Modern design and traditional materials mix at delta school
July 26 - August 1, 2010
A group of foreign tourists will explore Myanmar by hot air balloon this month.
TRADITIONAL building materials and modern design have been successfully melded for the benefit of the 500 students at Akal Chaung Wa Village Basic Education Middle School in Dedaye township.
A school spokesperson said the structure has a reinforced concrete lower level, but is topped by a more traditional – and environmentally friendly – structure made of bamboo.
Daw Thandar Wynn, executive secretary of the Amara Foundation NGO, said the middle school’s upper level utilised at least 7500 treated bamboo poles. It replaced a school that was destroyed – like so many others – by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. The building is intended to serve as a community shelter should another cyclone hit the region.
“The design [for the project] was donated by a German architect. The structure was designed to withstand winds up to 90 miles an hour [about 150 kilometres an hour] and earthquakes measuring up to 6.5 on the Richter scale.
“The doors are designed to open inwards and outwards and allow water to flow through, which reduces the possibility of collapse. It’s equipped with solar panels on the top to power lights at night and the rain that falls on the roof is collected and stored in three 1000-gallon water tanks,” Daw Thandar Wynn said, adding that there is also a tube-well.
She said bamboo was used extensively to reduce the reliance on other woods and limit deforestation, adding that it is also a common building material in the area.
“This area is very close to the sea and iron rusts quickly here. We’ve used bamboo in place of iron for the building of the foundation, other parts of school’s frame and in the walls upstairs,” she said.
Daw Thandar Wynn added that treating the bamboo correctly tripled its lifespan and said that there are many examples in Bangladesh where it has been used in a similar manner.
She said locally available bamboos such as wapo (giant bamboo), wayar (bamboo used to make paper), thike (a strong, thick-walled species of bamboo used in construction and to make baskets and mats) and tinwar (used for baskets) have been used at the school.
Daw Thandar Wynn said the two-storey, hexagonal building cost about K170 million (about US$170,000) to build and outfit, including furniture.
“There are 10 classrooms, an office, a teachers’ room and a school library in the building. There is an open space in the middle of the structure that is used as an assembly area and playground.
“There are also 12 hygienic toilets for the students,” she said, adding that it took about a year to build and was formally opened in January this year.
She said local people enthusiastically cooperated in the construction work, knowing that they would benefit from the school.
“We taught all the villagers who helped how to treat the bamboo and how to construct the building as we went. This will help them to maintain the building in the long term,” she said.
She added that the foundation was planning to build another similarly constructed school in Kyone Da village, in Pyapon township, after the monsoon ends.
