Prototype

This prototype isn't really one. It is not a model fit for mass production, it will not be duplicated as it is, but will be submitted to change and evolution. Besides, It has already been changed several times before and during the workshops In order to use new available technical possibilities or to face the problems as they occurred. It is not a fixed shape, dead already. The constructed object is not the achievement of the project. It actually matters very little. Therefore It Is not a proto-type, but a concentration of technical potentials and thinking on everyday life spaces. What matters the most is what has been transmitted during the school workshop, the way students made this experience theirs and the way it will spread.

The elaboration of that community facilities (community room + market), has not been neglected at all, on the contrary. In fact, by setting aside any form of research through experimentation, we would have fallen into one of the main traps related to so-called “development” projects. Special attention was brought to the adaptation of the construction to the local socio-economical, cultural and climatic context, as well as to the earthquake-resistant and anti-cyclonic constraints required by the region. The entire mission was guided from Bali, where some of the research on the constructive potential of bamboo was carried out, and where, in the region of Singaraja, samples of envelope elements were made out of plaited bamboo fibres.

The building was constructed 12 km away from the centre of Dili, the capital city of East Timor, in Tibar, within the National Centre for Employment and Professional Training (NCEPT), a partner of the project. The school workshop provided a training to young Timorese, already experienced (former NCEPT students) or not.