Bamboo structures going up

Take a look at our amazing bamboo structures! The building is finally beginning to look like it's supposed to. The bamboos are a refreshing change after all the concrete and earth blocks and soften the appearance of the building nicely.

Great progress on site!

Time flies when we're having fun at the site! So much so that there haven't been as many posts here as could have been. Everything is going well! 

Making of bamboo elements

Bamboo construction is a long process and consists of many different stages. In our case the process has been especially long because of our problems with the schedule and the contractor so I will remind you what has already been done before going to the actual topic. Firstly you have to locate and harvest the bamboos which happens in Bamboo in Takeo Province, Khmer Bamboo in Kroch Chhma and Chinese Bamboo in Tmoa Pum Village. Then the bamboos have to be treated properly against pests etc. which is described in Treating Bamboos and in Bamboo Preparations Continue with Kevin. Thirdly the bamboos have to be sorted and measured which is explained in Measuring Bamboos and oiled carefully with a UV-resistant wood oil to protect them from rain and sun. If you just pile the bamboos up randomly like we did, you have to sort them again before starting the construction: Back to Bamboo Business. And now to making the elements...

Back to bamboo business

Early this week the workers finished the entire concrete frame structure and started to take down the formwork. More importantly still we got back to working with the bamboos! When I left in August the bamboos were tucked in under the tarpaulins and left there so I was quite nervous when we removed the tarpaulins after three months of heavy rains.

KOMITU has returned to Cambodia

Greetings from the future class room upstairs! After seven weeks of absence KOMITU has returned to Phnom Penh. I will stay here until Christmas and if everything goes well the youth center should be finished by the time I leave. And so far everything has been going more than well!

We have a floor and more!

It is almost unreal to see that finally, after half a year of hard work and countless setbacks, the floor slab and frame columns of the ground floor of the youth center have been cast! Kudos to our new contractor Mr Heang, site manager Mr Kimsour and everyone working at the site for making this happen. In just six weeks they have demolished the foundations and ground beam of poor quality by the previous contractor and replaced them with new ones. In addition they have cast the ground slab and frame columns for the ground floor. Big thanks goes also to Bryse Gaboury and Sona Seng from AE Consultants firstly for introducing us to Mr Heang and secondly for the professional site inspections and for keeping us informed about the happenings on the site while we are all in Finland.  I will return to Cambodia next week and who knows, maybe I'll be able to walk on the first floor then...
(Photos by AE Consultants)

Meet our new contractor!

Greetings from Cambodia! The long radio silence from this side of the worlds has been due to some unfortunate set backs in our building process. According to our original construction schedule the entire building was supposed to be ready on June 15th. The deadline was pushed forward several times but by mid July even the foundations were not ready, material deliveries and work were delayed repeatedly, the quality of the work was poor, workers were going on strike due to unpaid salaries, the community was getting restless and it became obvious that something needed to be done. Hence we unfortunately had to let our contractor go two weeks ago. Before he left the site, he was finally able to produce the long awaited ground beam but unfortunately in such poor quality that it has to be taken down and recast.

EASA Wastelands REFUGE workshop in Helsinki

Some news from Helsinki for a while! Three of the members of Komitu Architects, Noora, Tuuli and Inari were tutoring a workshop as part of the European Architecture Students Assembly EASA in Helsinki 16.7.-29.7.2012. The workshop was called Refuge and we were working together with the Hirundo center for European migrants and travellers.

Social relations and bamboo swings

After nearly two weeks of absence KOMITU has returned to Phnom Penh and boy is it good to be back! Having recovered from the surprising culture shock and flue I caught on my return I was excited to visit the site. Unfortunately there hadn't been as much progress as we had hoped for due to some problems with material logistics etc. but I really saw the shape of the building for the first time with my own eyes today which was great! 

Sustainable Building -workshop with STT

On Saturday 9.6. we organized a workshop "Sustainable Building and Ecological Materials" together with ngo Sahmakum Teang Tnaut STT. More than 30 participants attended, most of them students from local universities Rufa and Norton. We went trough the most important phases in using bamboo and even got some practical experience of building the roof beams for the center.