Toko project update

So we held a design review for the toko and kios projects and invited the communities to attend. It was held at Mercy Corps offices. A toko and a kios are markets, a toko is designed to be modular, eventually having a second story, and a kios is designed to remain one story. 

One of my previous posts had Hendra's original design. Together we worked on something a little more modern, reflected in the bottom image. It seemed like a good solution because the balcony for the second floor is integrated into the angled piece so there is very little demo to do when it's time to add the second story. It wouldn't really be painted teal. The angles are intended to be a gesture to traditional Indonesian architecture that used angled roofs. Anyway, the community instead wanted a design that looks like all the other tokos. It was rather disappointing, though not much different than projects at home. The top two images are the latest design. Boo-hoo. I guess that's the beauty of community involvement. Without it, we would have given them something they didn't like. Such a selfishly disappointing process.

Mns Balee Project Update

After receiving information from Mns Balee community members, I have been working to develop a long term site master plan. Phase 1, as I've mentioned before, will be the restaurant for which there is a budget of $21,000 from Mercy Corps. I went to the site on Monday and spent a couple of hours walking around locating various program functions. There is quite a bit of topography so it's challenging. I will propose putting the restaurant in between two small hills. It will have a very nice view but the objective is that the building itself isn't too prominent, taking away from the natural beauty of the site, and the views. They want seating for 24 people at the restaurant. It can primarily be open with the exception of the kitchen and bathrooms. From what I understand it costs about $1500 for a septic system, and about the same I think for a well.

We have another community workshop this coming Sunday. We will be taking a projector so we can show images of other beach resorts, particularly those in Bali. We don't have a plotter here at Mercy Corps so I pieced together a large site plan, zooming up on the photocopy machine. Then I'm using a meter wide role of trace paper to develop the site plan. At the workshop, we can tape this up and draw over it on another piece of trace. It makes me appreciate all the tools of the trade. 

When we meet on Sunday I will have to try and explain the characteristics that tourists like. If the project is done wrong, it could definitely ruin the site. I drew a sketch of the restaurant and indicated the materials and one of the engineers will price it. Everything here is built of concrete plastered over bricks. It's really quite ugly - well, I guess that's just my perspective. So using wood and what tourists think of as "traditional" Indonesian architecture (thatch roof, wood floors, wood carvings) may actually be more expensive I'm told. We are going to try and use coconut wood which is more sustainable than other local woods. The restaurant is going to be 9 meters by 9 meters I think, but I need to check on pricing.

It will be interesting to get their feedback regarding the masterplan. I hope it's a valuable tool because they will take the profits from the restaurant and reinvest it into the remaining development (bungalows, music stage, stairs to the top of the mountain, slide, lifeguard tower, changing room with life vests, parking, etc). They will be doing this on their own, so anything I can do to help has to happen now. Part of the challenge is simply communicating what tourists value, like natural materials. They have this idea that people will want to swim in their algae filled pond. I have to show them pictures of what foreigners will actually swim in: clear blue pools that are treated. Though the pond is pretty and should be left as is. In this case, MC will give them the money and they will coordinate all construction under our supervision. A lot of the decisions will be done in the field after I'm gone.

This trip is going by so fast. There are a lot of interesting projects I could work on. Next I might make up a brochure on bioswales so that they can start offering it as an option for drainage. Typically they use open concrete ditches, but the water doesn't have anywhere to go so it just sits there. I need to find some details on how to construct a bioswale that does not connect to a storm water pipe.  I guess it's fairly common for ngos to have these types of brilliant ideas but not have any clue as to how to actually detail them to make them work. So sometimes projects, especially ones that try new techniques, fail. Emily, who a civil engineer with a masters in public health and business I think, will also do some research.

Went to Iboih again last weekend

Pretty beautiful, huh? I went snorkeling on Saturday and Sunday. The conditions in the bungalow were a little less beautiful. Again I didn't shower all weekend. It was a fun weekend getaway. This weekend I have another community workshop.

Lunch

This is what I eat most days for lunch. I like the to-go packaging using a banana leaf and a piece of paper. The mango juice comes in a little plastic bag. All for $1.50. The vegetarian food options include rice, cabbage with green beans, egg with chiles, tofu, tempe, potato patties, and chile sauce. There are about 25 other dishes available for meat eaters. All of this is pre-made and therefore makes for a quick lunch to eat there or bring back to work so I can surf the internet.

Design Review of Existing MC Women's Center

Mercy Corps designed this existing Women's Center previously for several villages. There are several more villages who would like a Women's Center, however, before we use the existing design as the standard, MC wanted to interview the users to receive their feedback and see if there are any suggestions for improving the design.

It was a useful process as there were a few important suggestions:

1. Provide security bars on all windows
2. Modify the ventilation louvers so that water doesn't penetrate the building during storms
3. Add more electrical outlets
4. Enter the bathroom from inside the building, not from outside.
5. Provide storage shelves where possible

Typically the women's center is a place where women (no children) can go to learn handicrafts such as sewing or weaving. In one village they offer tables, dishes, and other equipment for celebration events. They would like to be able to do more catering but there is no kitchen.  Overall they are happy with the quality of the building, the design, and the materials. I visited a clinic done by another ngo that was of the poorest quality. It was like a temporary trailer with fiberglass reinforced panel on all interior walls. It was so cheaply done. From what I understand, this has been a problem of many of the houses that were built immediately following the tsunami, I guess similar to Katrina. They are terrible quality and have a very short life span. They essentially become garbage after about a year. However, nobody takes them down, so there are many vacant falling apart houses all over the region.

Being a weekend tourist in Banda Aceh

So I walked around Banda Aceh last Saturday for several hours. I must have said hello like 800 times. The city is about the size of Eugene I'd say. It's fairly big, but it's possible to get pretty far by foot. The mosque was built in the 1800's by the Dutch. It remains  the center of Banda Aceh. I couldn't enter the premises however because I didn't have anything to cover my hair with. I was hoping to find some postcards in the area, but there just isn't a tourist market here. There were a couple of cut fruit stands by the mosque though so I had some pineapple and papaya. 

I have noticed a few modern buildings under or newly constructed. The picture of the building with the red front is close to the main mosque. It was a three story building before the tsunami and when the tsunami came, it wiped out the first floor, taking the whole building down. The mosque wasn't damaged much. I guess it's all in the construction techniques and quality.

There is a lot of fresh fish available here. The fish is so fresh that there weren't even very many flies in the fish market.

I walked to the grocery store last night from the house in the dark using my nifty head lamp. I started walking on the "sidewalk" and then suddenly came to a spot that was missing the cover so that it was a giant black sewage pit. These random black holes, large and small, are quite common.

Well, I've eaten all of my Trader Joes miso soup packages and Lara bars. Really, that's the big news for me. I've been listening to my ipod at night quite a bit simply because going out isn't a great option and there's only so much tv I want to watch. Actually the storms have caused problems for the satellite so that's been out for a couple of days. There's no house cleaning to do which is nice, no laundry to do. I don't have a car or motorcycle, but even if I did, there's not really anywhere to go in the evenings. On Friday, a bunch of people from work did karaoke. It should be noted that alcohol is not available anywhere except at "special" Chinese stores. I went to a dinner event instead.

Good news from home from Christina: p:ear won a design award and her and D are engaged. Pretty cool!

Mns Balee Site Measuring and Community Workshop

So the community workshop was held yesterday. My morning started off with a full dose of Imodium, so needless to say, I was a bit nervous about my ability to lead this workshop. Then it started to downpour, monsoon style, as soon as we got there. The community center (meunasah) is covered but open on the sides so the rain was extremely loud. It's hard to explain the triple bottom line, yelling.

Thursday we measured the site boundaries - though we didn't have any means for determining the angles as the boundaries turned corners - so the map is extremely rough. One boundary marker, for example, is a piece of driftwood. It was extremely hot and I got sunburnt doing the field measuring. There were 3 people from the village who supervised our efforts, making sure we were following the site boundaries correctly.

We handed out the map at the community workshop. The main objective of the meeting was to talk about the features of the site and identify broad project goals before getting to detailed program elements. We wanted them to be thinking about the views and the resources of the land, where the animals are, the geography, etc. We talked about the "three legs of the stool" that are essential for a healthy community: environment, economy, and social equity.

They seem to get this, but I got the distinct feeling that they are tired of having meetings and want to get the restaurant built. Funny how I could tell this without even speaking the language. I confirmed in the car ride home that this is indeed the case. They have had 5 community workshop meetings already. So instead of having a meeting to present the master plan, we postponed the next meeting to occur in 2 weeks so we can talk about the masterplan and the restaurant design.

I was surprised at the boldness of their vision. They want to make this a destination place for foreign tourists with bungalows complete with toilets. They do not feel there will be a conflict between the locals and foreigners, and seem to have very liberal objectives including, gasp...allowing swimming suits. But I'm not sure the details of who "governs" the beach. 

The beach draws a lot of young local college students now. They want to have a music platform so they can have concerts here also. Their model: Bali, though they've never been there themselves. The good thing about community participation is that the women mentioned that they wanted to be able to mine salt like they used to traditionally on the beach. They also noted a cabbage like plant that they would like to preserve for use in cooking. A place to pray is also important and is a 1 year goal, after the restaurant which will be paid for my Mercy Corps with a budget of $21,000. My main concern is the infrastructure that will be required to support the restaurant. The tsunami wiped out everything that was there including the electricity, the toilet, and the well. The restaurant will be first priority, then in 1 year: 10 bungalows, a place to pray, a changing area, rescue boat, life jacket station, a slide and rope swing, walking paths, and eventually a covered performance stage, picnic benches and chairs, a ladder or stairs to the top of the mountain, and much more.

So all in all it was a good meeting, though at times it seemed that they were a bit annoyed with having to talk about the birds and the fish and the monkeys that are on the site. They are so anxious to stop talking and start building. They are very nice people and it was a good learning experience for me. Now I have lots of work to do on the master plan and restaurant design. I need to collect concept images of similar resorts.  It did feel a bit weird being the white person that comes to lead the team. The Mercy Corps team for this village is very capable and has been doing a good job, so its sort of weird to step in at this point. It's a good process though and the next meeting should be fun when we take things to show them...

Toko Design

This is another project that I am working with an engineer named Hendra on. A toko is a small modular retail space that can be added to on the side or above for a second story. Often times people live on the second floor and have their shop on the first floor. Several of the villages have requested a toko as their community project that MC will fund. They will add on to it in the future. This was the original design that Hendra proposed. Today I am going to another toko that MC built to talk to the shop keepers and see what there feedback is. Currently the planter boxes are filled with trash and are not planted. I will see what the issues are and what suggestions they have for improvement. Doors can be added to the side bays, between the columns, when it is a corner lot and there is street access on both sides. They fill between the columns with cheap/poor quality brick, and plaster over it. This seems to be the preferred and probably cheapest building method here. If they were to expose the brick, they would have to special order high quality brick, so I have been told. This brick turns green and does not have square corners. Tokos typically do not have any plumbing or restroom facilities. I guess the question is, should the one that MC provides have plumbing, or not. With plumbing comes the need for septic, etc which becomes more complicated on a lean budget. I showed Hendra a book called "A Field Guide to Sprawl" which has pictures of bad American design and planning. We had a discussion as to whether modern or traditional is better. I explained why strip malls are bad and why Americans tend to be fat.

I showed Hendra these pictures to try to think about the many possibilities. I probably just annoyed him.