THE PORTABLE SCHOOL 



Beginning in June 2008 CAHR started working on the design of a portable school/multi-purpose facility with a number of organizations includingKMUTT architecture students and residents of a construction camp located about 10 km south of Bangkok’s new airport.

 

This pilot project began with an architecture studio for 4th and 5th year KMUTT architecture students and a volunteer student from the Development and Emergency Practice programme at Oxford Brookes University. At the end of the semester in September we have drawings prepared from which volunteers and residents can begin construction of the school by mid-November.

 

This project has already received generous funding from theAlberta Association of Architects at a silent auction at their recentBanff Session 2008. The Lighthouse Club (Bangkok) will be funding the ongoing operating costs of the school. We are in the process of securing additional in-kind or financial support from other organizations and individuals to complete what we hope will be the first of many such projects in construction camps throughout Thailand and Southeast Asia.

There are a number of documents outlining the project and its progress:

Proposal : the original proposal for the studio project (pdf)

Background : information on the camp and the people living there.

Poster: a summary of the site information, the programme and design.

Videos: a series of videos documenting the process

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURRENT ACTIVITIES:

COURSES:

WRITING:

CAHR 2010:

BUILDING:

· Unfolding School (upcoming)

· Portable School (operating)

· March— Bangkok: The homeless of Sanam Luang (with KMUTT)

· May—Vancouver : Lecture at AGM of AIBC

· Jun—Completion of Draft, ‘Architecture and Human Rights’

· October—Bangkok

10 KEY PROJECTS:

· International Studio (Phnom Penh)

· Kids & the Built Environment 1

· Kids & the Built Environment 2

· Portable School

· Training Programmes

· Continuing Professional Development

· Migrant Construction Workers study

· Symposium 2010

· Urban Codes & Human Rights

· Construction contracts and Human Rights

CONTACT:

CAHR International

464 Stannard Avenue, 
Victoria, BC 
V8S 3M5, Canada

 

CAHR in Thailand

231/2 South Sathorn Road,  
Yannawa, Sathorn,
Bangkok 10140, Thailand

IN THE NEWS:

· Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed in architectureBC, January 2010

· Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed by Bangkok Post, August 2009

· Portable School on Thai Channel 9 and Executive Director Graeme Bristol interviewed.

· Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed by Radio Nederlands

Portable School 1 – an introduction to the project and the camp, June 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portable School 2 – visit to the District Office and measuring up the site – July 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portable School 3 – children in the camp, July 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portable School 4 - Studio design crit, Tuesday 26 August 08 withDuncan Firth and Daniel Watt of dwp Thailand and Mika Tomczak, a recent MIT grad in mechanical engineering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portable School 5 – developing the final design

Schematic Designs: Each student prepared a schematic designed based on the programme requirements developed together with the residents. (pdf)

Final Design Presentation: This reviews the process and shows the final design (pdf)

To come: Construction drawings, construction progress.

· Summer Studio

Just completed: 

· “Surviving the Second Tsunami: land rights in the face of buffer zones, land grabs, and development” (2010), in Lizarralde, G., Davidson, C., and Johnson, C. (eds.), Rebuilding after disasters: From emergency to sustainability, Taylor & Francis.

· “Rendered Invisible: Urban Planning, Cultural Heritage, and Human Rights” (forthcoming), in Logan, W., Nic Craith, M., and Langfield, M. (eds.)Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Human Rights, Routledge.

For April 2010:

· "Architecture & Human Rights" (forthcoming) in Cushman, Thomas (ed.), Handbook of Human Rights, Routledge.

TEACHING

Professional Degree Programme (with KMUTT)

· Studio – Community Design

· Architecture and Human Rights

· Ethics for Design Professionals

· Housing

· Professional Practice

· Environmental Psychology

· Human Impacts on the Environment

 

Continuing Professional Development:

· Architecture and Human Rights (AIBC, for May 2010)

· Migrant Construction Workers: Architectural Responses in the International Arena (AIBC, 2009)

· The Portable School (MADE, 2009)

· Right to the City (RAIC, 2006)

· The Role of Architecture in Post-Disaster Development (RAIC, 2005)

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