Text and photos by Nick Nearchou Arriving into the Arkitrek office on my first day I really had no idea of the technical challenges confronting me during my internship in Sabah. After the initial briefing I was presented with the impossible Mantanani Kindergarten construction task. “We need you to somehow lift six enormous roof rafters (large 2’’ x 8’’ timber sections and around 15’’ long) over 16ft into the air and connect them to the top of present Kindergarten structure. You will have a very limited work...

North Borneo War Memorial Imitation memorial curated by Arkitrek as part of the “Bonding with Gaya Street” Gaya Street Community Heritage Exhibition. By the North Borneo History Enthusiasts. This war memorial was originally built to commemorate servicemen who gave their life to defend Sabah (named British North Borneo during the British Occupation) in WWI and WWII plus the 'confrontasi' with Indonesia in 1963-66. The original site for the North Borneo War Memorial is in front of the current Pizza Hut restaurant on Jalan...

The Independent Saturday 31st December 2011 Traveller's Guide: Life-changing holidays Read the original article in full Whether you learn a new skill, volunteer abroad, or venture out into the unknown, make 2012 the year of meaningful travel Camps International offers volunteer programmes for professionals, including month-long "Arkitrek" expeditions to Borneo for architecture and design professionals. Two of the days are spent on a marine conservation project, with time for swimming or beach volleyball. But the purpose...

[Ed: battling severe weather, Arkitrekkers Tan Zhen Ron and Nick Nearchou oversee the successfull raising of the roof on Mantanani Kindergarten. This landmark stage in the project was enabled by volunteers from Chevaliar College, New South Wales and as always, the whole construction operation is propped up with lashings of wry humour and hard work from Albi, Hashim and Jai of Camp Mantanani] Raising The Roof 5th–10th December 2011. Photographs showing progression of the roof in sequence. All purlins were laid by the local...

“We believe the accepted model of capitalism that necessitates endless growth and deserves the blame for the destruction of nature must be displaced”Yvon Chouinard, from his book ‘Let My People Go Surfing’ Arkitrek wants to operate as a successful business and generate profit, but how that profit is used, and the motivation for making that profit is driven by social, rather than capitalist objectives. How we define our social objectives and how we measure the success of these though, has been the subject of much research...