Hello everyone from Granada, Nicaragua!I cannot believe I am already two weeks into my adventure abroad in Central America. After a week of design work and acclamation to a new country, my exciting time with Hannah in the beautiful country of Costa Rica feels like ages ago. After a blissful stay in Puerto Viejo, Hannah and I said our goodbyes to the Carribean and made our way back to the city of San Jose by bus. We luckily arrived just in time for our departures delayed by les avalanchas de lodos (mudslides) directly outside of the city - not your typical traffic backup. Hannah made her way back to Boston for a busy summer of work at MIT while I met my friend Aaron (also spending sometime in Costa) to catch a bus north to the country of Nicaragua for a month of design work in Granada. Aaron and I along with three other UVA architecture students have been given the opportunity to design a school for GCEC, the Granada Christian Education Center, for a barrio in the outskirts of Granada-El Pantanal. The project was initiated by UVA Professor Anselmo Canfora under the organization Initiative reCOVER in September 2013. Initiative reCOVER is a program which was established to assist disaster recovery efforts and underserved populations through partnerships with humanitarian, community-based organizations and professional firms and manufacturers. In October 2013 our team applied for and was awarded the Jefferson Public Citizens Grant which provided us the funds to both travel and design for GCEC in Granada this summer. Throughout this past spring semester Aaron, Rachel, Nicole, William, and I have been working directly with our client and have produced a preliminary schematic design including a larger masterplan for a site in the barrio El Pantanal. The site will ultimately include a primary and secondary school, teacher and volunteer housing, a market and trade school, recreational fields, and agriculture. Currently, the communiuty of El Pantanal consists of over 800 children with limited or no access to primary education. Throughout Nicaragua only 65 percent of those fortunate enough to attend primary school continue to secondary school. GCEC currently works in the city of Granada and throughout Pantanal through community-based initiatives included various ministries, feeding programs, job training and addiction recovery, and youth-oriented education programs and hopes to establish a stable educational foundation for the wellbeing of the El Pantanal youth. After an 8 hour venture from Costa, Aaron and I arrived in the colorful energetic city of Granada. Deep sea blues, warm sumset oranges and pinks, and tropical greens and yellows color the large adobe walls of Granada residents. The now historical colonial Spanish architecture is only a backdrop to the color, life, energy, and neverending work of Nicaraguans. Behind fluorescent adobe, iron gate, and padlock, residents live outside in open-air courtyard spaces, exposed to the city streets as the cool night air draws people out to relax and socialize on their steps. We quickly became oriented with the city streets- learning the ways of the Nicas- oriented by Volcano Mombacho to the South, the glistening Lake Nicaragua to the east, the rolling hills to the west and the Cathédrale at the center. The following morning after a delicious Nicaraguan breakfast of gallo pinto, mango, and coffee and church at GCEC's ministry El Puente Aaron and I were joined by the rest of our design team Rachel, Nicole, and William. We spent the rest of our Sunday in the central plaza and ended the evening with a delicious meal at our client Sarah's home.
This past week our team has had various meetings and interviews with local contractors and builders; local Nicaraguan teachers and GCEC teachers from the US; students attending the GCEC ministry, El Puente; and other residents in the city. We also spent a considerable time exploring our site and getting to know the neighborhood of El Pantanal. Our site sits at the base of Volcano Mombacho with a beautiful view of Lake Nicaragua to the east. Currently only a large open air pavilion made of local eucalyptus wood and traditional red roof clay tiles sits on our site. Three immense arroyos- dried river beds- surround the pavilion rich with wildlife from rattle snakes and scorpions to horses and the neighborhood dogs of El Pantanal. Mango trees, Tamarind trees, Eucalyptus, Palm and soaring Saber trees cover our site. Such abundance of nature provides numerous opportunities for an education immersed in an understanding and appreciation for one's surrounding but also a huge design challenge to thoughtfully create an architecture responsive and interactive with nature.
Consistent winds from the lake, the relentless sun, and a wet season of heavy rains provide an abundance of passive energy design opportunities. We strive to keep the school "off the grid" through use of natural ventilation and lighting and small scale technolgies that will be intelligently placed on site such as solar panels to power and pump the water well, dry composting latrine toilets, etc.
As you can tell this is an unreal project for us all - especially the thought of seeing our design be constructed over the next few years. We have jumped into this week and this project with all of our hearts -I am inspired by my team members daily for their hardwork and passion. I think it is rooted in the people here in Granada and El Pantanal and the clear potential for development in this country, development that is largely founded in the youth of Nicaragua and the education they receive.
This past week our team has had various meetings and interviews with local contractors and builders; local Nicaraguan teachers and GCEC teachers from the US; students attending the GCEC ministry, El Puente; and other residents in the city. We also spent a considerable time exploring our site and getting to know the neighborhood of El Pantanal. Our site sits at the base of Volcano Mombacho with a beautiful view of Lake Nicaragua to the east. Currently only a large open air pavilion made of local eucalyptus wood and traditional red roof clay tiles sits on our site. Three immense arroyos- dried river beds- surround the pavilion rich with wildlife from rattle snakes and scorpions to horses and the neighborhood dogs of El Pantanal. Mango trees, Tamarind trees, Eucalyptus, Palm and soaring Saber trees cover our site. Such abundance of nature provides numerous opportunities for an education immersed in an understanding and appreciation for one's surrounding but also a huge design challenge to thoughtfully create an architecture responsive and interactive with nature.
Consistent winds from the lake, the relentless sun, and a wet season of heavy rains provide an abundance of passive energy design opportunities. We strive to keep the school "off the grid" through use of natural ventilation and lighting and small scale technolgies that will be intelligently placed on site such as solar panels to power and pump the water well, dry composting latrine toilets, etc.
As you can tell this is an unreal project for us all - especially the thought of seeing our design be constructed over the next few years. We have jumped into this week and this project with all of our hearts -I am inspired by my team members daily for their hardwork and passion. I think it is rooted in the people here in Granada and El Pantanal and the clear potential for development in this country, development that is largely founded in the youth of Nicaragua and the education they receive.