The building While the men put the hard structures up, the footings, framing and roofing elements, the women were the wall builders. We used tent poles for framing, razor wire for footing reinforcement, all manner of refugee junk to fill rubble trenches that were faced with the local stone (un-quarried and hand collected on site) to bring the straw bale walls above the snow line.We used fencing mesh to make a roof canopy which was then draped with cement dipped refugee blankets.These were then covered in thatch.The women’s work teams did the straw bale infill walls, window setting and waterproofing. I showed them my method and within minutes they, as a team had refined the technique and improved it. And they were fast and strong. We built the infill walls and rendered them so fast it was mind blowing. The school children then came over, as part of the art initiative, and painted the walls. After we had built more sheds than we needed, in all manner of shapes and sizes including round ones, and we had run out of things to ‘infill’ as the hard structures for the main buildings were still being constructed, we decided to recycle generator shelters into small accomodations units.This was not part of the master plan; it was completely impromptu. We could weld together four shelters to make a room that could sleep four people. A bed of blue chips was put down and old timber pallets were pegged into place. Recycled chip board was nailed to the this and these became platforms from which our walls would be fixed. This was a completely low tech solution and would possibly only last a few seasons, but it would solve a short term accomodation crisis that was looming.The best of it was that the women (2 teams of 6) could put 2-3 of these small shelters up in a day. In a week we had accomodation to sleep 48 people.Windows and doors were framed up with canvas and mosquito wire (again refugee junk) and whilst they may not have been great for the winter, they were certainly better than tents and would be great in the summer. The main structures were still not complete by the end of stage two. It frustrated everyone, but it was an unrealistic program to start with. There were errors in design and placement that could have been avoided by allowing more time in the design and documentation stage. There were in-house procurement issues. The government body responsible for issuing building permits were impossibly slow, possibly waiting for a bribe. Aside from that, we had accomplished a huge amount in a very short period of time. We already had built around 20 small buildings and had framed up and roofed the main community building, built and landscaped a lake and refugee memorial and established an orchard and several acres of organic market gardens. We had set up a recycling system for the whole town and educated over 400 people in Permaculture design. It was much more than I thought possible in a few short months. I still get emails from the people there, some about the conflict, some about permaculture, and I still receive the newsletters and photos of the site in progress.The project is still in operation, on a much smaller scale. The local mayor claimed the community building as his office and a lot of the gardens have become residential housing sites. I guess the community needed housing sites more than organic tomatoes! Maybe they never wanted organic tomatoes to start with? Did anyone ever ask? At the end of the day, as difficult and challenging as it was, it was the best thing I think I have done in my architectural career. I think about it frequently and how the process could have been improved. It combined a whole series of influences and theories that I had about humanist architecture and involvement of real people and their needs being met by real architecture.Whether the project was a success or failure, I don’t know. A bit of both! I do believe that it was a great prototype of how Architecture can be used to better a community on an international level, not just in aid work but in all architectural work. I can’t wait to be able to get back into the field again.The next project I hope to be involved with is the Aboriginal housing issue here in Central Australia. Funding permitting!
Il s’est avéré un excellent exemple de la façon dont l’architecture peut servir, à un niveau international, à l’amélioration du sort d’une collectivité, en lui fournissant non seulement de l’aide humanitaire, mais aussi une aide au plan de la conception archi- tecturale. Sam Smith is an architect in East Gee- long,Victoria, Australia who also teaches at Deakin University in Geelong. Further information about this project can be found at www.rudina.org.mk
Ce projet a permis de faire appel à tout un ensemble d’influences et de théories que j’ai au sujet d’une architecture humaniste, selon laquelle une architecture bien réelle peut répondre aux besoins de per- sonnes bien réelles. Il a permis de prendre en compte les questions concrètes de loge- ment, de recyclage, de préoccu- pations environnementales, de site, de climat et de politiques.
tions, charpentes et toitures), tandis que les femmes ont construit les murs. Je leur ai montré ma technique de con- struction en ballots de paille et, en l’espace de quelques min- utes, elles l’avaient perfection- née. Puis, des écoliers ont peint les murs. En très peu de temps, nous avons construit quelque vingt petits bâtiments, dressé la
charpente et la toiture du bâti- ment communautaire principal, aménagé et paysagé un lac, érigé un monument commé- moratif aux réfugiés, et amén- agé un verger et plusieurs hectares de jardins maraîchers biologiques. Nous avons mis en place un système de recyclage pour tous les gens du village et enseigné les principes de la per- maculture à quelque 400 per- sonnes.
visitez le site www.rudina.org.mk
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