Most importantly we formed a great team of architects and engineers: Chris, Shade, Carine, Julia and Barbara. In the next couple of posts I'll introduce all team-members, but this is what we have been doing lately:
At the kick-off meeting at the end of September we went through the answers received earlier from Ashanti Development. This enabled us to understand more about the location and current building.
Gyetiase is a small rural community in Ghana, about 40 kilometers north-east of Kumasi, near Mampong. This area is the Ashanti region which, by virtue of its gold and cocoa production, is the most prosperous region of Ghana. The town is located on a hilltop with a population of about 1800 and a typical family-size of about ten to seventeen. Most families live in one or two roomed huts and spend most of the day outdoors; washing and cooking take place in the open air. With no electricity or running water, daily life is very time-consuming. Women have to go down to the stream to fetch water and firewood, men spend most of the day farming crops as yam and plantin.
The layout of the village is a main street with most building on either side. You can find many churches, a few traditional buildings and a primary and secondary school, but none of these buildings is more than one storey, like our clinic will become.
The ground floor of the clinic has been built and is actually in use, so our design will have to tie into that. It's great that we can use drawings of the existing building, although a few changes have been made during the building works. The extension of the building will hose the volunteers: doctors, teachers and researchers from the UK, and will include bedrooms, bathrooms, living areas, a kitchen and an office.
With the lack of electricity and running water the need for solar energy and rainwater harvesting is eminent, but by researching the local climate and traditions we aim to make the building smarter and more interesting than that.
