Tue, 2010-01-12 22:42
At the beginning of December Karl and myself had the opportunity to present our schematic design to era architects for feedback. The presentation looked at the culture of the Maasai people, their traditionally nomadic way of life, their architecture, and a proposal for the new school and school grounds. Feedback on the design portion of the presentation focused on two key areas of the project, the first being the constructability of the proposed classrooms, and the second being how to respectfully integrate the new site plan and building into the existing and lost cultural heritage of the Maasai people.
Link to comments about the project on the ERA Office Blog.
http://www.era.on.ca/blogs/office/?p=321
On December 30th, 2009 a design charette took place in the village of Ewaso Ngiro, which is where the school site is. The attendance at the charette from the locals was great. Around one hundred people were gathered for the day including the local authority, the school's teachers, the local board of community members and others of all ages from the community.
After being brought up to speed on where the project stands so far, the villagers were split up into Females, Males, and Children. Each group had a group leader who helped organize them to design their dream schools. The feedback we received was in the form of pictures and written comments. The females drew their ideas on paper, while the men mostly discussed the school. The children designed their dream schools out of pebbles on the ground.
The event was extremely successful in both receiving input on the design from the local community as well as in promotion of the school to the locals.