week 19 - leap forward

Week 20 starting tomorrow !

We now have regular site meetings every Monday with the client and the main contractor, and the works have been steadily progressing since August.

We're starting racing a bit so that we really have the roofs in place before the rains come - but for now no sign of it, uuuf !

The Dorm was the occasion for the bricklayers to try a new way of laying stones... with less mortar than what they're used to. And they're managing pretty well !

very few men on this picture... the first Monday after pay day is always a bit difficult...

I didn't realize the ground and ring reinforced concrete beams were going to take so much time to cure when the structural engineer n°1 proposed that... it's a bit unnerving to have to count 21 days before being able to do anything... especially since all these curves* make the shuttering all the more complicated ! (*inherited design from design architect)

oh and soon we'll have compost toilets !

But oh well it's overall quite a satisfaction to see these buildings coming up. The dorm is going to be particularly nice, with its gradient levels and the integration of the tree in the outdoor area !

Oh and i forgot to mention we now have 11300 square CSEB blocks, more than 2000 half ones and 800 round ones... !!

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Week 26 - waiting for the roofs

So so soooo ! Everything is more and more beautiful here, as the buildings grow ! We can now have a good sense of space in them... and I can't wait for the roof structures to be put on ! The roofing structures have been being prepared for a while now...after we managed to optimize the system with the structural engineer. We had a good dialog, but then we faced a problem of delivery for some of the steel members which weren't available through the suppliers here. These are now coming, and hopefully the roofs can be installed from the end of next week - fingers crossed because we now have some rainy days and nights already... but nothing that can endanger the structures of the project so far. We tried to use as little wood as possible for the whole project, and especially for these roofs... Deforestation being a HUGE issue in Malawi, and me wanting to make a statement with marrying steel and tiles and thatch in these beautiful contemporary buildings ! Yes we

Week... 46 - Almost the roofs (this time for real) (I'm such an optimist)

I didn't realize I've waited for so long to post an update. It seems that the roofs have been under the works FOR EVER. We had wished to get them done by the end of November, before the rains would start. Well, something like 20 weeks later, now that the rainy season is ending, we still don't have the roof structures covered. Better doing it Necola's way : sit back and wait The contractor hasn't finished placing the designed (by structural engineers) structure, and then the tiles supplier, who is an engineer himself, wasn't happy with the structure at some places and asked the structural engineers to reinforce it. So now, we are in the final stages of putting that */&àçéè' structure up... My fingers are hurting, they've been crossed for too long now ;) But something is happening ! At the end of the day, it's going to be beautiful and inspiring :)

Starting Week 4

So last week saw another change of plans on site : Tuesday was the last day of the JCB on site, where it only worked for a couple of hours before having to be brought somewhere else, requested by the preparation of the presidential elections... We're getting ready to start making CSEB anyways, I had a closer look to the soil that is being prepared and sent several emails to ask for some advice. We're going to have to go though a test phase anyways, as we're not really sure of the soil we have... it's a good one no doubt, but is it really more sandy / more silty / more clayey ? This is unclear... This is not coffee And the collaboration with the structural engineer is a bit hard as he still didn't really look into what we want to do. Despite all of our discussions, he keeps having in mind that we're using the same type of material that people usually use here, which are hand pressed bricks with 20% cement as a stabilizer... Nope, not the same

Eco-Archi in Malawi

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