designbuildguat's Xanga

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:05:26 GMT

You're Invited to come and celebrate the Guatemala Summer 2006 design/build with us!

where: Gould Court
when: Friday January 19, 2007 5-11pm (6:30 - presentation)

Come snack, chat, enjoy music and learn about the landscape architecture summer design/build studio's incredible project in Guatemala. There will be plenty food, drink, music, presentations and conversations.

Feel free to invite friends and family.

See you there!

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:02:12 GMT

Article from University Week!

http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=27694

back safe and sound!

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 05:59:48 GMT

after a successful last week and relaxing/adventurous vacation, our team has returned to our separate lives...
although there are loads of photos and news to share of our completed project,
we have to wait until Sept 1 before xanga will allow us to upload more!

until then, checkout:

amanda's photos of the FIESTA (Opening Day)!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belldesign/page9/

amanda's photos of VACATION! (Rio Dulce/Livingston (Carribean Coast) + Honduras Copan Ruins)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belldesign/page7/

arielle's photos of the project and weekend trips.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariellefarinaclarkproject/

arielle's photos of the project and weekend trips.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariellefarina/

elizabeth's album of the project (scroll to the bottom and click on 'browse all albums' for album02-travel)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=5c5aygx.4lko3nol&Uy=-h0fmtm&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1

jocelyn's got an excellent site w/ some of the WEEKLY construction photos (and her CATSCANS too!)
http://web.mac.com/jocelynlf/iWeb/jlfblog/Weeks%203-4.html

justin also started a flickr site w/ the FINAL AERIAL view!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justsmartdesign/

salud!

phototime! (click to get the larger version)

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:56:24 GMT

_our group @ panajachel (lake atitlan)

_we miss you jocelyn! latest news: jocelyn's weblog http://web.mac.com/jocelynlf/iWeb/jlfblog/Postcards%20from%20Guatemala/11D88038-08C6-4034-9968-46760C2A127F.html

_my, what grande gatos you have...

_working on the swing benches w/ our friends

_volcano method!

_cement mixer method!

_putting together the column form

_pouring the column

zope (vulture) vision

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 22:57:34 GMT

alrighty folks! here's where we'll post the daily vulture's eye of the project [starting w/ most current]:

_26julio2006

_25julio2006

_24julio2006

_23julio2006

_21julio2006

_20julio2006

_19julio2006

_18julio2006

_17julio2006

_14julio2006

_13julio2006

_12julio2006

_10julio2006

_07julio2006

_06julio2006

_05julio2006

_04julio2006

_03julio2006

_30junio2006

_29junio2006

_28junio2006

_27junio2006

_26junio2006

_25junio2006

Friday, July 14, 2006

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:51:08 GMT

hi everyone!

apologies for the garbled first post...still working out the glitches! to give you a little glimpse, we have a pretty tight schedule (m-f : 7am -7pm) - including 1h+ commute time b/w antigua (homestays) + guatemala city (project site)... the project is almost hitting crunch time, but we are all looking forward to a terrific beach trip to montericco this weekend!

in meantime, here are some fun links from our rockin' team members:

jocelyn's mac blog http://web.mac.com/jocelynlf/iWeb

amanda's pix http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=camino+seguro

vanessa's house blog http://www.xanga.com/winonarideroftheunicorn

hasta luego...

Buenos dias de Guatemala!

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 01:16:36 GMT

It’s hard to imagine we’ve only been in Guatemala for a little over three weeks now, considering how much we have accomplished in that time. Then again, we have a great group of students, two incredible TAs and a wonderful professor working together to make this project happen. The final count for our group includes 13 students from UW, as well as 3 students from Columbia University, Cal Poly St. Luis Obispo, and UNC respectively, TAs Kari Stiles and Malcolm Dole, and Professor Daniel Winterbottom. The students range in experience from well-seasoned third year graduate and undergraduates to incoming students. Our greatest strength is neither our varied talents nor the diverse backgrounds that pervade our team, but the good-natured camaraderie and coherent group dynamic that has developed.

In the first week we spent our time familiarizing ourselves with Zona 3 (one of the most dangerous sections of Guatemala City), learning about the community in which we were working, listening to community members, and getting to know Camino Seguro / Safe Passage (the non-profit that is hosting our visit). In the meantime, we were also brainstorming and developing multiple design iterations for the children’s park. Throughout the week, Kevin and Kati, two Camino Seguro volunteers, took us to see the context of the future children’s park.

Our first contextual field trip was a visit to the cemetery that is located on a steep hillside, above a 100-meter deep natural ravine that has functioned as Guatemala City’s garbage dump for the last 40 or 50 years. From a secluded back corner of the cemetery we could see the garbage sprawling hundreds of meters below. The garbage was so deep that it looked as though it were being used to fill in the ravine. (In fact, the new Camino Seguro school—the site of our project—is located just across the road from the dump entrance and sits directly on top of decades of buried landfill.) Trucks dump loads of garbage from the top of the ravine while dozens of people busily pick through it in order to find recyclables to resell or discarded meals to eat. The site was astonishingly sad. From up on the cemetery cliff, the colorfully dressed garbage pickers were hardly distinguishable from their surroundings as they sifted through toxic chemicals and rotting trash. With the tombs behind us, we were separated from the garbage-filled ravine by a mere couple of dead looking trees in which hundreds of vultures rested. From any point in the city remotely close to the dump, we discovered later, one can spot the vultures constantly circling above the dump.

On other field trips we walked through the neighborhoods and visited the homes and families of the community around the dump. It was an eye opening experience not only to see the conditions of the neighborhoods and dwellings but also to meet and talk with the parents, the children, and the social workers who live and work here.

The planned design process of this design/build studio began and ended within the first 9 days of arrival, with the bulk of it occurring over the span of 3 intense days. As our TA Malcolm and others would say, though, the informal design process during a design/build studio doesn’t end until the project is “completely constructed.” We began with small group discussions about our reactions to the site, the scope of the project, and mapping out potential zones of programming, planting, and landscaping. From there, we split off individually for 3 hours to develop a proposal for the site. After several hours of critique, we formed design groups of 4-5 students each based on the congruence of our ideas and worked for the rest of the afternoon, the evening, and the next morning. Though it was tough and challenging at times, I think it’s safe to say that everyone was pretty amazed at what we could actually pull together in a matter of hours. Besides pretty developed plans, each group also produced vignettes, sections, and detail drawings for the final presentation.

Below you can see photos of the final four proposals, which were broken down respectively into “Parque Verde,” aka the Scoop Group, “Theater of Discovery,” aka Paul, “Camino por Tiempo/Passage through Time” aka The Circle Group (and eventually The Hexagon Group or The Plaza Group), and “Jardin de Jugar,” aka The Geometry Group.

"Parque Verde"

_"Theatre of Discovery"

_"Camino por Tiempo"

_"Jardin de Jugar"

On the jury at the final presentation were several Camino Seguro administrative heads and the founder of the organization, the contractor, an architect associated with Camino Seguro, and, of course, Daniel and our TAs Kari and Malcolm. Presentations went very smoothly, and the jury knew that it would be a tough choice all around. Still, a decision had to be made, and eventually they settled on one proposal for the base plan of the project, pulling forms and ideas from other projects. The whole-group joint design process that ensued the following weekend further emphasized the collaborative aspect of the studio, and the final schematic drawing as well as construction plans and details were completed within 1.5 days.

The final plan can be viewed below (coming soon). The main idea is to create a lush entrance from the neighborhood and school into the giant grassy mound and community garden area by scooping out a small paved plaza surrounded by plants allowing passage on both sides and through the plaza into the community gardens and soccer field. Slight terracing up to the park and stepped planting beds create a welcoming transition, while a large shaded arbor marks the entrance to the park. Other elements in the final plan include a secret children’s garden to the side of the guard house, a metal vine trellis offering a slight break from parking lot to plaza, and a lush planting area pulling the plaza away from the school. Formally, a series of gentle arcs fold out from the plaza area to form steps, benches, walls, and landforms elsewhere on the site.

Groundbreaking!

Construction began the next morning on the site as we began to map everything out. Dozens of shovels emerged from the tool shed, and dirt was flying all day. Within the next couple of days, we did takeoffs for materials, dug column footings, began tying rebar, and even set up a woodshop in the comedor of the school, complete with requisite woodshop speakers and a selection of personal iPods. Form making for the concrete bench walls began by the third day, and the first of hammer and shovel blisters and bruises came flooding in.

Over the next two weeks we continued to amaze ourselves with how much could be accomplished each day, yet we still found ourselves a little behind schedule. However, now, on the 12^th day of construction, we have all six concrete arbor columns poured, all of the bench/retaining walls done, stairs for the front plaza formed, and the stairs leading up the soccer mound just about finished. In fact, all the wood is about ready for the gigantic arbor, excavation is close to finished, and most of the concrete work is complete (thank goodness, as we’ve toiled through a range of different concrete mixing methods, including the frenzied 10-person circle shovel-stirring method, the “zen” 6-person volcano shovel-stirring method, the work-rest-work-rest machine mixing method, only to come back to shovel-stirring again when the machine broke for the third time. This time not even Head Honcho Construction Boss Hermann could knock it back into gear with his sledge hammer.) Nonetheless we have been working hard and making progress day by day, and we are hoping to start the paving and tiling soon.