|
|
|
|
|
|
Since 2000, the team made up of Sandra Bestratén, Emili Hormías (interns and coordinators of cooperation projects) and Raimon Torres (professor titular) has been running the free-choice subject Housing and Cooperation-UNESCO Chair at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB-UPC). Alongside the subject they organise Experimental Workshops at the university, applying low-cost technologies.
The CCD (Development Cooperation Centre, Polytechnic University of Catalonia-UPC) is responsible for carrying out the ‘Education for Development’ cooperation programme with Bolivia. The cooperation projects are designed from an integrated viewpoint, with the priority aim of strengthening traditional trades and introducing technological improvements in the production of construction materials and systems. These projects are materialised thanks to the voluntary work of the local population and the active participation of UPC students who have the opportunity of applying the knowledge they acquire at the university.
To date, in the last three years, 14 students have worked during their two-month summer vacation on constructing 2,000 m2, divided up into five schools in the Bolivian region of Chiquitania. They have built study workshops, a crèche, a library and a school for the handicapped. This involved working with the brick and tile production sector to create a cooperative, with the technical backing of a volunteer from Business Management studies at the UPF. A kiln has been built for the manufacture of enamel mosaic tiles, making small local producers competitive in comparison with imported products.
One of the basic aims of the projects completed is to promote self-organisation in communal work. To date, over 2,000 persons have worked voluntarily in rotation on the construction of their schools. One day’s voluntary work per family has been offered, representing five parents taking part every day over two months, some 500 people being involved in the construction of each school. In this way, the project becomes a learning process in organisation, on the basis of which these individuals subsequently built a basketball pitch and painted the whole school on the basis of communal work.
The value of the project lies not only in the material results obtained and the optimisation of resources; there is also the intangible value of the commitment to the project of the whole village, which guarantees the future of this community and continuity in the form of new projects. |
|
