tarlungeni vd&b

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RIBA* Research Symposium 2007Reflections on practice: capturing innovation and creativity09: Adventures in makingGillian Lambertvoluntary Design & Build

"Adventures in making" describes the ideas, methodology and construction of achildren's centre in a poor and underprivileged rural community in Romania, run by ateam of young architecture graduates from the charity v o lu n ta r y D e s ig n &Build. Thispaper describes the project, my involvement, and how an initial curiosity to buildsomething for someone else has inspired many volunteers to come together, workinghard on site to provide a fun and robust building for the local children to enjoy. It isimportant to note that even though the project is based on voluntary work of acharitable nature, benefits are felt by both the community of Tarlungeni and at thesame time by members of vD&B who want to gain hands on experience as a way oflearning about materials and building techniques.The project is set in the mountains of Transylvania, near the city of Brasov, which isbecoming a popular tourist destination. Only 12 km to the east is the rural village ofTarlungeni. Left behind by Brasov's fast development over the past decade, visitingthe village is like travelling back in time. Life in the village has not changed much, andmanual labour and horse and carts and still dominate the life of the villagers. Thereare three main ethnic groups living in Tarlungeni: Romanians and Hungarians livingalong the main street and a large Roma population who occupy the land set backtowards the river. The Roma people of the village form a well established communityof over two hundred families, but suffer from high levels of unemployment, withmany of them living in poverty and squatting on land the do not legally own.Although some of the homes are built with blocks and tiles most large families aresquashed into small ram-shackle huts, with many built from timber and mud.The project first came about in late 2005, after vD&B made an enquiry to the BritishCouncil searching for local charities that were seeking assistance with a small buildingproject. The British Council put us in contact with an NGO based outside Brasovcalled The Foundation for Social Assistance and Youth [FASTJ. Their aim is to helpunderprivileged children, predominantly Roma, by running nursery classes, trips away,and giving them the attention that all children deserve. FAST had been allocated asmall room in the general school in Tarlungeni, where previously there had been noprovision for teaching children under the age of seven, but quite quickly this becameovercrowded and they desperately needed more space. Together FAST and thedirector of the school came up with the idea of building a new centre especially forthese classes. An agreement was made that the school would donate the land andeventually take on maintenance and running costs, FAST would provide teachers andorganise classes, and vD&B would provide the building.After a site visit in February 2006, a group of volunteers worked with FAST and theschool to develop the brief for the building. We also met with some of the childrenwho made drawings of their ideal school. When complete the centre will be usedevery day to teach the younger children aged from five to seven before they enter themain school. It is also hoped that the building will be used for out of school clubs,adult classes and community meetings. It will contain communal washing facilities tobe used by the Roma, who currently still use the river for bathing and laundry.FAST already had an idea of what they required in the building and provided us withsimple diagrams of the room arrangements. We all agreed that the spaces should be
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RIBA* Research Symposium 2007Reflections on practice: capturing innovation and creativityopen yet warm and friendly and together we made decisions about the centre: thelocation of the site within the school grounds, area requirements, its footprint, thesequence of rooms and positioning of entrances. From here a general layout of thebuilding was prepared by vD&B and revisions were sent back and forth betweenBritain and Romania before construction began. It was agreed that vD&B would raisefunds to support the cost of building materials and also to bring a team of volunteersto work on the construction of the project.

Illustration 1:D raw in g sh ow in g th e em erg in g d esig nAlthough we were responsible for the design and the construction of the project,when necessary we brought on board local craftsmen and builders for consultation -providing us with advice during the design of the foundations, the timber frameconstruction and how to work with the materials available locally.We were not required by the school to finalise the design with a full set of detaileddrawings and there was no need for planning permission prior to starting theconstruction. As agreed with the local council we will obtain the formal certificateswhen the building has been completed next year. This is a significant differencebetween project standards undertaken in conventional practice that we are all familiarwith, as it meant that the design was not frozen. The low level of control from theauthorities left us with the responsibility of ensuring that the design would meet thestandards ourselves. We have taken this seriously and some details had to be finalizedvery early on to allow construction to progress smoothly. Alongside this quite self-disciplined design process we have tried to find a balance, allowing some give in thedetail of other areas, where the design can be considered at a slower pace, evolvingalong the way (illustration 1).As we see our designs come to life we are occupying a place of transition where ouractions are blurring the boundaries between drawing and building, from one moment

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RIBA* Research Symposium 2007Reflections on practice: capturing innovation and creativityto the next a line on a piece of paper quickly becomes transformed into a physical linethat can be read within the building.Since July 2006, over fifty volunteers have joined us to work on the project, a mixtureof students and graduates coming from many different schools of architecture. Somevolunteers came for three weeks, others stay for several months. On a normalworking day there were at least six or seven people on site (illustration 2). A largepart of the work is hard graft that we find immediate and exciting. We enjoy thephysical work - even the most menial or repetitive tasks explores a closeness with thematerials.

Illustration 2: P ho to m ontag e - Site W orks 2006One of the first jobs was to dig the l.2m-deep foundation trenches ready for theconcrete footings. This we did by hand. Endless wheelbarrow journeys moved awaythe earth. Reinforcement cages were made from scratch, with each individual loopshaped on a jig. In total we made 375. The pieces were then threaded onto the rebarand held in place with small pieces of wire. These cages were then sat on top of thefootings, formwork was fixed in place and the backfilled soil was compacted to thecorrect depth with bolts fixed to the caging ready to accept the timber soleplate andfinally the mesh was attached in preparation and then we were ready to go. The daythat the concrete arrived, all of that hard work was immediately buried underneath asloppy grey mass.By adopting these slow and rigorous methods, techniques that are common in thevillage, we acknowledge we are not always efficient with time, but this is not the point.Without doubt, an experienced builder could have made this same slab faster andbetter than we could, but to have attempted that ourselves made what many mightconsider a mundane series of events into an invaluable experience. We see potentialin being immersed in the making of a building, to revel in the simple task andcelebrate the closeness with every ingredient. This process influences the way wedesign.Drawing has still remained a vital part of the process in both the design developmentand in the everyday making of the building. These drawings are made on site in sketchbooks, on off-cuts of plasterboard, and dotted on walls around the building. Theseare the drawings that document the project in a way that standard CAD drawingscould not. Even rough sketches and scribbles become important. Some of thesedrawings are about design, some are about communicating amongst ourselves, andsome of them are about surveying and making measurements for precision.

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RIBA* Research Symposium 2007Reflections on practice: capturing innovation and creativity

We had the idea of punctuating the wall facing out onto the playground with a seriesof windows arranged in a playful composition. The exact pattern and position of thewindows was left until after the basic structure of the wall had been built. We thenexperimented with different options using both scale drawings and by marking on thewall at 1:1 (illustration 3).

Illustration 3: dr aw in g a nd c utting th e w in do wsOur paper was the very surface that would eventually hold the windows. Weconsidered how each window would work internally, using basic measurements tomatch heights of the window sills to a table or chair inside the activity space. At thesame time, we also considered how this would work from the playground lookingback into the centre. Marks were rubbed out and altered, and the pencil lines becamecut lines through the surface of the wall. We then had a chance to understand thehow the spaces were going to feel in terms of the quality of the light, the atmosphere,and interaction between interior and exterior. As the pencil marks could be erasedand moved, so the apertures could be enlarged or adjusted, the composition beingdecided as the frames for the windows were built. The journey from drawing tobuilding continues as each layer of material is added, the recognisable two-dimensionalunderstanding of the wall is buried beneath insulation and membranes, we begin tothink about surrounds, it gains depth and approaches solid (illustration 4).

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Illustration 4: a dd in g l ay er sw ith in th e b uild in g

This journey is not always on the quickest route. For many of the details of thebuilding, we have enjoyed the luxury of making in-situ decisions. This is an aspiration,an area of research, but also a simple response to our level of experience and thenature of voluntary projects. What we lack in experience we make up for inenthusiastic man-power. Where possible decisions are made slowly, broken down andtaken one step at a time. This allows everyone working on site to be involved indesign discussions, allowing each volunteer the chance to add their ideas to thecreation of the building, and the number of voices giving us the confidence to attemptthese ideas. Sometimes making a decision this way was instantaneous, sometimes ittook a number of months.During the early stages of the design, a decision was made to have timber cladding onthe outside of two classroom volumes. However, it was not until the following yearthat the details of this were finalised. This process involved a number of smalliterative steps, each inspiring the next. The classroom had a curved corner, makingvertical elements the best option; we considered shingles, possibly hardwood, but thenlocal supplies dictated the use of softwood; this led to a discussion about treatmentand colour; the overlapping of the elements gave depth to the cladding, and finally itwas decided to highlight this exposed profile by painting it with bright colours. Withthis decided the timber was purchased immediately and with a lot of hard work andenthusiasm the cladding was completed in the following two weeks. Moving roundthe building the walls gently change from simple timber to a vivid rainbow of colours,and at certain times the edges of the cladding reflect the sunlight, the colour leakingonto the timber (illustration 5).

Illustration 5: Detail o f t he c la ss ro om c la dd in g

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This enthusiasm extends into every corner of the building, at different scales. Thedetails enjoy a lot of freedom and every nook and cranny can be carefully consideredand custom built. This building has not been designed by one person alone.Although it tries to follow a few simple rules about materials and qualities of thespaces, in truth this project it is the work of many. It is sometimes a little higgledypigaldy and we are sometimes very slow in mulling over how to do something. Eachdifferent procedure is acknowledged in its own right, each one is its own individualchallenge and adventure that comes to life as each volunteer becomes involved in thedrawing, the discussion, and the action. Be that raising the first columns and beingamazed at how tall they looked, adding the OSB to the outside of the frame to formthe first enclosures, or bolting together the plywood staircase.We will all take these experiences to different places, the lessons we have learnt will beuseful us in many ways - in how to understand how something you imagine could bemade, about scale and reality, about working with craftsmen and builders, aboutprecision and tolerance.Amidst the territory between education and practice we have identified a curiosity tolearn, and fundamentally to understand how buildings are made. It is this curiositythat initiated the project, and since then as a result we have begun to explore the roleof the architect intuitively, through a direct level of involvement that becomesphysically tied to the architecture. By fitting each piece together ourselves, we areenhancing our understanding of how to use materials, how a building fits into itsenvironment and how people will eventually use it. Our research is conductedthrough action, in finding things out. As work continues on site the project is rapidlybeing transformed into a fun building that very soon the children of Tarlungeni willbegin to enjoy. These we consider our adventures.

Illustration 6: i nt er na l v ie w

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