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Check out DLR Group’s latest print ad in the September issue of D CEO Magazine. Photo from a recent shoot of the BNSF Logistics office in Dallas.

Day One in Kenya

Saturday, Jan 26, 2013

I spent today with Nelly and her Husband Nick. They manage Kizimani's projects locally.  We started by viewing another school project, recently done, in the Nairobi area. The project, “New Dawn”, is a high school serving an impoverished area adjacent to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Nairobi.  The juxtaposition of the two neighborhoods is quite striking.  On one side, you have all the residences for the members of all the foreign embassies, many at 5,000 – 7,000+ SF.  On the other, a slum, with shacks cobbled together from found materials, with no power or running water. However, the New Dawn project is a beacon in this slum.  Completely supported through donations, the high school serves 160 students from the surrounding slum, and sees 25% of those students qualify for admission to the state university.

The construction for this school is different from what we’re looking at. Made from donated shipping containers, the project is a great example of using available resources in an innovative manner.

The school was constructed in 2 phases.  The first, completed in 2006, was made of four shipping containers. The containers were arranged, two by two on the first floor, with the interior panels of each pair cut out, and the seams of the adjoining containers welded together.  The removed panels were then used to construct the exterior walls of the second story classrooms. The result was a wide classroom, that seats 40 students.

The second phase was a little different, each classroom on the 1st and 2nd floor was still made of a pair of shipping containers, with the removed panels used elsewhere in the project. But the changed how they finished the interior surfaces, and actually left a gap between the containers, and in-filled that gap with wood construction, that allowed for all the utility routing to be concealed. 

The project was a great example of applying lessons learned from one phase to the next.

We spent a fair amount of time going over some of the construction techniques used. Even though this is a different construction system that what we’re proposing, New Dawn is a great indicator of the methods, systems and materials at our disposal.

What was also remarkable about the New Dawn campus was how they used every square inch of their property.  They grow greens and onions on site, in both an open field and a green house. The have 3 cattle for milk production, and they use the manure to provide bio-gas (methane) for the kitchen.  The have to purchase beans and corn for the kitchen, but all the other ingredients for the school meals are grown on site.   

Though we’ve discussed the possibility for growing food on our site, and integrating areas for it in our site design, it was great to see an example already built and up and running.