Last weekend we took a four-day field trip to the Cape Coast area to continue our research into Global Mamas’ production processes, and start investigating local building materials. We had a busy itinerary, and after arriving at the beautiful Stumble Inn we got stuck straight in with a trip to a kindergarten school in Ayensu built by Arup Engineers as part of their international development programme, in partnership with the Sabre Trust. The school is made up of three separate classroom buildings, each housing a different year group, situated around a central open-air structure which is used as an outdoor teaching area. Bamboo, a locally available and sustainable material, is used as cladding, and for the structure and roof of the outdoor classroom. We also learnt about how the earth bricks were made, which are used to construct the walls. Paddy, one of the teachers even showed us inside and explained the educational programme that has been developed and implemented by Sabre to improve on the current standard of kindergarten education in Ghana. It was an inspiring project and useful for us to see how local building materials have been incorporated into the design.
We continued on to a bamboo processing centre, where Sabre have been experimenting with ways to treat the bamboo so that it doesn’t get eaten by parasites. Here fresh bamboo is stripped to remove the outer layer, and then submerged in the treatment bath – a combination of borax and boric acid – and left for a few days, before being dried. The treated bamboo can then be used for building and is much longer lasting than untreated bamboo.
Emily
We continued on to a bamboo processing centre, where Sabre have been experimenting with ways to treat the bamboo so that it doesn’t get eaten by parasites. Here fresh bamboo is stripped to remove the outer layer, and then submerged in the treatment bath – a combination of borax and boric acid – and left for a few days, before being dried. The treated bamboo can then be used for building and is much longer lasting than untreated bamboo.
Emily
