Architects Without Frontiers | Australia

NEWS + ANNOUNCEMENTS | GET INVOLVED | FIJI UPDATE | PNG UPDATE | VIETNAM UPDATE | ANGANWADI UPDATE | INDLOVU UPDATE

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Architects Without Frontiers Australia (AWF) is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to engage the Australian design professions in pro-bono projects that improve the living conditions of communities in need with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

AWF is committed to participatory, sustainable and community-focused outcomes as it engages with the architectural and related built-environment professions in providing pro-bono design services and model construction projects for those whose needs are greatest.

AWF, through its volunteers and supporters, focuses on developing the capacity of partner organisations and communities thorough project outcomes skills sharing and mutual knowledge sharing.

▼ news & announcements

◄ Building the Community Exhibition

Keep the 1st of September free to come along to the launch of Building the Community, Integrated Practice Studio, Hoi An, Vietnam. The exhibition will showcase the work of students who participated in the Hoi An integrated practice studio in 2010. It will be launched by Professor Margaret Gardner AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University.

5:30pm on Level 8, Building 8, RMIT University, Melbourne.

RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

◄ AWF Board

AWF are excited to announce their new board who will begin to help in developing strategic direction in the next three years. We are pleased to welcome : Andrew MacKenzie, Zita Unger, Ron Wakefield, Scott Leckie and Christian Neilsen.

Along with the board, we also welcome Danny Almagor, Rob Adams and Karl Fender who will be working in an advisory capacity with the organisation.

◄ giving to AWF is now easier

We now have secure credit card facilities on our website, so that donations and supporter funds can be made directly through credit card, rather than having to do bank transfers. Please make use of our easy-to-donate facility! This secure facility is powered by GiveNow.com.au.

▼ get involved

◄ The Anganwadi Project

The AWF Anganwadi Project in Ahmedabad, India is now calling for volunteers for the 2010-2011 building season. Volunteers will be designing and overseeing the construction of slum preschools with a focus on using recycled materials and encouraging community development. Volunteers should be graduate architects and preferably have site experience. Please go to our website and fill out a volunteer application form. Please forward to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it along with a recent CV.

A Story from the field........

Sunil is 14. He is bright, beautiful and smiling always. He lives with his mother, father and sister in a 2-room house opposite the site of AWF’s ninth anganwadi preschool in Ahmedabad, India. From the very first day, he was our saving grace, shooing away the goats sleeping in our excavation. Since then he has helped us cart, dig, paint, cut, grind, lay, plant, build, sweep, draw, and laugh on site almost every day. In our final days, his mother cooked us dinner and invited us to his yet-to-be arranged wedding.

At the festive inauguration of this preschool in June, our eminent guest, the state Police Commissioner, was inspired to offer financial sponsorship to one lucky local student. We recommended our smiling helper, Sunil, to receive this generosity.

In this photo, Sunil and other local kids are climbing into the locked anganwadi garden. The neighbourhood kids loved this building even more than we did, so even a 1.8m fence could not keep them out! With construction so unpredictable and sometimes frustrating, AWF volunteers regularly took refuge in their monkey antics.

The decadent pre-loved gate in this photo was rescued from the dirtiest corner of Ahmedabad’s Sunday market. We bargained a great price and in true green fashion, transported it to site via pedal rickshaw heavily laden with all our salvaged treasures. We have since painted it in brilliant green, with red and purple highlights.

Its all for kids, after all!

◄ AWF/ Ozquest Expedition

For the fifth consecutive year, OzQuest and Architects Without Frontiers will offer Architects, Architecture students and all related construction and design professionals and students an opportunity to travel to Nepal, experience world heritage Nepali architecture, interact with and contribute to the local community through community development projects.

For more information or to express your interest in the 2010/2011 Expedition contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

▼ fiji update

AWF Volunteers Loata Ho, Emma Healy and Lucia Wellington are working very closely with rural village women in Cakaudrove, Fiji to develop a Women’s Resource Centre. The site acquisition was confirmed in 2009 and detailed survey information produced in November 2009.

Emma Healy and Lucia Wellington have just returned from Fiji where the sketch design developed by the project team was presented to the client group. They are awaiting approval from the Paramount Chief and Local Government to move forward. The AWF volunteer team has already received approval from the paramount chief and the project is in the administration of the local council in a ‘pre-approval’ state. Once this is secured, the team will work with an architect in Fiji and develop a set of construction drawings which will be completed in January 2011. Construction is intended to commenced in June 2011. A road to access the site is the first portion of work and is due to be completed by the end of the year. The majority of labour will come from volunteers in the community. At the moment the project team is seeking materials donations to supplement what can we sourced in the local villages.

The team is also looking for an Australian engineer to help with civil and structural advice. They currently have a structural engineer in Fiji who is assisting with the work on site.

▼ papua new guinea update

The documentation of the first phase of the additions to the Kompian District Hospital in Papua New Guinea has been completed and issued by our project partner Nettleton Tribe, and the Structural engineers Bilfinger Berger Services (Australasia) Pty Ltd. Foundations for this stage have been laid. Steelwork fabrication is completed and the building construction will begin mid-year.

The team are looking for a hospital planner to assist them in giving some advice to the project. Please contact AWF if you are interested.

Lillian Arli of Nettleton Tribe will continue leading this project and will begin the construction documentation soon

▼ vietnam update

BURO Architecture + Interiors has been working with Architects without Frontiers to develop the design for a disability day care centre for disabled children on behalf of the Kianh Foundation in Hoi An. In January of 2010 a group of students from RMIT Melbourne joined with students of RMIT Vietnam in an integrated practice studio model using the Dien Ban Disability Day Centre as a ‘live project’. The studio worked with initial sketch designs from BURO and worked with the community and users to come up with a design solution. This was able to deliver real world teaching, research and community service outcomes for RMIT design and construction students and staff – and a tangible outcome for an external client. This collaboration between RMIT Melbourne and RIUV students provided a highly dynamic cultural learning experience for both groups.

Following the studio BURO Architecture + Interiors reviewed the design concept and prepared design development drawings which were given to the client for use in the tender process. At this stage the project is awaiting approval from the Dien Ban People’s Committee before finalising a contractor.

▼ anganwadi update

A personal response from Jillian Hopkins - AWF Volunteer

My name is Jillian, and I have just returned from India where I helped to design and oversee the construction of two AWF anganwadi preschools in the Motera and Gandivas slum areas of Ahmedabad. In Australia I am an architect. While volunteering in Ahmedabad, I discovered that I am also an artist, teacher, puppet maker, rag picker, mural painter, chai wallah, hokey-pokey master, dishwasher, bricklayer, rotli-maker, spend thrift and Gandhian. In volunteering no skill is wasted.

I had imagined that I would be serving the slum community in India, but soon discovered that service is always reciprocal. As I gave of my time, my training, my art, the communities offered me refreshment, friendly greetings, dinner invitations, hard labour, curiosity, kindness and gifts. So many businesses generously discounted their wares for our school and daily our nearest neighbours would jostle each other bringing us simultaneous pots of sugary chai. Anganwadi children would gleefully greet me ‘Nam-AAA-ste!!’ to brighten my day while local kids helped us to paint, carry, tile, dig, draw, clean and celebrate.

We completed Bholu 9 during school holidays so many local kids relieved their boredom by helping us on site, and adults in the community soon followed. In the final frantic days of Bholu 9 construction, almost all our neighbours could be found wielding paint brushes, cleaning rags or mosaic tiles. One neighbour turned from chai wallah to artist, painting a delightful mother and child mural in our back garden. On the eve of the opening, Jesus and I set out to finish the chai cup sculpture, for which we had roamed the neighbourhood successfully soliciting one tin cup from each house. It was almost midnight when we began, but before we had even screwed the first cup there were helping hands abound to make light work.

Language, age and gender were rarely a barrier. At Bholu 9, our best translator was one gentle, careful labourer who spoke no English. At Bholu 8, the 70+ owner grandmother was our greatest help in digging the garden, and the assistant teacher dug in the tires for our playground with her bare hands while remaining spotless in her yellow sari.

Limited funds and our environmental ethics were a great creative challenge, well suited to India, where recycling is both a necessity and profession, We were often renegade rag pickers. Our search for materials led us to strange car yards in search of tires for our super-cheap playground and to far flung corners of the filthy Sunday market to uncover decorative gates and Mondrian-style windows. A field of industrial waste and the cutting room floor of a local stonemason produced enough off cuts to make a luxurious mosaic stone floor. Scrap metal became an ornate and beautiful fence. All our bricks are made from fly-ash, a coal bi-product, and the corrugated roofing is pressed juice boxes. In Bholu 9, even rainwater is recycled.

At our partner organisation in Ahmedabad, Manav Sadhna, so many friends and colleagues have been my voice, calmly translating my thoughts and questions for labourers and pedal rickshaw drivers into Gujarati. Manav Sadhna operate a huge range of services, including a community centre, blind school, orphanage, street school programs and a women’s craft collective. The angawadi program is their biggest component, bringing education, nutrition and employment to thousands of women and children in Ahmedabad. It is wonderful to know that this dedicated organisation will bring life to our building now that it is finished.

I had hoped that my volunteer work could inspire or help others, but I had never expected that the work and the people would so inspire me. I have worked for government, in private offices, at university and as a consultant for a wide range of projects for all manner of salaries. I have never been more rewarded, more creative or more renumerated than when I worked here in Ahmedabad for free. We all say “There are things more valuable than money”. What a delight, to live it!

◄ anganwadi fundraiser

On 25th April, AWF volunteers, friends and family came together for a night of Anganwadi celebration and fundraising. St Andrews Uniting Church in Gardiner was tranformed for the night with colourful saris, batik table cloths and persian rugs put out for the stage. The venue was generously supplied free of charge for the event and was the perfect space for a delightful evening of delicious food, music and laughs. To our delight a total of $3100 was raised and will go towards building an Anganwadi in the coming season.

Indonesian musicians Ben and Raja, on guitar and vocals, kicked off the night with some old classics, while tasty rose water and chai concoctions by Sharnee were passed around. The event organisers and AWF volunteers Lily Lim and Jesse Newstadt gave a presentation about their experience of living and volunteering in India on the www.anganwadiproject.com and the wonderful work of project partner Manav Sadhna.

The presentation was followed by a feast of southeast Asian dishes made by Philip Lim and an amazing tabla and sitar performance by Melbourne musicians Raag Thaal.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed in making the night a great success.

If you would like to make a donation to the Anganwadi Project please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

▼ indlovu update

The Indlovu Project is the design of a community building in Monwabisi Park Khayelitsha, Cape Province, South Africa.

The Project was established in 2005 and is supported by the The Shaster Foundation for Community Development. Entirely community driven to satisfy community needs, it forms the heart of the Monwabisi Park informal settlement. Before being destroyed by a fire in November 2008, the Indlovu Centre included a Montessori pre-primary school, a medical clinic, a youth centre, a guest house, a community learning centre, a laundry, a soup kitchen and a vegetable growing initiative.

AWF was introduced to this project by the Planet Wheeler Foundation in January 2009, and two AWF volunteers, Lani Fender and Svi Belling traveled to Cape Town to consult with the community on site. As a result AWF provided pro-bono services for the redesign of the Community Centre.

At this stage the construction is almost complete and some of the services are already being offered. The building is made from sandbags and eco-beams - materials that are fire-proof, waterproof and even bullet proof. The facilities that will be provided by the Community Centre are as follows:

Medical Clinic:

Thanks to a generous donation from the Rotary Foundation that will fully equip and stock the clinic with medicines. In 2008 more than 150 people per day were helped at the clinic. With an HIV/AIDS infection rate of 45% in Khayelitsha this is a critical community service facility.

Youth Centre:

There are no recreational facilities in Monwabisi Park - so the youth centre fulfills an important function in helping to keep young people off the streets. There will be a pool table, music centre and places for homework to be done. A separate learning centre with computers and a library are planned as well as an educator to assist grades 11 and 12 in preparation for matriculation. Activities such as dancing, gymnastics, artwork, drama, singing etc will take place in the hall.

Community Hall:

This was built in response to community requests for a safe meeting space. Everyone is welcome to use this amenity, from church services to general meetings, showing movies and performances to being a restaurant where visitors can experience traditional food and culture.

Skills Training Centre:

Creating employment is one of the top priorities. In this facility people will be able to learn income-earning skills. It will also serve as a centre for adult education.