Ethiopia Project

The city of Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, is experiencing rapid growth as people move from the countryside to the city. The Community Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a school to serve new residents living on the perimeter of this fast-growing city. Architects Without Borders – Oregon has supported this work with campus planning and building design assistance since 2014, working in collaboration with an Engineers Without Borders group in Portland, Maine. The first of five planned classroom buildings was completed in the summer of 2018, with four classrooms that now serve over 100 students. AWB-OR has produced drawings for the construction of a composting latrine building to serve the school and is currently updating the classroom building documents to incorporate lessons learned during construction of the first building.

For more information on the project, please visit: www.communityproject.org

buildOn Nepal

Architects Without Borders – Oregon is helping to design sustainable schools in rural Nepal through a partnership with buildOn, a non-profit dedicated to bringing education to children in the poorest and most remote communities in the world. AWB-Oregon has worked with buildOn in the past to redesign a prototype school for Haiti, making the new school more structurally sound, better suited to the climate, and a better learning environment for the students. The success of this past project has led to the current work in Nepal. BuildOn has already constructed 101 schools in Nepal and is working with AWB-Oregon to make the next 100 schools even better. AWB-Oregon’s Nepal design consists of three classrooms, consistent with buildOn's program requirements, and will be constructed of reinforced concrete, masonry, steel joist and uPVC roofing. The new schools in Nepal will begin construction in early 2014.

buildOn Haiti Prototype School

For rural locations in Haiti, AWB-Oregon designed a prototype elementary school consisting of three classrooms intended to accommodate as many as 50 children per room. Nonprofit buildOn has completed a dozen schools using this new design which emphasizes structural integrity, natural light, and natural ventilation. AWB continues to assist buildOn in Haiti by devising seismic upgrades for schools built before buildOn began using the new AWB design.