By Jonathan Livesey

During my time at university, enthusiasm for architecture had peaked and troughed at certain terms. With no opportunities for work and constantly working on projects that only see an A0 presentation board I was working myself into a particular rut!

After speaking to a friend at university who did an internship with Arkitrek the previous year I decided to get in contact. Working in the jungle nearly 7,000 miles away on a live project, with a group of complete strangers who shared the same enthusiasm for architecture as well as local tradesmen who spoke varying degrees of English sounded like the perfect way to spend my summer and re-ignite my passion.

The aim of this Arkitrek Camp was to design and build a prototype building using materials innovations appropriate to context. This prototype will form the basis of subsequent buildings making up the SAFE Project permanent field station.

I’ve got to admit though…the first week didn’t run as smoothly as anyone anticipated. I had a slight run in with a local on my first night and then we got into a minor bump in the car on the way to site a few days later. The irony of it all being that we were working for SAFE Project.

We were smooth sailing after that though with what turned out to be an on going catchphrase “It can only get better!”.

It’s hard to say what the favourite moment I’ve taken from the Camp is as it’s been such a culture shock and I’ve been taken right to the edge of my comfort zone at times. One of my favourite everyday moments for me was the river at Malua. As the temperature peeked around midday and it became too hot to work, it was time for a siesta. The cool water of the river was a welcome relief from work. It gave us time to relax, bond, shower and reflect on the morning’s progress.

The river in parts was shallow so I spent a lot of time building dams; which turned out to be in vain as when the rain finally came the water level rose by over a meter and all my hard work was washed away. There was also a deeper section of the river with a giant rope swing, which to be honest seemed a bad idea the first time I did it because Daniele had tried moments before and ‘face planted’ the water.

The most interesting moment during the construction stage has to be trying out new construction methods i.e. the earthbags and the bio-crete. The bio-crete in particular as I have worked with a lot of concrete during my years in construction and was very interested to see how the replacement of aggregate with palm fibre would fare. It turned out really well!

The project and Camp both stayed very true to what was portrayed by the brief. What was most surprising however was the contrast in my initial interpretation after reading the brief compared to the feeling once we were set up on site. ‘Bathing and washing in the river’ sounded very primitive when I was in the UK but when I was there it was very refreshing and at times more pleasant than using the shower blocks provided.

It had been a long time since I’d had to design as part of a group. The last few projects I’ve worked on have been individual and mainly university based projects. I found that the design process had a different feel to it and I think it was due to it being a live project and as we put pen to paper there were going to be repercussions; good or bad we were leaving a our mark on their site.

Usually I like to be in control of every aspect when designing, however I found letting go and trusting the people around me to get on with different sections quite liberating.

We knew that the SAFE prototype at Malua was going to be an ambitious project however with the six P’s (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) we thought it was going to be manageable…just! However, unforeseen aspect such as: materials not turning up, the cement mixer not having an engine, the purlins on building ‘B’s roof being made out of some kind of concrete wood and the hardness of the ground slightly threw off the schedule. Fortunately I’m in the position of interning with Arkitrek over the next few months and I’m going back to site with a small team to finish off the build.

The experience has been once in a life-time. Before I came I had slight reservations about travelling to the other side of the world and throwing myself in at the deep end. Needless to say I’m so glad I did. The camp tested me physically and mentally, however, the fruits of our labour were worth it. The project turned out great and I think I’ve developed as a person and designer throughout this process. It has also given me an opportunity to get stuck in with a design and build, which wouldn’t have been available in the UK. That in itself is invaluable to the me and to the start of my architecture career.

Cheers for opportunity Arkitrek!

This project is still under construction. Look out for further updates here!

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