was facing. We finally arrived, passing by about 400 metres of settlement –the usual houses built mainly of found materials – and then we came to the school.

[1] The Lighthouse Club is an international service organization whose membership is involved in the construction industry (http://www.lighthousebkk.com/).

The school is administered, like some 31 others, by Fr. Joe and the Human Development Foundation (HDF). HDF supplies the teachers, books and administration for the school from fundraising. It was intended that the capital cost for this proposed replacement school would be funded by money raised in the Lighthouse Club. What the Club needed was something drawn up that could be put to the membership. And that’s where the School of Architecture at KMUTT came in.

.1 The Ladprao School

Parking in an open space just past it, we came up to the doorway of the school. It was formed by two tent-like structures, the sort of thing you might find in the back yard at a garden party for the rich, under which they would place the buffet or the wine bar. But there was no buffet here. There were about 100 children between 3 and 5 years old (preschool) inside the ‘walls’ of this 8m by 8m space. These walls were made out of vertical wooden slats with enough space between them to allow for some ventilation along with the dust from the nearby busy road.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 6


29 OCT 09

There were a number of floor fans augmenting the natural ventilation coming through the walls. All these fans were plugged in to a receptacle box that was suspended loosely by its wire from a central metal post in the room directly under the metal gutter forming the valley of the two roofs.

There were 4 teachers. One was teaching some of the children the English alphabet. The letters were all written on a small whiteboard hanging from the wall. She pointed to each letter as the kids all yelled them out. AAAA, . . . .BBBBB, . . . . CCCC, enthusiastically at the top of their lungs!

On the other side of the room, another teacher was dipping plastic cups into a big plastic turquoise wash pan filled with milk. She passed it out to a group of fidgeting but mercifully silent children who lined up and waited patiently for their turn. Another small group gathered around Steve and me and stared up at these two giant foreigners who were invading their space. Another teacher was leading kids back and forth to the toilet. Still other children were on the floor with pencils and notebooks working on some assignment I couldn’t quite make out. What little storage space there was had notebooks, pencils and other supplies crammed into shelves bursting out onto the floor. It was a busy, noisy, space.

2.2 Exterior of Ladprao School

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 7


29 OCT 09

Here, with the road so close by, one couldn’t help but worry about the possibility of one of those children opening the door and wandering out into that busy street. I could understand why Steve and the Lighthouse Club wanted to improve the quality of space.

In addition to simply providing a better and somewhat larger space for the children and their teachers, he mentioned that the replacement design should act as a prototype. The expectation was that, as a prototype, the design proposal could be used for portable schools that would be placed on construction sites to provide a safe place for children of construction workers to learn. He then proposed that, after the prototype was done, we apply it to the new Suvarnabhumi airport site.

2.3 Interior of school

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 8


29 OCT 09

.2 The Airport School

At an earlier meeting of the Lighthouse Club I saw a preliminary plan of the construction camp for the new international airport for Bangkok (see Figure 3a & 3b). The plan called for a camp for about 16,000 workers plus another 30% for family members on 21 ha of land in the SW corner of the site. The preliminary design shows a grid (see Figure 4) laid out with 32 plots, each allocated to the various subcontractors. Each plot of 4400 smhad six blocks of housing comprised of 28 units of 3 m by 4 m with common toilets on the ground floor. In addition there was open space (about 8%) and common areas for a school, canteen, shops and administration space. The camp was to grow as the project developed and was ultimately dismantled when the project was completed. In looking at the plan, I was convinced that my students could do something better than what was proposed. The timing allowed for it to be a studio project.

2.4 Location map of new airport

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 9


29 OCT 09

There were three purposes to this studio design:

1.Research on:• construction workers and their

living patterns• temporary buildings and cities

(including sustainability issues concerning recyclables, etc.)

• the construction process of the airport

2.prepare a set of recommendations for standards for construction camps;

3.Based on those recommendations, design the airport construction camp that will house the construction workers and their families for the duration of the project.

Proposed camp site

Existing camp sites (June 2001)

2.5 Site plan of airport showing existing and proposed camp sites in 2001

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 10


29 OCT 09

Along with this another problem was raised. The Human Development Foundation had one of their 34 preschools located in one of the construction camps at the airport. They wanted a new school built for the incoming children of the construction workers. How big should the school be? How many children between the ages of 2 and 5 or 6 would there be. The figure ranged as high as 15% of the total population. That would be a preschool for about 3500 children. Was that possible?

I asked the airport officials where the 15% figure came from. They said the Lighthouse Club. I went to the Lighthouse Club and asked how they derived the figure. They said they got it from the airport officials. In other words, this was a guess. How accurate was it? The design of the school would be dramatically affected by the number. We needed to find out and the only way to do that was to get some information from interviewing the construction workers that were already on site.

2.6 Exterior of Mercy Centre School on the airport construction site

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 11


29 OCT 09

There were two camps there already. Ital-Thai, one of the major site preparation contractors had an old site there (see Figure 2.4). It was here that HDF’s existing preschool was located (see Figure 2.5). This school had about 80 children in it (see Figure 2.6). It would have to be relocated to the new site when it was prepared and there would have to be some additions made to accommodate a growing intake of children.

My students, then, had another aspect to this project – to design the school for an unknown number of children. It would be their job to collect the appropriate data to determine the program requirements for the school.

In addition, I wanted them to collect data on other forms of temporary housing:

• Other construction camps• Refugee housing – the UNHCR-

designed camps at the Burmese border

• Military camps – the Thai camp in East Timor

• Migrant farm workers

2.7 KMUTT students with the children of the Mercy Centre School behind.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 12


29 OCT 09

In conducting this research a number of facts were revealed. Among them were:

• the minimum standard for floor space in shelter stated for refugee housing was 3.5 sm (UNHCR, 2000:370). In the examples the students reviewed, labourers were typically living in 3 sm or less. The standards for refugees were higher.

• In one construction camp for labourers working on a building on the KMUTT campus, labourers were making about 70 baht a day (under $2.50 CDN) less than half the minimum wage. No doubt the contractor was pocketing the difference to pay for their lodging, reminiscent of the stories that Steinbeck told in the Grapes of Wrath or that Robert Coles told in his commentary on the migrant farm workers in Uprooted Children. 2.8 Layout of the main construction camp for the airport site.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 13


29 OCT 09

The conditions in construction camps were, to say the least, substandard (see Figures 2.8 & 2.9). This raised a more general question about standards. If there were no local standards, were there any international ones similar to those of UNHCR? The International Labour Organization has standards[1] but they are far too general to apply to this situation and most of their standards apply to the workplace, not the living conditions for workers and their families. As a result, establishing some standards became an important part of the project.

In the end, the school was designed for approximately 600 children. A compromise was made. The surveys indicated that the number of preschool children was closer to 10%. Still, at its peak capacity, the construction camp would have about 2500 children. Finances became a serious issue as well as space. HDF, the airport authorities and the Lighthouse Club (who were expected to fund at least part of the construction cost) decided that they would build for about 25% of that figure and hope for the best!

[1] See http://ilolex.ilo.ch:1567/english/convdisp1.htm for the Safety and Health in Construction Convention, 1988, particularlyArticle 32, Welfare.

2.9 Exterior view of one of the typical camps

2.10 Plan of the typical camp shown above

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 14


29 OCT 09

.3 World Urban Forum III – Vancouver 2006

The further pursuit of a portable space for the children of migrant construction workers languished until the World Urban Forum in Vancouver in 2006. It was here I met representatives of the Building and Woodworkers’ International (BWI) union at a networking session they had organized with the International Labour Organization. The session’s title was “Local Authorities and the Promotion of Decent Work in Construction and Related Services”[1]. At the end of the formal presentations I raised the question: “What about the kids?” From that came a dialogue with BWI that has continued through to the realization of this project and beyond.

[1] See http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?index=225&Language=EN for Gunde Odgaard’s speech on behalf of BWI at this session.

2.11 Local Authorities and the Promotion of Decent Work in Construction and Related Services – International Labour Organisation (ILO) photo: Bristol

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 15


29 OCT 09

3. PROBLEM

3.1 Children of the Sakuna camp.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 16


29 OCT 09

I raised the question because I saw a problem on construction sites that was not being addressed by this focus on workers in the workplace. There were children in the workplace as well and they were using the workplace as their only playground. This was not an issue of child labour, it was a very basic issue of safety.

In Thailand, and throughout Asia, construction labour is often performed by migrant workers. While many of these workers are Thai nationals coming down from the north, there are also many undocumented workers from Cambodia, Laos or Burma. Neither they nor the children they bring with them have any access to education or health care. Where both parents work in construction their children have no access to daycare. This often means the children go to the construction site with their parents and spend all day there.

There are any number of stories these children have to tell.

3.2 Mother and child on a construction site in Bangkok. Photo: Chris Phongphit

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 17


29 OCT 09

I met Wah one evening in June of 2009. It was around 6pm as he was getting out of the back of the pickup truck that was bringing him from the construction site back to the camp with his mother and about 15 other workers.

I asked Wah how old he was. He said he was 8 years old and came from Cambodia with his mother last year. He has never been to school but he would like to go. I asked him why. “I want to have friends,” he said.

As with many children on construction sites he spends a lot of his time alone exploring the site.

3.3a/b Wah returning from the construction site with his mother. photo: Bristol (a), Millar (b)

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 18


29 OCT 09

Silak is 4 years old and comes from Burma. His parents died when they were making the trip to Thailand from Burma. They were locked in the back of a truck coming across the border. It was very hot and they were in the truck with about 100 other people. More than half the people in the truck suffocated (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7339939.stm for example).

He came across the border separately with his aunt and was going to meet his parents. They never arrived. Now he lives with his uncle who has a little food stall attached to his motorcycle. Silak travels around with his uncle as he makes food for people in different camps.

Silak has never been to school and he doesn’t know what to expect from going there. His uncle, though, is very concerned that if his nephew doesn’t go to school he will fall prey to gangs and never have a chance at a life.

3.4 Silak and his uncle at the Sakuna camp. photo: Bristol

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 19


29 OCT 09

Jun is now 13 years old. He came to Thailand with his parents who left Cambodia to find work. Before the family came to Thailand,Jun went to school in his home country. Now that he is here in Thailand he is unable to go to school though he would like to have that opportunity.

I met him when he came to our building site looking for work. He had been working on another construction site but he stepped on a nail which punctured his foot. Because he was limping and slow the contractor sent him home. Without any work it was going to be harder to find something to eat, so he wanted to see if my crew would hire him.

I was more concerned about the injury to his foot and the clear need for medical attention. He didn’t want to go to the doctor, though, because he was afraid he would be turned over to the immigration authorities and sent back to Cambodia. Then he would be separated from his parents and all alone in Cambodia.After a few days we talked him into going to see a doctor at theclinic. One of the local landowners drove him there on his motorcycle (see 3.5b).

Jun got bandaged up and he is still with his parents living in the camp. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that he will be able to go to school. The Mercy Centre, the organization operating the Portable School, usually restricts the age of students to those between 3 and 7 and Jun is 13 now. If he tried to go to a regular school in Thailand he would have to show papers which would have his residence and citizenship on it. He lives in a temporary camp and he does not have Thai citizenship so he would not be accepted in a Thai school.

3.5a Jun sits on the bamboo with nothing to do. (b) The local landowner checks on Jun’sbandaged foot. photos: Bristol

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 20


29 OCT 09

To this day, children are playing (and ‘working’) on construction sites. These photos are were taken in 2008 at a construction site near Rachadaphisek and the Thai Cultural Centre in Bangkok

Photos: Chris Phongphit 3.6

3.7

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 21


29 OCT 09

Photos: Chris Phongphit

3.8 3.9

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 22


29 OCT 09

Toy backhoes and real ones

Photos: Chris Phongphit3.10

3.11

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 23


29 OCT 09

Photos: Chris Phongphit

3.12

3.13

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 24


29 OCT 09

Around the Sakuna camp in Samut Prakan there are many subdivisions being built. Migrant workers live in camps in the area and are picked up in the early morning and taken in the back of small pick-up trucks to sites in the area where they will work from about 7am to 5pm.

Many of these workers have to bring their children with them to the site if both parents are working. On the left is what passes for daycare.

3.14 3.15

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 25


29 OCT 09

3.16 3.17

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 26


29 OCT 09

And, from time to time, the kids just play on their own in the construction waste

3.18

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 27


29 OCT 09

Construction site

4 year old child of construction worker

District office

3.19 While some have said that laws about children on construction sites are strictly enforced, in many smaller construction projects, in particular with housing, there is little or no enforcement. The District Office is not equipped for such enforcement. The contractors are often interested in getting children off the site but they don’t see it as a particular responsibility to provide daycare to the children of workers. Who will take on the responsibility?

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 28


29 OCT 09

3.20 Returning to the camp at 5:30 carrying a mat – the makeshift daycare – and a child.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 29


29 OCT 09

4. PURPOSE

4.1 A child walks barefoot in the construction debris of an abandoned house.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 30


29 OCT 09

The primary purpose of the Portable School project is simply to create a safe place for the children of migrant construction workers while their parents are at work. After that there are a number of possibilities

SCHOOLFocusing, initially, on children between the ages of 3 and 7, this educational program will serve several purposes:• to keep the children out of harm’s way where camps

are on construction sites; • to make sure they are receiving basic education they

would not otherwise receive;• to develop their self-esteem and support their dreams for

the future;This educational program will be housed in a mobile school room which will be fully equipped, furnished, and supplied. The children, staff and faculty will be provided with lunch daily.

ADULT EDUCATION• to provide vocational and safety training for workers;• preventive health education;• a focal point for community organizing (particularly

around children’s education and health.

HEALTH CLINICMost construction camps are located in marginal locations where environmental hazards and health hazards are more prevalent. In most places pit latrines are used and in some locations the water source is a well. In the Bangkok area where the water table is high, there is a reasonable concern about health risks. A weekend clinic could begin to deal with:• preventive health care• treatment of common diseases and injuries

4.2 Children of the Sakuna camp drawing pictures of the school they would like to have. July 2008.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 31


29 OCT 09

5. PRINCIPLES

5.1 A garden grows in this long-established camp in Samut Prakan

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 32


29 OCT 09

• Maximize use of funds – construction costs can be used more efficiently if the building performs a number of functions for the community

• Maximize circulation of funds – particularly within the community

• Maximize the use of the building – not just in terms of the variety of its physical uses but in terms of the building as a catalyst for other activities within the community – building as an organizing tool.

• Maximize user involvement – through participation in design, construction, maintenance, and programming

• Maximize local resources – there are skills within the community

• Maximize learning opportunities – not only for architecture students but for the residents, especially children, and for all stakeholders

• Maximize sectoral involvement – education, private sector, professions, community, NGOs and government should be involved in the entire process from funding through design, construction and operation.

There are a number of principles which CAHR applies to any project.

5.2 KMUTT students, together with local workers consider the possibilities of the structural details – January 2009.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 33


29 OCT 09

6. METHOD

6.1 Children in the camp exam some of the models prepared by the KMUTT architecture students

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 34


29 OCT 09

There were three distinct phases in the process of getting the project from an idea to a usable building:

1. Schematic Design Phase (discussed in this chapter)

2. Construction and testing phase (see Ch. 8)3. Relocating and reassembling the building on

the site. (see Ch. 8)

6.2 One of the early student sketches of the proposed design

6.3 The construction/testing phase at the KMUTT School of Architecture & Design 6.4a/b Reassembly on the site

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 35


29 OCT 09

The 4th/5th year architecture design studio ran from June 3rd to Sep 23rd, 2008. It involved 11 students from KMUTT and one volunteer international student from the Development and Emergency Practice master’s programme at the Oxford Brookes Architecture School in the UK. As the syllabus on the left describes the studio began with data collection, development of a programme, presentations in the community and then a set of preliminary designs based on the agreed-upon programme.

Schematic Design Phase6.5 Students made their first visit to the camp on 06 June 08. There were, at that time, about 380 people in the camp.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 36


29 OCT 09

6.6 Students hand out information sheets to residents upon their return from work – 15JUL08

6.7 Students visit the construction sites where the Sakuna residents work

6.8 Students also did an analysis of the housing and materials.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 37


29 OCT 09

6.9a-eA survey was taken in the camp in order to understand current issues and needs. Ideas were shared with both adults and children residents and, in one session, the children drew their dream school. Of course with all of these ideas and information, interpretation was also important. What do we do with this information? How do we interpret it? How does it translate into a programme?

Data collection – fun and games

6.9a 6.9b

6.9a

6.9c 6.9d

6.9e

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 38


29 OCT 09

6.10 Some of the results of the needs survey in the camp

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 39


29 OCT 09

• Children

• Water

• Health

• Fire

• Security

The students and the residents identified a number of key issues in addition to health care and education.

6.11 One of the children of the Sakuna camp awaits a response. Photo: Wattana Millar

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 40


29 OCT 09

6.12 Students organized the data collected to highlight each issue.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 41


29 OCT 09

Children and school attendance

6.13 Their analysis included an assessment of the potential for attendance at a school. Of course the size of the school would depend, in part, on the total number of student who might come, not only from the Sakuna camp but from surrounding camps.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 42


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 43


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 44


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 45


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 46


29 OCT 09

6.14 Students made site visits to Mercy Centre schools. The Mercy Centre teachers would be one of the main users of the school. They took the architecture students around to a number of their schools to show them how they operated and the kind of space and furnishings they need. This information was incorporated into the final schematic designs each of the 12 students made.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 47


29 OCT 09

6.15 Because of their long-standing relationship with Fr. Joe of the Mercy Centre, the Lighthouse Club of Bangkok was approached as one of the sponsors to fund the cost of the teachers for the school. The students made a presentation at one of the monthly meetings of the Lighthouse Club in order to keep them aware of the progress of the project and to get the comments of these architects, engineers, and other members of the construction industry.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 48


29 OCT 09

6.16 A site was chosen close to the entrance of the camp but not in the camp itself. The local district officials, the contractor responsible for the camp and the camp residents themselves were concerned about the school being in the camp itself because they didn’t want to draw attention to the migrant workers. As a result an arrangement was made with one of the local landowners to rent the land close by the entrance of the camp.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 49


29 OCT 09

6.17 Children in the Sakuna camp

Based on the information gathered, the students developed the design requirements for the allocation of space and their uses.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 50


29 OCT 09

In addition to the basic space allocation the programme for the design of the building should also include the following set of principles:

• Maximize resource independence (water, electricity, waste)

• Easy to assemble and relocate. Ideally each piece should be able to be carried by 2 men and transported in a pickup truck (no cranes or special equipment to be used to erect or dismantle the school)

• Leave the site the way we found it – lightweight foundations, no septic tanks

• Child-orientation – lower window sills, durable, safe materials. Children’s involvement in design and construction. We want them to take ownership of the school

• Flexibility of space – so it can be used for community meetings in the evening and for a health clinic on the weekends.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 51


29 OCT 09

Based on the agreed-upon programme, each of the twelve students developed their own design response to the programme requirements. These responses were first presented to an outside group of practicing architects and engineers for their assessment. Then the drawings and models were taken into the community for the assessment and comments from the residents.

After all that input a consolidated schematic design was completed.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 52


29 OCT 09

7. DRAWINGS

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 53


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 54


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 55


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 56


29 OCT 09

8. CONSTRUCTION

8.1 Wattana, the construction manager, explains to the two workmen what steps are to be taken in setting out the columns and beams.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 57


29 OCT 09

These two phases of the work – construction on the KMUTT campus and the relocation and rebuilding on site – began with a second studio in November of 2008. From a teaching perspective, the main objective of this studio was to give students a clear idea of the work that is required to go from a schematic drawing through to a finished building. The students were to be in charge of the construction process and provide the construction manager with the required information to do the work.

The first step in this process was to prepare a set of working drawings. I expected this to take the students about 6 weeks to complete. (expected completion – 15 DEC)

The next step was to get the materials in place and prepare the site. (to 31 DEC)

The third step was the construction of the main structure of the building along with the wall panels. (to 15 FEB)

Next the building was to be dismantled, the site was to be prepared and then the building moved to SamutPrakan. (28 FEB)

The last step was to re-erect the building at the selected site. (15 MAR)

Things did not go quite as planned.

8.2 Graeme explains some of the basic structural issues of the roof with one of the KMUTT students.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 58


29 OCT 09

Looking for bambooBamboo was chosen for a number of reasons. It is:

• readily available;• inexpensive;• lightweight• low tech• culturally appropriate – which only means that

every labourer on a construction site in the region understands this material and has experience in erecting it. This makes it a much more receptive material than any higher tech solution with parts that can go missing to be replaced only on a 12 week delivery by some company far away.

8.4 In one of the bamboo groves around Petchaburi. Photo: Wattana Millar

8.3 Workman in Petchaburidemonstrating traditional methods of working with bamboo. Photo: Wattana Millar

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 59


29 OCT 09

8.5 18 JAN 09 at 6am the bamboo arrives. The students have still not completed the drawings! Photos: Wattana Millar

8.6a/b Wattana (above), the construction manager, and Graeme began drawing in the sand. The materials are here, the workers are ready to go but there are no useful drawings and no students on site at 6am on this Sunday morning.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 60


29 OCT 09

Architecture students and their team leader learned a little something about bamboo – every day.

The building construction took place on the KMUTT Architecture School campus. In part, this provided an opportunity for all students to get more involved in the project, and, in part, it reduced the attention that would be directed at the camp if the construction process occurred only 100 metres from the entrance. It also saved on the cost of renting land. The building was dismantled in April before Graeme left for Canada for six weeks of presentations in Canada. The building was relocated to the site on May 18th

and the reassembly began then.

Photo: Wattana Millar

8.7 As the building structure started to go up many students and faculty stopped to see the progress of the work. A number of the students joined the work team.Photos: Wattana Millar

8.8 The Mercy Centre teachers paid a visit to KMUTT to look at where they will be teaching. They took the opportunity to make suggestions about further requirements for the school.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 61


29 OCT 09

The exterior walls are 1.2w by 2.4h bamboo panels. There are three basic types – door panels, window panels and solid panels. All are interchangeable and fit between a top and bottom rail around the exterior of the building.

Photos: Wattana Millar

8.9 CAHR board members, Bob Boulter and John Gold check the wall panels.

8.10 CAHR Exec Director checks a window panel.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 62


29 OCT 09

Once the school opens we are organizing to have the older children and their parents begin a programme of weaving panels in different regional and geometric patterns together with a KMUTT Architecture School graduate, Sukhumarn Thamwiset, whose research was in this area. As each panel is completed in a different pattern, they will replace the existing bamboo matting.

Photos: Sukhumarn Thamwiset

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 63


29 OCT 09

On 18 May 09, CAHR signed an agreement with the owner of the land on behalf of the Mercy Centre. Although the Mercy Centre was going to take responsibility for the operating costs of the building – which would include the rent – there was no building here and therefore no budget to fund the initial cost of securing the land. Construction could not start without securing the land.

8.12 Road works were being done a week before the land was secured. The parcel on which the school would be built is outlined in red.

8.11 The land was cleared on the 18th of May immediately after the agreement was signed

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 64


29 OCT 09

8.13 Once the site was cleared, the grid was laid out and short concrete piles were used under the areas for the toilets

8.16 The finishing touches were put on the roof by the end of the first week of June.

8.15 The roof structure goes up

8.14 The solution for the toilets was anything but portable. However, we had no suitable (affordable) alternative. We went with the traditional approach.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 65


29 OCT 09

9. FUNDING

9.1 The team from Building and Woodworkers’ International visit the Sakuna Camp in March of 2008.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 66


29 OCT 09

There are a number of sources of funding for this project. It is important to connect these different sectors through a common goal.

Alberta Association of Architects –were the first to invest in the project as a result of the donations received from the silent auction at their biannual Banff Session. The proceeds from that event brought the equivalent of 220,000 baht to the project in April 2008.

Building and Woodworkers’ International – CAHR had been talking to BWI representatives about the prospect of setting up portable schools in construction camps since the World Urban Forum (WUF III) in 2006 (see 2.3 above). At another meeting at WUF IV in Nanjing, with the design phase of the project finished, BWI agreed to fund a portion of the construction costs as well as fund the operation of the attached health clinic when the construction was completed. CAHR received 290,000 baht in early January 2009.

Lighthouse Club (Bangkok) – part of the operational costs for school; The Lighthouse Club will fund two teachers for the year.

Human Development Foundation –administration of daycare/school. They have a great deal of experience in running schools.

The Embassy of Canada in Thailand –their Canada Fund will support the provision of furniture and fitting for the school as well as the landscaping and part of the construction costs.

Construction camp community – The Mercy Centre will initiate a savings scheme to cover partial; operational costs, sweat equity for maintenance; This typically amounts to 10 baht per day per student.

Construction funding Operational funding

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 67


29 OCT 09

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 68


29 OCT 09

10. SPENDING

10.1 Paying one of the casual workers while a KMUTT student looks on. Photo: Wattana Millar

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 69


29 OCT 09

Total spending overran the total donations by about 24%. A big part of this was an additional 50,000 baht for the cost of the rental of the land for one year and another 30,000 which was spent for building permit fees.

Other additional costs were for what might best be called skills-building exercises. We had to go through a number of mock-ups of many of the connections and structural members in order to make sure we had better control over the end product.

A complete month-by-month summary spreadsheet is available as a separate document.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 70


29 OCT 09

11. OPENING DAY

11.1 Children, parents, sponsors, teachers and district officials gathered on 30 June 09 for the grand opening of the school. Photo: Bob Boulter

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 71


29 OCT 09

11.2 Steven Rheault-Kihara of the Canadian Embassy talks to some of the children. Photos: Bhargav Kaushik

11.3 Two of the future users of the school wearing the ‘Portable School’ t-shirts. They will grow into them.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 72


29 OCT 09

11.4 John Pollard, President of the Lighthouse Club, Bangkok joins the event. Photos: Bhargav Kaushik

11.5 Fr. Joe Maier of the Mercy Centre talks to the parents and children who will be using the school.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 73


29 OCT 09

11.6 Representatives of the Building and Woodworkers’ International, Ulf Forsman, retiring International Secretary of the Finnish Wood Workers Union and on his right Apolinar Tolentino and on his left, Ambet E. Yuson photo: Wattana Millar

11.7 KMUTT architecture students together with Aj. Koen de Wandelerare pleased the ceremony is over and they can at last relax,photo: Wattana Millar

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 74


29 OCT 09

11.8 The ribbon-cutting ceremony with the children in front and Embassy representative Steven Rheault-Kihara behind with Mercy Centre’s head teacher to his right and district officials to his left.photo: Wattana Millar

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 75


29 OCT 09

11.9 After the ribbon-cutting we had a tree planting ceremony. All the trees are fruit-bearing and meant to be food supplements as well as replacement trees for those that were removed when the site was cleared. Photos: Bhargav Kaushik

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 76


29 OCT 09

12. PUBLICITY

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 77


29 OCT 09

There were two main items of publicity in the Thai press:

• Bangkok Post 09 AUG 09 “A Class Act on a Building Site” by Nina Suebsukcharoen. This is still available online at http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/21767/a-class-act-on-a-building-site

• MCOT TV9 – the reporter on this piece was Sresuda Winitsuvan and it aired on the evening news on 08 SEP 09. This is available now on the reporter’s website: http://www.youtube.com/sresuda1#p/u/11/NNksFvDv0Zw

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 78


29 OCT 09

In addition, Graeme Bristol has given a number of lectures on the school:

• Edmonton, April 2009 – at the Media, Art and Design in Edmonton Exposed (MADE) – see http://www.madeinedmonton.org/?m=20090423&cat=4

• Vancouver, May 2009– at the annual conference of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia

• Victoria, May 2009 – at the University of Victoria.

• Vancouver, October 2009 – at the School of Architecture, University of British Columbia

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 79


29 OCT 09

13. NEXT STEPS13.1 The school in August of 2009. There are now 40+ children in the school.

CURRENT WORK

15 SEP 09 80


29 OCT 09

There are still a number of steps CAHR needs to take:

1. Opening the clinic – BWI will be providing the funds for this part of the operation. This will include some renovations to complete the finishes for the space, furniture and fittings as well as supplies.

2. Organizing within the community must be done so that children in the camp can more easily attend the school. As it stands the teachers arrive between 7am and 7:30 and they leave between 4 and 4:30. However the parents of the children in the camp leave for work between 6 and 6:30 in the morning and don’t return until 5:30 or 6 pm. I have asked the local BWI representative to talk to some of the residents of the camp so one or two residents might be hired to be on hand at the school before the teachers arrive and after they leave.

3. The next iteration of the portable school should explore other alternatives for materials and design such as something on wheels, tent-like structures and the use of standard dimension lumber.

4. In addition to more schools in Thailand, CAHR has already had interest in setting up similar schools in Cambodia. CAHR has had talks with Carpenters4Cambodia about this (see http://carpenters4cambodia.weebly.com/)

5. Further research needs to be done on the conditions for migrant workers in construction camps. Through KMUTT, CAHR has begun some preliminary research with students between July and October of 2009. This was done in 7 camps in the Bangkok area. A preliminary report is being completed for distribution to the funders of this project as well as other interested parties.

6. CAHR needs to do further lobbying with contractors, design professionals, and developers to encourage the improvement of these conditions through a variety of means. Through the preliminary research already conducted by students it is clear that contractors and developers are interested in having such facilities as daycare and schools. Of course their question is who runs them and who pays for them? There is no doubt that funding operational costs will always be somewhat problematic.

Portable School - Final Report

Documents

Transcript of Portable School - Final Report