Rebuilding Haiti Better at the BBBC

After months of applications, competition and planning, TSC Global completed its show home at the Building Back Better Communities (BBBC) in Zoranje, Haiti near Port-au-Prince. Built entirely at the expense of TSC Global and our Haitian partner, Truxton, SA, TSCG partners Randy Parsley and Steve Riley spent several weeks at Zoranje mobilizing material and labor for the home build featuring our HyPar roof product. Thursday, July 21st was the grand opening of the expo where over 40 contractors and architects built model homes offering a myriad of possible solutions to Haiti’s housing crisis. The new President of Haiti, Michel Martelly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel Martelly) and former US President, Bill Clinton, were at the opening to show the critical support for the BBBC by the government of Haiti and the international development community. BBBC organizers were especially impressed with our HyPar unit declaring it “one of the best designs for Haitians”.

 

Expo Home Rear View

The TSC Global model home is unique in being a multi-family unit and the only duplex at the BBBC. With a shortage of over 500,000 homes in the country, higher density designs will be important to re-building Haiti’s housing sector. The home features living units separated by a common breezeway along with an adjoining kitchen/bathroom addition. The dramatic air circulation created by the HyPar roof design is turbocharged by the breezeway creating an incredibly cool living space. Temperature readings in the exterior shaded porch were over 110° while the interior breezeway was a comfortable 89°! Randy Parsley, formerly a senior construction manager for major commercial builders in the US, remarked that “The advantage of the HyPar roof is not only the cool, comfortable space created but also a healthier living environment due to the massive air exchange caused by the interaction of the breezeway and HyPars. These roofs are beautiful, culturally appropriate and a major breakthrough in affordable home design.”

 

Next step is a jury selection by the BBBC for the award of building contracts for a new home development near the expo site at Zoranje. TSC Global expects to be one of the builders involved in this next phase of the BBBC initiative. Our HyPar roof design created quite a “buzz” at the event with several architects and builders interested in using the product for home and resort buildings. Haiti is an important market for our company. We expect to be actively involved “rebuilding Haiti better” (http://rebuildhaitibetter.net/) for some time to come!

BBBC Expo Home – Breezeway

Building a Showplace in Southern Sudan

Working under contract with the non-profit, Sudan Sunrise, TSC Global is building additional classrooms at the Manute Bol Primary School in Turalei, Southern Sudan. The late Manute Bol, former NBA star whose hometown is Turalei, had a dream of building 41 schools throughout Southern Sudan. Widely revered here in Southern Sudan, Manute worked tirelessly for decades in support of freedom and peacemaking in this troubled country. His dream of education for the youth of his country is being carried on by the non-profit he helped create, Sudan Sunrise.

Manute Bol Primary School in Turalei, Southern Sudan

Steve Riley, Director, is in Sudan now making a logistics and mobilization trip for the construction beginning May 2011. The plan is for two additional classroom buildings, a new kitchen, and an outdoor pavilion serving as a cafeteria and meeting hall. The school now has six classrooms in two buildings, latrines and a solar powered water well funded by USA based company Franklin Electric (www.franklin-electric.com). The new buildings will more than double the size of the school now serving over 400 children. Classrooms are overcrowded, and there are still two grades attending school under nearby trees, so the new buildings are much needed. TSC Global will complete the project in time for the July 9, 2011 independence day celebration in Turalei that will be attended by dignitaries from the Southern Sudan government, representatives from aid agencies and the National Basketball Association.

Manute Bol primary school is a showplace for TSC Global’s unique thin shell hypar roofs. Our roofs are ideally suited to small commercial construction, such as schools, providing a low cost, durable, quiet and cool alternative to the typical iron sheet roofs used here in Africa. We will continue the use of compressed earth blocks (CEB) that were used to construct the walls for the first two classroom buildings. CEB construction is beginning to take hold here in Sudan as an environmentally friendly alternative to burnt bricks. We also have a training component to our work here. Workers will become expert in thin shell hypar roof construction and manufacture of CEBs. Our hope is to launch small businesses using both technologies for home and commercial construction.

Classroom Under the Trees

UNICEF Supports Schools in Southern Sudan

Students at Manute Bol School in Turalei S. Sudan

Update from Nakuru – Corner of Hope Project

2 representatives from the Association of Montessori Internationale (AMI)recently traveled to Nakuru, Kenya.  Ms. Dipika Lakhani, Corner of Hope Project Manager and Ms. Lynne Lawrence, AMI Executive Director were on hand to attend the blessing ceremony of Phase 1 of the project with the community.  Phase 1, consisting of 4 classrooms and a teacher’s center, is scheduled to open at the end of May.   The official grand opening of the school is now scheduled for the end of September.

During the festivities Lynne and Dipika presented the TSC Global trained construction crew with Certificates of Training and photos to commemorate their hard work.

The children decked out in their newly made uniforms are excited about moving into their new school.

Association of Montessori Internationale – 2010 Highlights

TSC Global’s project in Nakuru, Kenya has made the Association of Montessori Internationale (AMI) President’s New Years Message.  See the excerpt below.

Some Highlights from 2010

Nakuru, Africa
“Our ambition is to serve all the children of the world: and a wonderful instance is our involvement in the New Canaan transit camp at Nakuru, Kenya. In this camp, housing more than 1250 families, the Montessori system of education and training has been adopted to address the needs of the children and to provide Montessori trained teachers. This project is implemented under AMI’s supervision. It will create a school for 520 children, train 40 teachers and four mentors with the ability to replicate the project. It is likely to become a model for governments and NGOs in similar situations. This “Corner of Hope” project in Kenya is a first of its kind for AMI, and will demonstrate that Montessori for all is a realistic aim! Many other outreach activities were undertaken in 2010 by our training centres, affiliated societies, schools and teachers—engaging with Native American communities, the Shuar Indians of Ecuador, the Indigenous peoples of Australia and disempowered communities, schools and parents all over the globe.”

Corner of Hope - Phase 1 nears completion

Preparations for January 12th Workshop

TSC Global’s workshop, with partner Vermeer Company, will be held at the company headquarters in Denver, CO. Preparations are underway for a three day training in TSC hypar roof construction, compressed earth block production and block laying. We are building a full scale demonstration structure suitable for use as a home, small clinic, or many other commercial applications. The humanitarian and development organization, Samaritan’s Purse, will be with us along with several other architects, builders and organizations working in the international housing sector. The workshop is free. Please contact our office to reserve a space for you and your organization.

Compressed Earth Blocks are a Winner

Compressed Earth Block (CEB) is a winner when it comes to building in the developing world. This video was produced for Partners Faith Tech Connect and discusses the many advantages of using stabilized soil cement blocks and one of the leading block machines, the Dynabloc press made by Vermeer Company. TSC Global is convinced CEB is an excellent solution for wall construction and has many of the advantages of TSC Hypar roofs: simplicity, sustainability, efficiency, low cost, adaptability and potential for business development and job creation.

January 12 – 16, 2011 TSC Global and Vermeer Manufacturing are hosting a CEB workshop where we will build a demonstration hypar roof and CEB wall dwelling right here in Denver, CO. Builders, engineers, architects, and humanitarian organizations from across the country will be invited to attend. Please send us a message using the contact form on our web site or send an email to bwells@tscglobal.org. The workshop is free of charge. Please plan on joining us for one or more days!

Making Compressed Earth Blocks

Great outing and success. Predictable rocky start but great process once got going, fun stuff, great esprit de corps, perseverance in gale winds and chilly temperatures, sorry I missed the Friday beers at the Rocky Flats Dew Drop Inn.

Some great side conversations, connections and ideas started- hope this group and weekend can springboard some larger projects and innovations…

Making Compressed Earth Blocks in Denver, CO

Terry hope the new head gasket on the Vermeer truck got you back safe.

But some serious bricks got made. It is a process that takes a while to get going but we can all the see the productivity once the assembly line and feeders of materials come together and crank up.

Thanks to Vermeer for coming all the way out from Iowa, Quikrete for the donated pallets and the Portland, and Church Ranch for the facilities and mountain of blue ribbon dirt !

Compressed Earth Blocks

Also a pic of CEB married with TSC Hypar roofs- Moses Musaazi Kampala Uganda. This is the direction TSC Global is going- affordable safe durable shelter and housing, post-disaster and Bottom Billions. But we’re certainly not opposed to becoming involved with US domestic applications.

TSC Hypar Roofs with CEB Walls, Uganda

Any and all who haven’t yet- more than welcome to stop by TSC Global 1205 Osage, Denver, CO to see our roof demos and offices. And once this weekend’s blocks are laid under our west lot demo roof –we have enough for 2 walls- we’ll have to have a house-warming party.

Cheers,

Brad

Brad Wells, Executive Director On TSC Hypar

http://player.vimeo.com/video/17567058

Brad Wells, Executive Director of TSC Global, shares his background with TSC Hypar roofs and the advantages of the building system.

Compressed Earth Block Workshop

On November 10 Tim Carr and Steve Riley traveled to San Antonio, Texas to participate in a 3 day workshop on Compressed Earth Block Construction, Lime Stabilization and Natural Plasters.   The workshop was taught by CEB experts (aka blockheads) Jim Hallock and Jeff Rottler of Instituto Tierra y Cal and Lawrence Jetter of Advanced Earthen Construction Technologies (AECT).  While in San Antonio Tim and Steve were able to put the workshop knowledge into action by constructing a CEB wall.

Corner of Hope – August 2010

In mid-July Dave White took over for Tim Carr to finish Phase 1 of the project and assist the local construction team on getting started on Phase 2.  After getting settled in at St. Mary’s Pastoral Centre and meeting the CDN staff and the construction team, the first order of business was working with the CDN Water Programme to modify the posts and brackets needed to complete Phase 1.  Dave then split the work crew up into smaller groups to speed up production.    While Tim worked from Denver on getting a new supply of acrylic, Dave supervised the raising of the last 8 roofs to complete Phase 1.    Before returning home he got the crew started on Phase 2 by completing and raising the first 3 roofs.