lørdag 28. mars 2015

Climate adaptive building design for the New Miles2Smiles center

 
Climate adaptive building design
 
 
Design concept : Secondary roof shielding the building volumes from sun and rain
 
The building complex is designed as separate building volumes protected and shaded by a larger outer roof-construction. The outer roof acts like an umbrella with a highly reflective surface to reflect direct solar radiation and reduce the heat gains and lower the temperature before it reaches the roof of the building volumes underneath. To improve the thermal performance, the roof is constructed as a sandwich element with aluminium sheeting, split, recycled car tyres as additional heat insulation in between, and a ventilated air gap to allow accumulated heat to be ventilated out. The recycled car tyres will also work as sound proofing during heavy rainfalls. The outer roof panels are supported by columns that are physically separated from the building volumes. The columns expand a bit above the building volumes, to create shaded rooftop spaces. The open construction ensures a good ventilation flow in the rooftop areas which are already shaded from direct solar radiation. The roof is also designed to collect rainwater, and the panels are angled to channel the water into storage tanks.

A good indoor environment is achieved through the use of passive techniques and climate adaptive building design. The building is self-sustained through the use of PV-panels that generate electricity to run electrical fans that can relieve the users during periods with extreme heat, meaning that a comfortable indoor environment is always secured. In an African climatic context, the outdoor temperature and desire for much ventilation to reduce the discomfort regarding heat issues allows sufficient ventilation through natural systems. Fresh air need is therefore easier to achieve through natural ventilation in an African context compared to a European context.

#arkitektur #architecture #samfunn #community #aidarchitecture #bistand #afrika #africa #Uganda #thirdworld #children #master
 

mandag 17. november 2014

Gi en julegave til noen som virkelig trenger det

Så er det snart jul igjen, og de aller fleste av oss har allerede begynt å tenke på julegaver. Kanskje har du selv skrevet en lang liste med ønsker til deg selv. Den nyeste mobilen, eller en ny rettetang, - fordi den du allerede har er "fjorårets"... Kanskje har du stresset i flere uker allerede, med å finne det beste og dyreste til de som allerede "har alt".
 
Og med "har alt" mener jeg ikke alt av leker, spill, mobiler eller andre materialistiske duppeditter som man absolutt må ha, men "har alt"; som mat, klær, et hjem og en familie. Ting som ikke er materialistiske, men livsnødvendige. Ting vi tar for gitt. Og siden vi allerede har alt dette, - ønsker i oss heller alt annet. Ny mobil. Ny rettetang.
 
Det er ikke alle som er så heldige å "ha alt". Det finnes barn som ikke ønsker seg alt i leketøyskatalogen, men som heller ønsker seg en trygg hverdag. 
 
Så noen ord på veien inn i adventstiden: Stress ned, og tenk deg om i julestria. Gi heller julegaven til et lite barn du aldri har møtt. Et lite barn som kanskje ikke har fått en eneste julegave i hele sitt liv. Et lite barn som trenger DIN hjelp. Et lite barn som er uendelig takknemlig for bare en eneste gave. DIN gave.
 
Gjør en forskjell for dette barnet denne julen.
Gi en julegave til noen som virkelig trenger det.

 
 
 
 

Strømmestiftelsen (som står bak masterprosjektet vårt; Det nye Miles2SMiles senteret i Uganda), kjører hver jul en kampanje der man kan kjøpe de litt mer viktige julegavene. En høne til en fattig familie, eller trygghet til et lite barn.

Kjøp gaven her: https://strommestiftelsen.no/gi-trygghet

Del gjerne dette innlegget, - og bidra til å spre budskapet :)

Sjekk ut Strømmestiftelsens hjemmeside her: https://strommestiftelsen.no/


#julegave #jul #julegavetips #bistand #aidarchitecture #strømmestiftelsen #miles2smiles #Uganda #hverdag #blogg #side2 #samfunn #foto #advent #gave

torsdag 30. oktober 2014

Photo-gallery: Kampala & Miles2Smiles

Bildedryss fra resien vår til Uganda og besøket vårt hos Miles2Smiles:
 
 












 
 

#afrika #africa #Uganda #Kampala #africanchild #barn #bistandsarbeid #arkitektstudent #masteroppgave #u-hjelp #hverdag #blogg #motivasjon #interiør #inspirasjon #foto
 

mandag 6. oktober 2014

The ethical and environmental sustainable potential of the New Miles2Smiles center

Introduction

The project looks to explore the possibilities of ethical and environmental sustainability in development assistance projects for children in developing countries. The ethical sustainability aims to use architecture as a mean of educational development for children in the slum of Kampala, and to educate the local community in how to design sustainable architecture that provides a healthy indoor environment. The environmental sustainability aims to use low-tech solutions for energy efficiency based on local building techniques, climatic conditions and sustainable materials. This should increase the local community` s awareness of the possibilities of good and non-expensive living conditions.



Ethical and environmental sustainability

The project`s focus on ethical sustainability relates to the potentials of designing architecture for children in developing countries, of empowering women and of strengthening the community spirit. The ethical potential lies in using architecture as a mean of educational development for children, and as a mean of educating the local community in sustainable and low-tech building techniques based on the local culture, local climate and the use of local building materials. The project has a long-term ambition of improving the local living conditions through educating the local community simple techniques of energy efficient design in terms of temperature, water usage and solar control, which will increase the local community’s awareness of the possibilities of good and non-expensive living conditions.

Through our project with designing The New Miles2Smiles center, we seek to enhance and tackle many of the issues related to poor child development and poverty in Uganda’s capitol, Kampala. As the children are the future of Uganda and an important ticket out of poverty, the new center provides great possibilities in an ethical sustainable context. The New Miles2Smiles center can through the means of low-cost daycare, pre-school education, nutrition programs and microfinance education for women break the poverty cycle in a long-term time perspective, by focusing on the children and women. Stunting and poverty is the two main factors that are closely linked with reduced years of schooling. Malnutrition may lead to stunting of children, which further often leads to low performance level at school and reduced years of education. Through the nutrition program provided through the Miles2Smiles center, the risk of malnutrition can be reduced greatly.

The New Miles2Smiles center will provide stimulating and inspiring environment for education and development. The children will be educated from an early age, and this will be a starting point to break the cycle of poverty that they have been born into. Pre-schoolers at the age of 2-5 years will be equipped with basic literacy and numeracy skills and provided with higher chances of succeeding at school and get an education. Through the mean of architecture we want to create physical surroundings to encourage learning and mental growth, curiosity, social interactions and developing through playing.

The center will also function as a community center which will provide education in nutrition and financial skills for the women, and provide the mothers with a chance to make a better life for themselves and for their children. The microfinance group at the Miles2Smiles center will help, educate and encourage saving and marketing so the adults of the community are given knowledge and possibilities to save for and invest in better housing, the child’s future education or own business.

The New Miles2Smiles center will also be designed with a focus on environmental sustainability. Low-tech and low-cost techniques for utilizing the local climatic conditions will enable cost efficient future running of the center, while at the same time educating the local community in different passive techniques that can further improve their own living conditions.


Conclusion

The final design has children and their development in focus and is adapted to the local climate to create comfortable and stimulating environments. The design is based on familiar material and building principles in Uganda, but is enhanced through knowledge of passive, low-tech solutions. Thus, the design will be easy to read and interpret for Ugandans, and by enabling the local community to participate in all aspects of the construction, the locals can gain experience for future job opportunities, which further proves the long-term effect on the community and the educational potential architecture beholds.
 

 Educating through architecture

 

"The educational possibilities can be a starting point to break the poverty cycle that these children have been born into…", Catherine Kitongo, Director and founder of the Miles2Smiles organization.

torsdag 2. oktober 2014

THE POTENTIAL OF AID ARCHITECTURE part 2: Ethical sustainability

Developmental potential when designing for children in developing countries

According to UN’s 2010 estimate of population and UN’s 2009 estimate of population under the age of 18, about 54 % of the population in Uganda fall under the category of youth (S.O.S Children, n.d. a). One of the reasons for early deaths is bad health which often is a result of malnutrition. Numbers of WHO between 2000 and 2009 point to that about 16 % of children under the age of five are underweight (S.OS Children, n.d. a). A reason for this can be the amount of care and the situation of poverty that these children are born in. Many mothers in poverty have a desperate situation of tending to family and children and at the same time earning an income to provide her family. Nutritional food is not always a given for them, but they try their best to maintain health - especially of their children.

Poverty is closely linked with poor cognitive and educational performance in children in developing countries. In most developing countries, national statistics of children’s cognitive or social-emotional development are not being registered, which contributes to the invisibility of the problem. But the percentage of disadvantaged children (per definition: children living in poverty) under the age of 5 years old is estimated to be above 60% in Uganda (2004)(Grantham McGregor et al., 2007). Uganda is classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, with the average daily income of less than 1,25 $ (9 DKK) by the World Bank Group’s poverty analysis (2011) (The World Bank Group, 2011).

To define poverty, there are different factors that have to be considered. Poverty is often associated with inadequate food, poor sanitation and hygiene, and further affecting the children’s development; poor maternal education, increased maternal stress and depression, and inadequate stimulation in the home. According to Feed The Future (The U.S. government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative), The percentage of undernourished and/or stunted children in Uganda is estimated to 38 % (Feed the Future, n.d.). Children born into poverty in developing countries are often exposed to malnutrition, poor health and unstimulating environments, which all affect their cognitive, social-emotional and motoric development. They are unlikely to succeed in school and will therefore have low incomes, and not be able to provide for their own children, thus contributing to the transmission of poverty through the following generations.
 
 

The first 5 years of a child’s life are of high importance because this is when the vital developments occurs. The development of the brain happens rapidly and in different stages, which all affect and build on each other, meaning that small perturbations in these development processes can have significant and long-term effects on the brain’s functional capacity (Grantham McGregor et al., 2007). The development of the brain is closely affected by the environment, which put a great importance on to designing good stimulating physical and psychological surroundings. But even if the brain has already been affected by early perturbations in its vulnerable stages, recovery is often possible with correct interventions. As a rule of thumb; the earlier the interventions the greater the benefits. Early cognitive and social-emotional development are both important factors to determine the child’s school progress. This is especially important in developing countries, as education is the key factor to break the poverty cycle. Children in developing countries who are not able to reach their full developmental potential are less likely to complete an education and attain good income as adults, meaning that poverty and stunting are closely linked with reduced years of schooling. Fewer years of schooling together with less learning per year of schooling are factors that may further reduce their productivity. According to a study by G. Psacharopoulus and H. Patrinos from 2004, each year of schooling increases wages by between 7-11 % (Grantham McGregor et al., 2007).

There are also other factors that contribute to keeping a lower share of children getting an education in developing countries, - besides the physical and mental development of children. Such factors are inadequate schools, economic stress for the family related to the children’s education, and little knowledge about and sometimes also little appreciation of the benefits of education. In Uganda, poor children are ten times more likely to start school late than the richest children (Grantham McGregor et al., 2007). Loss of education because of the family’s economic situation is another cause for reduced years of schooling. The importance of introducing numeric and literacy skills as early as possible is therefore a great advantage, as there are uncertainties of how many years the child is able to attend school after "graduating" from the new Miles2Smiles center. Their years at the center may, for some of the children, be the only education they will get, so it is important to set a good foundation for these children. By introducing the small children to preschool education, they are also more likely to succeed when starting School.

tirsdag 30. september 2014

THE POTENTIAL OF AID ARCHITECTURE part 1


Part 1:

Environmental sustainability
 
Sustainability, especially in an environmental context, is a subject that has gained more and more attention through the recent years. The background for this is fundamentally the growing population on the planet and their growing needs and the consequences of the planet´s use of resources. From the famous Brundtland definition of sustainability, we know that the term reflects upon satisfying the current generation’s need without reducing the same possibilities for the upcoming ones (Bokalders and Block, 2010). This means that we have to, as much as possible, look away from resource craving processes to get a better overview of what we can achieve with simple, sustainable means. Human activity and the natural environment are in daily contact, and it is therefore important that both can enhance and adapt to each other in their existence. The environment has no other choice than to adapt to what we do, but it is our choice to respect the environment and do less harm to it. Therefore, an environmentally sustainable set of thoughts is important to fulfil what was defined in the Brundtland Commission.
 


With technological and economic growth, the world has become more resource craving. In developing countries the same level of economy or technology is not always present. Human life has existed and continued in a state of world where there were less or no such opportunities – life was still functional at that time. This means that it is still possible to continue a highly functional life with simple and available material and tools, if we are willing to give this reversed technological development a chance.

A focus on low-tech, climate adaptive, passive solutions integrated with local building culture based on available resources and tools is attractive for this project in order to maintain a sustainable approach. By including the local community in the process they will also learn how to use local material and suitable techniques in an efficient and sustainable way. The mentioned, combined with thoughts of off-grid systems for water and, if possible, electricity will make the design further sustainable and more self-sufficient. This will help the community to develop and enhance itself further with new knowledge that is still based on something familiar. The design should be affordable without compromising efficiency and aesthetics. To further investigate possibilities of making the design and its function more efficient it is interesting to look at what active solutions could be incorporated.
When choosing materials from a sustainable point of view, it is important to focus on materials that are locally available and not scarce. Earth is a primary and commonly available material in Uganda. It is also associated with their building culture and with vernacular architecture in Africa. As innovative projects around the world show, material that are originally thought to become waste or those that have the possibility of recycling, can also be used in constructions, as furnish and decoration. Tyres of vehicles can be embedded in walls, they can be stacked as stairs, be sat on or used as playful elements on playgrounds. Plastic and glass bottles are also usable in walls and they can create interesting and fun architectural elements with their transparency, if they are not thought to be covered in earth as part of a wall element.