In April the building was almost completed. A few items, like the final floor coat are still missing, but we are well ahead of schedule.
The rainy season really interrupts the site works.

Greenfields containers will not arrive for another few weeks and that will allow more time for the site works to be completed.

Kick4Life intends to occupy the building as soon as possible, but the local authorities are moving very slow with the connections.
The contractor has completed all connections up to the property line, but the sewage connection is still in progress from the other side (main grid).

Other than that it is sad that this is going to be over in a few weeks. Once the containers arrived our job will be done and the centre is complete, then it is bye bye Africa.

By the end of March the shell of the building was complete and most of the interior work was complete.
The windows still need the glazing and the walls still need some paint, but other than that there is not much to do.
Unfortunately the site works go along very slow due to heavy and long rains.

Kick4Life is intending to move into the building by the 1st of May, which would be about 1 week prior to the finishing date agreed in the contract with EFS.
That said, the hole project is a little ahead of schedule.

Yingli's lights arrived and we are hopefully going to install the poles and lights soon.
The only problem so far is that the Greenfields shipment was delayed slightly, which causes the containers not to arrive until the 19th of May.
That means that we will have to delay the finishing of the sub-base and also the construction of the roof that will be put on top of the containers.

Construction is going faster than expected, the contractor is a pleasure to work with, as well as the whole team.
By the end of February the brick work was complete, and the interior was plastered. The roof beams were installed and as of today the IBR panels are completely covering the roof.

The box gutter was posing a challenge in the beginning but turned out to be relatively easy in practical realization. 1.2mm plain metal sheets were bend to the shape of the gutter and aligned next to each other.
In case heavy rains, hail and leaves clog the gutter, overflow is granted without pushing the water under the roof panels or into the building.

We had a little delay with Greenfields delivery, which might not arrive until early May, but this will not affect the overall process.

We are also still working on the final position of the GF containers, as well on the design of the main signage -

The big sloped pergola will most likely be minimized to save costs and create a bigger communal space.

This month, March, we should finalize all these site-works solutions in order to compose a great FFH Centre ground.

Architecture for Humanity would like to thank Eco-Insulation for their commitment to donate free insulation towards the construction of the Football for Hope Centre in Lesotho! They have committed to providing free insulation for ceiling and interior wall cavities!

Eco-Insulation is a South African based company that manufactures sustainable building insulation. Their roof insulation is made in South Africa from recycled paper and milled (cellulose) to optimum density.

For more information please visit http://www.eco-insulation.co.za/.

The new year eventually brought the project to life. On the 3rd of January the site was handed over to EFS construction.
Unfortunately the previous surveyor did not mark the property corners, that is why it took another surveyor and a little bit of time to set out the building.

After digging the foundations heavy rains interrupted the process. Additionally many power and water-outs in Maseru and hole Lesotho delayed the construction process by already one week within the first three weeks of construction.

But within the last 10 days the contractor was able to pick-up speed again and make up for the losses. As of today, about 20% of the brickwork is complete and the contractor is almost on schedule.

Things on site are running well, but things outside of Lesotho are running rather slowly. Greenfields has delivery bottleneck, which requires a delay of the completion of the sub-base and it has also a significant impact on the light-pole and light installation.

As of now, the completion is scheduled for the end of April, regardless of the pitch and the pitch - lights.
Heavy rains should be expected, especially since we are in raining season and this is one of the wettest winters yet, which will cause a few more days of general delay.

It is a pleasure to work with the contractor and the whole team because everyone is focused on accelerating things and solving problems efficiently and fast.

Finally. The groundbreaking ceremony was a success. It was raining, but apparently it is a good sign for the people in Lesotho.

The ceremony was followed by a 3 week builder's holiday. Right on the 3rd of January, EFS construction started to set up the site and laid out the foundations..

Now it is getting real!

With almost a month later than expected most of the things fell in place last month.

After weeks of struggle with the Building Permit Office, our Planning and Building Permit was issued.
Of course I am glad now that we obtained it, but the frustration has not been covered up by a chain of ridiculous encounters with authorities.

The tender returns were analyzed over the last month and we suggested EFS Construction as the company to work with on the Lesotho Football for Hope Centre. Our suggestion was approved by streetfootballworld and now it is all about signing the contract as soon as possible. Realistically it will be impossible to start construction before the big summer holiday break, but a ground breaking event will still take place on the 11th of December, with all the people involved in the project invited.

Then, right after the break in January we hope to get down to construction right away, since we have now 4 weeks to close all the paperwork.

Finally things are getting real and a building will be put on the ground after 8 months of preparation!

Days of frustration and days of excitement change on a regular basis.
The tender was issued, 5 companies were invited.
After three weeks, a contractor asked for 1 week extension. Since this contractor was the same who cleaned up the entire site, we had to give it him and consequently the rest of the tendering companies.
The evaluation of the tender is currently happening, and hopefully, with not too much delay we will be able to sign the contract soon.

On the other end, there was big struggle with the building permit office. Officials assured us a quick handling of the process but, nothing happened for 2 months, although I followed up regularly. There was no communication from the city's side.
First, the building permit was reject. Over a period of many weeks the reasons for the rejection varied, but nothing was ever handed over to us in written words.
Fortunately the center host managed to get involved as well and we came to the agreement that if we provide a master plan that entails buildings with at least 2-3 stories, then they would issue a building permit within 48 hours.
Absurd, but a compromise. Of course, weeks have passed after the submission of the document, but eventually the building permit was signed by the city council this week.

So far, so good. The site is clean and ready for construction, it is now up to SFW/FIFA to approve a building that is probably more expensive than the average.
It is a very expensive country. Everything has to be imported from South Africa and hence taxes are added. Furthermore, it is very expensive to live in Maseru.

Hopefully the next report will talk about the ground breaking ceremony. Ideally construction would start before Xmas, to maybe already lay down the foundations.

September was a tumultuous month with lots of things happening.
We were able to hold our Gabion workshop which was a great success.
About 50 people started participating, mainly High School kids.
In about half a day we managed to build 10 meters of Gabion wall.
It looks beautiful, and changes the dynamic of the site, especially because this is the only seating opportunity on the whole site for now.
It also establishes a boundary to the existing pitch and retains the mounts of earth from sliding onto the pitch.
With the help of SFW I will be able to repeat this workshop in the next few weeks and do the next 10 meters.

The building permit should have been issued during the month of September, but despite numerous meetings, promises and reminders the building control office has not issued a permit yet, but will do so on October 12th. It is a very disappointing process, because there is no communication from the municipal's side.

After almost 6 weeks of wrestling with the Design Development Package and the complete Tender Package, I was able to send out the tender last week to 5 local companies. They will get three weeks to return the documents.

It is generally very hard to find donations for the construction project, especially because most of the companies are struggling. A local hardware store, which is a franchise from a bigger South African company made big promises though, and consequently I provided them with information on whatever we might need for the center.
In exchange they expect alot of display which will be hard to realize with FIFA's regulations.

For the next few weeks it is time to generate construction drawings and give the project the final touch.

After being over a month in Maseru I miss Cape Town for its convenience.
Sure, Cape Town is a step down from the westernized world, but it is nothing compared to Maseru.
The concept of time and efficiency does not really exist here and hence I have to adjust a lot. Still, I believe that being here makes things run smoother.

Three big milestones have been accomplished,
-the Design Development package has gone through with some restriction. It is frustrating that a VERY basic building with four walls and a roof, being about 200sqm still is "over budget". Other than taking the plaster of the walls and decreasing the building size dramatically I really do not know how to make the building any cheaper.
-the building permit application has been submitted. It was very disturbing to see how the officials deal with plans. You better be nice to them or your plans end up down in the basement in an unorganized chaos like I have never seen it before.
-Lesotho Steel, a local construction company started clearing the site for construction start. Unfortunately Kick4Life was not able to combine it with a media groundbreaking event, but it will follow next month.

Further, there is work put into a workshop for the community to learn how to build gabion walls. I hope to kill about 4 birds with one stone; involving the community, cleaning the site, refurbishing the existing pitch, protecting the pitch's earth mounts from further erosion.

In the next two weeks we hope to be able to have everything together for the tender process. Greenfields contributed their part and we are waiting for revisions of the contractual work to see if all the FIFA/AFH requirements are in place.

On the downside Maseru is dangerous. I am living with some of the center host's interns in a complex and there were one attempted break-in and one attempted robbery on the compound while people were there. The lack of security is a problem that should be considered for future design fellows, especially since whites are always a target in Africa, anywhere any time. Hearing similar stories from DFs and having a peace corps volunteer shot just across the road, shows that these things happen and nothing can prevent it.

Other than that Lesotho is a gorgeous peaceful country with the most beautiful and highest mountains. I am thankful to be here and to get to know it closer.

Finally I arrived in Lesotho. Cape Town is a great place to get used to the African continent but it is by far not really Africa. Out here things are very different and takes some time to get used to. Nonetheless, now I am where the project is.

After the World Cup things sped up again. I engaged an engineer who is now working on drawings for the roof and foundation of our building. We chose to go for the least expensive roof structure: Instead of spanning lam beams across the long end we will span shorter trusses (8m) along the short end and also use internal walls to support the rafters.

The elemental estimate turned out to be quite a surprise, so the upcoming meetings will all be about cutting costs where ever we can, although I think the building is already VERY basic.
I submitted the Design Development Package to SFW who would also like to see the final building costs to be a little lower.

I also just finished the drawings for the city and I am waiting for the engineer to contribute his part. After 60 days then, we should have the permit.

Architect and QS are a very helpful combination here and I wish I would have come here a little earlier so that we would have been able to communicate better about
local procedures. So there are many details within my plans which are very unusual to the locals.

By the end of the months Lesotho Steel (Contractor) should be clearing the very messy site for us. This event will be used for Kick4Life to do publicity for their project and hopefully raise more funds for phases to come.

Alright Lesotho, here we come.

The World Cup is almost over. Not much happened in the office last month, most people were traveling and due to the generosity of sfw/fifa we were able to see a few games in Cape Town.

The design for the Lesotho Center went to another level of definition although it gets tiring to look the same thing all over again. The design development is about to be done without the architect having a look at it because he is still on vacation. At least he signed his contract, as well did the QS. There will be lots to do once they threw in their comments and numbers.

Another problem is again the consultants; it is hard to find "inexpensive" or "free" engineers. The best quote so far, with a discount is around 140 000 Rand, so I went back to the Engineers from the Khayleitscha project and they will see what they can do. So far I would say that the discrepancy between consultation budget and real-life prices are the main brake on every project. People in Maseru seem to have enough work and need the money for the very high living costs in this city.

On the bright side our office received help from a German on volunteer, Katrin Schwarz. She is an architect who came here to watch a few games and to help us out. She was so kind to provide me with some input and new perspective on the project and helped me to generate final drawings. She also created a site model. Also Luvuyo Mfungula, with his experience and quick drawing skills has been a great help this months.

Additionally we received clearance from the National Environmental Secretariat in order to apply for a building permit. That was a big obstacle, but now it is finally out of the way. Daniella from the center host organization Kick4Life is a great help and driving factor regarding every single aspect of the project.

In a few weeks I hope to move to Lesotho. By then I wish to have the Engineer in place as well. I believe that I will be more productive on-site.

By the end of April I partly finished my SD and was happy to get input by AFH visiting from San Francisco. SD package was approved by mid- April.

Another high-light was the second Lesotho site-visit with Regional Manager Boss Kevin Gannon. Things did not go too well with the selection of consultants. Most of them bailed out after realizing their responsibilities for very little money. Even the most generous offer was still way above our budget.

Fortunately I found a semi-retired architect (John Edgar) and a Quantity Surveyor who works with him (Ben Behm). Both were very relaxed about the scope of work and the fee. With Kevin's negotiation skills we were able to agree on a reasonable amount of fees. I was very relieved after this "success", since this was a major bump in the road.

Back home I finalized the agreements with the consultants and by the end of this month both consultants were happy about the contracts.

After the site-visit we also realized that some design changes had to be made. Apparently the winter is a big problem in Lesotho, especially since most buildings are not equipped for it. Insulation or fixed heating systems do not exist. The new design will respond directly to the issue of natural heating/cooling.

The earth work to be done exposed a major issue as well, but fortunately the Kick4Life was able to get a contractor to move earth for free.

Bad news:The surveyor did not stick to his contract and did not deliver the soil samples, hence I will have to organize a separate person and will have to negotiate with the surveyor because he broke the contract.

Additionally to the geotech, I will have to find an engineer to design the foundation and I will have to find the most inexpensive consultant to generate an Environmental Management Plan.

In June I will hopefully be able to get a detailed baseline costing. Further, I will try to get the DD package done by the end of the month.

After the site visit in Lesotho I was very keen to work with either of the architects I wanted for the project.
Unfortunately this turned out to be way harder than I thought. The first choice had to leave the country, the second and third refused as well.
After calling up a few different architects to hear about their opinion it became clear to me that our consultant budget is too low for Lesotho/South African standards.

Currently I am exploiting option in adjacent South African cities, but I am getting the same response from even the most self-less architects: the budget is very low to put together a team of architect, engineer and QS.

Another option now will be to hire QS and engineer separately and let us execute the role of an architect, since any BA-architect may file drawings Lesotho.

Further, Lesotho requires an Environmental Impact Assessment to obtain a proper building permit. For this study I have to consultants available who will be able to start the job as soon I will provide them with the project information, what I will do after the submittal of the schematic design package.

The schematic design has had a very rapid development throughout the past month and I went to many different options for the master plan(in which the FFH center will have to be integrated. The center host was a very great help to get the design for the center on track since they were/are very critical and observant.
In the next weeks I hope to get the schematic design approved and meanwhile I hope to get a team of consultants to work.

During the second week of March I visited Maseru with Kathrin, Jan and Paola from streetfootballworld. After meeting with Kick4Life, all of us went on to meet representatives municipalities and institutions. Meetings with the city resulted in connections which will help us to accelerate the building (permit) process, which usually takes very long. Further, I met 5 architects to interview them for the architect of record selection. The final selection will be made in the weeks to come. It will be a hard decision since all architects were very qualified and eager to work on this project.

During the week I learned a lot about the Kick4Life curriculum and its place and role in local community. The organization is very established, has strong connections and will play an important,helpful role in executing the project efficiently.

Kick4Life has big ambitions for the Football for Hope center, which needs cannot be fully matched by the available FIFA fundings, but the design brief resulted in a compromise so that an extension of the center will be part of the master plan and detailed further development on behalf of AFH will be negotiable.

Regarding the site itself, there are many opportunities to develop the 15000sqm property. A problem is established by the significant amount of dumped earth located on the site. During the next 6 weeks I will come up with several solutions in the context of design brief.

It is the FFH center in Maseru, Lesotho with the center host Kick4Life!

From the 8th to the 12th of March, AfH and SfW are going to visit the site Maseru, Lesotho, for the first time. We are going to have workshops with the local community and the center host Kick4Life. Further, we are going to meet local architects, engineers and construction companies.

In February I prepared my visit for Maseru. I selected a qualified surveyor (DMS), which did his job very quickly. Having his survey in my hands, I can go to the site much more prepared with a plan in my hand.

Talking to at least 15 architects via phone and email I realized that there is no architect+engineer+quantity surveyor in Lesotho. They all form teams, which results usually in more complication. Experiencing that, I chose 5 architects which I will interview.

Doing the pre-assessment of the site, I am very excited to know that the site will not constitute major problems such as water/electricity or accessibility since it is located pretty much in the heart of Lesotho's capital.

Arriving in Cape Town I was very surprised by our nice office.
Not knowing then which Football for Hope center I was working with, I was working on the development of the "container idea", an issue which has kept plenty of people at AFH busy for a long time.

Furthermore, I assisted Killian, building models for the FFH center in Kigali.

Since the office was still in its early stage it was necessary to make the situation here more livable because there are generations of Design Fellows to come. They should have a nice time here!

oan page for lesotho is up