PROJECT LIMPOPO ON SITE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The students of the school of architecture at the University of Nottingham are currently into week 3 of Project Limpopo, which will see a nursery school and social infrastruture built in Calais, Limpopo in South Africa on behalf of humanitarian charity Education Africa.

You can follow the project here http://www.projectlimpopo.org/Project_Limpopo/Home.html

Also follow the ups and downs of the project on the blog of  Helen Jones who is a tutor working with the students, and is part of K2 Consultancy. http://k2consultancy.blogspot.com/

Images below are by Joshua Jones, a second year degree student involved in the project. Text excerpts from the blog by Helen Jones.

The Clients

“We also got a chance to visit the children that will be using the school once it is built. They’re so cute and they really need the facility. Currently they borrow the local Catholic Church during the week that is dark, hot and there’s only enough room for about 20 of the 60 children who attend the school. They have significant amount of play equipment but its rusting and needs replacing. The kitchen is located outdoors, under a tree – literally just a pot over a fire. The school will really benefit these children and you can really see how the money everyone has donated will help”

The Site

Excavations begin

Concrete Foundations

Downtime

“…the sunrise was stunning and we managed to get some great shots of some giraffe in silhouette against the sun. We saw so many giraffe, buffalo, impala, elephant and many more…”

The Carpenters

“The timber arrived today!!! Wahoo!!!!! This meant that we could actually get on with

the project and were not limited by the lack of materials or tools. The workshop was set up and after a little break to establish the most efficient way to use the timber we assigned teams to begin marking up with sections. It took a while for everyone to get their heads round the process but eventually the production line began to flow – marking, sawing, marking the holes, drilling and then placing ready for assembly. By the end of the day we had enough pieces to construct the first truss. Just placing it together to check everything was in the right place. Luckily it was so the process could continue the next day”

Construction of the Joists.