On Friday, Architecture Brigades held a meeting in Santa Rosa with members from 16 surrounding communities and the Vice Mayor of Teupasenti participating in the event. The purpose of the meeting was to present the final designs from the GAB Design Competition for the Santa Rosa secondary school/community center and to figure out phasing for the project and to organize community involvement in the construction of the school.
Last month, GAB Program Lead, John Cunningham, and GB Logistics Manager, David Allejandro Amador (Pichi), held a community-wide meeting in Santa Rosa to present the original design options students submitted for the competition (click here for details). From that meeting, designs were selected from five out of six participating schools. John has worked with all six participating schools and community members to develop a composite design taking in elements from the winning 5 designs.
On Friday, the final designs for the site plan, building, roof, covered outdoor party space, and water tank were presented. Community members provided feedback on the designs and voted for the first phase of construction to begin on the 3 classrooms, kitchen and cafeteria, with construction on the library, office, and bathrooms to be completed afterward. John will return for another community meeting in a week to finalize a budget and to organize materials to get started on the project. It is estimated that 250 volunteers from the community will begin work on the site over the course of the next month in advance of student brigades arriving (5 schools are already signed up for Architecture Brigades from January 3rd to January 16th). Building time to complete the school will depend on the number of brigades that come, but it is estimated that the school will be finished by September, 2011.
Currently, Santa Rosa only has one primary school serving students from K-6th grade. The Santa Rosa secondary school will benefit an estimated 80 kids in its first year, with 250 kids eligible for attendance within 3 years of completion. This is the biggest project Architecture Brigades has launched, both in size and the amount of people it will reach. Santa Rosa was selected as the site for this project based on a thorough research and evaluation process conducted by GB (click here for more info on GB’s R+E process). Architecture Brigades is thrilled to launch this project with the support and involvement of local community members. If you are interested in participating in an architecture brigade to help bring necessary educational infrastructure to rural communities in Honduras, please click here for more info.
Facebook Photo Album of the Meeting: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32225&l=6bf06eaa2c&id=140142072674895
Click here to see the winning designs!
And, check out this video of Architecture Brigades Program Lead, John Cunningham, introducing the Santa Rosa project and explaining the process behind the phasing of the construction:
