Tribe LAB

We are a non-profit design organisation on a mission to preserve vernacular ways of building and tackle problems facing indigenous communities around the world, by focusing on socially, environmentally and economically conscious inclusive architectural design.

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Opposition in Community Participation.

Even though, there are many obstacles involving community participation, both within the  community itself and the outside party providing most of the resources and education needed for the projects; the value of community participation cannot be overseen. Community participation when carried out it an efficient way where there is a two-way flow of communication between community members and  the authorities will always produce better results in projects; especially in low-income housing projects where it is so important to take  the community members into consideration.

Opposition in Community Participation: Such as mentioned yesterday, many participants in a project oppose community participation for their own reasons.

Most authorities are reluctant to give power to people, as they fear that the people may become too demanding. They see community organisation and participation as a Pandora's box. The authorities will try to restrict community participation to simple decisions such as the location of a bus stop or a street light and the opening hours of the clinic (Paul, op. cit, p. 25).

Politicians believe that they should represent communities as they have been elected by popular vote and that there is no need for a community organisation and leadership outside parliament or the municipal council. Politicians may also fear that grassroots leaders become their rivals in the next local or national elections. It is important not to antagonise politicians and to respect their position as overall political decision-­makers. However, they have to be made aware that planning and decision­making in the context of a housing project require the direct involvement of the community (Boaden, 1980, pp. 39­41).

Technocrats believe that only they can take decisions on technical issues, as it requires many years of study to be able to prepare plans for infrastructure, housing etc. They consider it almost a personal insult to go to an illiterate, ignorant community and ask for its opinion and advice.

Those responsible for project finances fear that community participation will cost time and, therefore, money. Because one is dealing with people, a time schedule for community participation is difficult to establish beforehand and the outcome may eventually not be too different from what could have been expected. 

Sadly, in the case of working with indigenous communities there also exist other problems as racism and oppression. Because, as it is in every country with an indigenous population, indigenous people are the minority it is not rare to see cases of neglect, and disapproval not only from the government, but also from private parties. How much scope for participation should be given? This can certainly be tricky to handle for many project leaders. Obviously there is many ways in which the community can contribute in decision-making. However, before the project is presented to the community it has to be approved and funds have to be raised. Unfortunately, for the community, when the project is approved many irreversible decisions have to be taken in order for the project to take place. The problem here lies when the community fails to see the priorities that the town as a whole need and focus only on their community priorities and needs. 

From Tribe LAB’s approach and point of view, it is important to work with what the indigenous community already has as best as possible, providing better resources and enhancing their way of living without changing the way that they are accustomed to work and live. A very common case of misunderstanding can occur when an indigenous resident will only be interested in those plans which directly affect his house, his neighbourhood and the infrastructure and services he is using. However, before detailed plans can be prepared, major decisions on general principles have to be taken. Many residents often discover that the general decisions which did not interest them have limited the choices which they can make in detailed planning. This can be disappointing from the point of view of the community organiser who has to fight an uphill battle. However, it is important to emphasise that giving the community a say in decisions implies that the community can also decline the responsibility to decide, because it feels that it is not in its interest to participate or perhaps because it does not feel competent to take a decision about a particular issue.

By Pamela Molina

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The Importance of Information and Communication when dealing with community.

Do the community opinions and decisions reach the authorities and does this usually happen in the correct form? In our past as well as recent engagement with communities we have faced many obstacles when dealing with authorities in charge. 

The opinions, needs and obstacles facing community can be one in comparison with the interest of the authoritative bodies in charge of the community. 

When we talk about communication in relation to the community, it also means that there has to be an interactive process between community members and the authorities in which information, knowledge and, skills relevant for development are exchanged either personally or through media such as radio, print, telephone, and cybernetics. The aim of effective communication is to put the members of the community with the necessary information for decision-making, and bring awareness to improve their livelihood.

The Importance of Information and Communication: Communication is a key component in the effectiveness of any community based project. Mobilising community members, and decision-making is of course very important; but the project can only be carried out with success when there is effective communication within the people and the authorities. The contents and the form ­of communication have to be adjusted to the conditions of every population; and when it comes to working with indigenous communities one has to be very careful. Indigenous people are deeply rooted to their culture; misunderstandings and mistakes can easily happen. When working on communication in a low-income housing projects it is important to ask the following questions:    ­- Does the information reach the entire community and in the correct form?

­    - Does the community understand the information?

­    - Can the community take a decision on the basis of this information?

­    - Does the decision reflect the opinion of at least the majority of the population?

Oftentimes decision of the community are manipulated by leaders or organisations in charge. 

We realised that it is beneficial to involve all interested bodies in discussion and openly touch on each problem or obstacle which the community is or may be facing during the implementation of the project.

Most popular issues when dealing with disaster relief or public projects are matters related to the terrain. When communities are in need and vulnerable often happens that leaders or politically oriented community based bodies will take an opportunity to place some promises with intentions of self gratification.

Such solutions are almost never serving the mostly interested party in a sustainable way.

Acting as negotiators, a non governmental organisation such as Tribe LAB needs to create a situation where the interest of the community gets protected agains any further, often even more consequent obstacles emerge.

This is where for us, being truthful to our mission becomes a game changer.

Hosting open discussions, where promises and opportunities can equalise when facing functionality and best interest of the ones in need.

Tribe LAB does not position itself neither in political, religious or other single party interests. We do however work in contexts very strongly embraced in political and religious grounds. What is our approach?

Creating a space for open debate, where each party can bring their opinions, feelings and suggestions. From there we negotiate and explore each and every opportunity for developing sustainable solutions for the vulnerable minority.

What next? It is important to follow each meeting scripting minutes and stating clear terms of conditions of further engagement, truthful to the organisations mission. As long s the final decisions serve the group in focus, flexibility in advised.

Tomorrow we will share with you our perspective on contribution and participation of funding bodies and opposition in community participation.

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Community Participation in Low-Income Housing Projects: The Problems and Prospects

Community participation is also a means to educate citizens and increase their competence, therefore facilitating a project’s execution. 

Tribe LAB strongly believes in the exchange of knowledge between the indigenous community and our project leaders and volunteers. Community participation allows both the community members and the project leaders to learn from each other.

For the past eight months Tribe LAB has been involved in a low income housing project at the community of San Pablo La Laguna, Sololá. Recently we also started working on temporary disaster relief housing project with the community of La Barrona, located at the coast of Guatemala. With both projects we have faced series of obstacles which we surely learned a lot from. As consequence we deiced to share with you series of blog entries introducing some of the emerging problems and opportunities we have perceived for our future engagement.

Oftentimes whenever a low-income housing project fails to produce the desired result, the failure is attributed to a lack of community participation. It is expected that when governments do not have the funds to launch a low-income project, community participation will compensate for this lack of resources. As a non profit aiming to bridge the differences between our world and the indigenous communities, we highly value the indigenous participation and exchange of knowledge that can take place within each project. What is Community Participation? First, we will start by defining “community”. Community is defined as a group of people with face-to-face contact where there is a sense of belonging and a share of common interests and values. If we’re talking about urban low-income housing, the people who are living in a certain delimited area, and identify with that area as well as share an interest in the development of that area, form a community.

Participation assumes an activity in which the community takes part and the involvement of at least one other party, usually a government agency or a non­ governmental organisation (NGO). Community participation refers to involvement by communities as a whole as well as by its individual members who want to voice their opinions and concerns about decisions that affect them, taking responsibility for changes to their community.

The need for Community Participation: The importance and need for community participation cannot be accentuated enough, especially when it comes to low-income housing projects in indigenous communities. Indigenous people are characterised for having a high value of their culture and customs, providing a rich source of knowledge for our project leaders, and therefore making the organising process a lot easier. Lands, territories and resources are of spiritual, social, cultural, economic and political significance to indigenous peoples and are inextricably linked to their identity and continued survival; and they have a right to a say when non profits like Tribe LAB approach them with projects to enhance their community and living conditions. In many developing countries, like Guatemala, dominant paradigms view the modes of production of indigenous peoples as backward and not in line with the state development goals. For Tribe LAB is very important that the indigenous people know that we see them as equal, and that we need their knowledge and support as a community in order to carry out efficient projects.

In series of blog entries, introduced by Pamela Molina we share our experience and observations regarding the community participation, its obstacles as well as importance of communication.

Check back with us tomorrow to read more on this subject.

By Pamela Molina

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Fourth day of up-cycling workshops with the children of Sanjuanerita.

by Andrea Reyes Flores

This morning the children, aged 11 to 13 years old were full of extra energy so we tried tiring them out before getting down to today’s business by playing a few different games and singing songs. 

After explaining a little more about the growing and watering process we set about putting holes in the underside of the bottles for drainage. With enthusiastic help from some of the teachers, who used candles to heat up screws that were then used to make small holes meant to allow water to slowly drain from the bottle. This water will then fall and water the bottle underneath it and so on. At the moment it is difficult to imagine Guatemala without rain due to the torrential rain most afternoons but during the dry season it can go months without rain so water saving techniques like this are integral to ensure the success of our little garden during the dry months!

The workshops are proving to be very popular and educational but what would be really great is if the children can actually see the fruits of their work, literally, over the coming months. The children were all taking photos of their friends while they were working on the bottles, and probably just one or two selfies too, the focus of the paparazzi soon turned to Miguel who was completely sold on the idea of putting holes in bottles and went through 15 bottles in under half an hour! He was an inspiration to us all on the bottle-puncturing front and a sign of just how well the workshops are going.

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Up-cycling bottle workshop series with the children of Sanjuanerita.

By Andrea Reyes Flores

Lake Atitlan is a stunningly gorgeous volcano lake, edged by lots of small little villages that have become popular backpacker destinations due to a blend of natural beauty, easy access and the very visible Mayan culture with the majority of women wearing the beautifully coloured ‘trajes’ and carrying everything on their heads with grace and apparent ease. I love the lake and have visited many times over the past few years, one thing that has struck me over this time is the increased levels of litter and pollution in and around the lake and then I found out why “Every year one million cubic meters of untreated raw sewage enters the lake; 109,500 metric tons of litter – 3 pounds of solid waste per person, per day”.

So obviously something needed to be done and I opted to go down the line of litter education and upcycling instead of dealing with raw sewage and agro-chemicals as I have more experience in this field and it smells better, but not by much. Tribe LAB, who are working with the community to build a new school for the children of San Juanerita, gave me the opportunity to go into the current school and run workshops with different age groups.

The first day we went to the school with the Tribe LAB team and had a talk with the teachers of San Juanerita school about a new project using recycled materials. We decided to create a small garden for the children to be able to grow their own fruits and vegetable and that the potting materials should be made from re-used and upcycled trash bottles. So the first, big, messy step we took was jumping into a big pile of trash to look for the right sized bottles that we could use with the children. We also found some materials we could use to decorate the place we were going to be working, just because it’s trash it doesn’t have to be ugly! The bottles were washed, cleaned and ready to be cut up by the children over the next couple of days.

The following day we introduced the students, aged 9 to 11 years old, to the processes that we were going to be working with and why, we spoke about the importance of recycling generally and more specifically around the lake. There is a real culture of just throwing your trash when you’ve finished with it, squeezing it out the window of the bus or tossing it out of the boat into the lake so for a lot of these children this was the first time they were hearing reasons why they should maybe not do it and then being told of other cool things you can do with trash instead of seeing who can throw it the furthest. The students were fully sold on the idea and very enthusiastic to get started but first we had a little school trip planned! I’m no expert but judging from just how over excited all the students were, they don’t go on many school trips. We went to see a little farm near the school to understand how the local people from the village work with organic earth. They work with different composting methods and even have a worm house full of good earth that the happy worms get to wriggle through and consume, by doing so they refine the earth even more, making very fine soil for seedlings and other uses. We hope to use this organic earth for a our little farm.

Bottle cutting day involved 30 very excited children, lots of pairs of scissors and very large pile of bottles. After a quick demonstration, the entire 90 seconds that the children could focus for, chaos began as groups of children set about deciding on the shapes they wanted to make and cutting their bottles. After a whirlwind half an hour of scissors and giggling all the bottles were chopped up and ready to go so we sat down and discusses what they would like to grow. Guatemala has a near perfect climate to grow almost anything, with glorious sunshine, perfect temperatures and lot of rain during its aptly named ’rainy season’. This discussion got the children really worked up with favourite fruits competing against each other for being the best fruit in the world ever and some vegetables desperately trying not to be label ‘the worst’.

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Volunteer experience from a week of eco-toilet building workshops.

By Chris Mastricci

During my time in Central America I have seen a real variety of earth architecture from pristine superadobe earth domes to some really basic mud huts and after some research I found out why, traditional building methods such as Bajareque have been used for the last 700 years and it is only relatively recently that this has been replaced largely by cement construction. With a view to eventually building my own house I set about finding ways to learn some of these old techniques and eventually was pointed in the direction of Tribe LAB and more specifically the earth architecture workshops.

Tribe LAB are in the process of designing a school out of local, planet-friendly resources using traditional, people-friendly building techniques and the workshops were a showcase of the different skills and materials that would be used for the project. However due to their long term close work with families and the community instead of building solely for demonstration purposes Tribe LAB chose to build an eco toilet for a family whose current toilet situation rivals that of a festival on Sunday afternoon. The workshops were to run in the mornings over the space of a week and covered everything from cutting the first piece of wood to its christening.

Day one was an introduction to the organisation, the school, the family and the toilet design. From the moment we arrived at the school it was clear that the team had a great working relationship with the current school and community, they’ve been working for a number of months to design the new school so that it meets, and hopefully exceeds, the needs of these super cute, under fed children. Why do they need a new school? Well the primary school was destroyed by a landslide and since then they have been sharing the space with the middle school whose students now only have access to their own school after 12.30 pm each day. In the current situation different ages are sharing classrooms, a lot of children aren’t getting enough to eat, and the concrete playground has as much shade as a desert island. The new school has been designed to make the best possible use of the space available, incorporating a garden into the design as well as running nutrition programs for children that need help. unfortunately there are quite a number of them. The majority of families support themselves by farming coffee, corn, beans, fruits and vegetables, the average farmer earns 480Q (63$US / £40) per month.

We saw a few of the classrooms and the resources they were working with or, more accurately, working without and the Prepa kids (preschool/kindergarten age) hit us with the cutest, giggliest renditions of their favourite tunes, complete with moves, that were all met with great applause. After the mini tour of the school we carried all the materials down to the house where the eco toilet was to be built. We took the pile of materials from outside the school and zig-zagged between the houses which is a fun task with a massive piece of bamboo, like a curious mix of jousting and Pac Man. We did make it to the the house, or now build site and

We were introduced to the family, the mother Anna, Spanish is her second language, after Tzutujil, wears beautiful, traditional clothes called ‘trajes’, makes amazing handwoven material to sell and smiles a lot, a habit she has passed onto each of her eight children. The younger children initially showed caution but to be fair to them we were 25 random new people, carrying large pieces of bamboo, power tools and pickaxes, we were clearly up to something! The father was only met in passing as he was working but seemed a friendly guy when he was around.

The eco toilet was explained and the design shown around so that we all had a picture in our head of what we were all aiming for! We saw where the eco toilet was to go and broke into two groups, one to cut the bamboo to the correct lengths and create the ‘fish mouth’ joints that are necessary in bamboo construction and another group to dig the all important hole. The sun cranked up the heat as we took turns to dig and learn about the process of bamboo construction and before we knew it the hole was big enough to fit a laughing group of children and the bamboo had been finely prepared ready for the next day’s activities. We packed away our gear and and left ready to get stuck in again tomorrow.

Less people came for day two, possibly due the heat, travel plans or maybe they hated the children, my guess goes with the heat or people continuing on with their adventures. Day two was set to be a more hands on day and after a brief recap of the previous days activities we set to work building the bamboo structure for the eco toilet. The earth from yesterday’s impressive hole digging was to be used for the bajareque walls tomorrow. Bajareque is similar to the european system of wattle and daub, you make the wall frame out of small strips of wood and then fill it with premixed wet, sticky earth. This needs to be prepared the day before use so while a crew got to work on getting the frame of the structure up another crew sorted through the available earth for the decent quality clay soil needed for the walls and then it was shoes off to get stuck in with mixing it all. Tired, sunkissed and quite muddy some people headed off to the comedor to get some much needed tortillas while other went to jump into beautiful Lake Atitlan.

The third and fourth workshops were what I personally had been excited for, making the Bajareque walls. After seeing the different earth construction styles being used in Guatemala it was amazing watching walls come up out of the earth we had previously been standing on. We took the prepared earth and made it into compact balls for the wall makers to then fit in between the wooden lattice and compress down. It is a very fun process that got everyone involved and soon we had ball of mud flying around between people not because we were being in any way childish ,of course, it was just the most convenient way of passing big lumps of mud.  Parts of the roof were also added which made it definitely look more like a proper structure and gave us a clue as to what the final completed thing will look like. One thing that has struck me about all the different natural building styles I have seen put into practice is their simplicity. Natural building techniques like this have been used for thousands of years and are not complicated, this really appeals to me and the day flew by in a storm of mud, laughs and sunshine.

Saturday morning was quiet due, possibly, to San Pedro’s very active nightlife over the weekends and down to the fact that the Tribe LAB crew had headed down to La Barona to speak to the community and evaluate what kind of help they can provide. La Barona is a small Guatemalan village near the El Salvador border and was hit by a series of crazy high waves from the Pacific Ocean nearly three weeks ago. A number of families lost their homes completely while many others are still as yet not able to return.

We got to work on the walls structure. Small pieces of cane tied to the main bamboo structure to provide privacy and and extra support to the back wall. We measured and cut the corn canes we were using, and then set about tying it with a secure but tricky series of little loops. The children, aged from two upwards, helped us and were hilarious and the fiddly loops soon made more sense and about the time they did we finished the back wall and it was time for lunch!

After a couple of days rest and some dedicated chill time down by the lake we regrouped on Tuesday to finish this lovely family’s eco toilet. We had the materials and extra hands, happy to help, the bamboosito walls were finished by a team of budding cord-loopers while limestone was prepared to finish the outside walls nicely, limestone and water mixed into a plaster and once it was finished I must say it did look mighty tidy. Then we all got involved in the making of a very curious mix consisting of clay earth, horse manure, fermented prickly pear cactus or Nixteng and water. The curious part was the prickly pear cactus that had been fermenting secretly behind the scenes, the other ingredients were obvious about what they were, it had the texture of glue and was a similar looking to the ooze from Ninja Turtles or Flubber which made me chuckle, just imagine the possibilities. The ooze in the case will not turn the toilet into a ninja but is actually an old traditional way to waterproof and protect the inside walls to avoid dust coming from the walls, a common thing in earth structures and so the earth plaster was ready to be applied.

All was heading for completion, roof on, walls getting their final coat of plaster when a storm rolled over a looked set to get us very wet. We’ve moved into rainy season here and when it rains it doesn’t drip, drizzle or spit, it really rains in quantity, so we tidied up the materials and agreed that a few of us will come back tomorrow to add the finishing touches to the toilet, like an actual toilet. At the moment they have a really fancy shed with a large hole in the floor but this is Guatemala and if anything was ever finished on time it would be an enormous shock. Hasta mañana!

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Olympic week in Sanjuanerita.

A way to unite in sports and competition. 

The week of April 20-24 all of the schools in San Juan took a break from classes to hold a week of sports activities throughout the town.  The events include everything from football, basketball to relay races.  The goal of this week is to bring the community together and promote exercise through athletics.  In San Juan La Laguna there can never be too many reasons for everyone to get together.  The local soccer stadium and the town’s recreation areas have all been reserved for this community wide event.

Primary school students occupy the morning, while the afternoon is for the older kids, and in the night the teacher and parent play one another.  For this event the town created a track out of chalk on the main road.  The circular main street represents the four directions of the world.

The week is broken up into competitions between the classes in each school, and the teachers of each school playing one another in football and basketball.  Then at the end of the week each grade competes with students of the same grade from the other schools in the community.  

There always seems to be something interesting happening in San Juan, and that sense of togetherness is what draws so many people to this town.

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Why Guatemala?

Guatemala suffers from a level of inequality and widespread poverty that is extreme even within Latin America. According to the World Bank’s Guatemala Poverty Assessment, many developing countries are poor, multi-ethnic, and overwhelmingly rural. Yet Guatemala stands out for the magnitude of these characteristics.

More than half of Guatemala’s people live below the national poverty line, 15 percent in extreme poverty, and the country ranks 13th in the world for its level of income inequality, according to the GINI Index. Many families struggle to provide the basic needs for their families and cannot afford the expenses associated with school. Guatemala struggles with high illiteracy rates and low school attendance beyond the 6th grade. Access to quality health care and housing is also scarce. Preventable diseases often result in death, malnutrition is common among children, and infant mortality rates are high. Many homes are made of scavenged materials, with dirt floors, no toilets, and no drinkable water.

In addition to extreme poverty, Guatemala struggles with the after-effects of a 36-year civil war, ended in 1996, as well as persistent political corruption, unemployment, and alcoholism, all of which have had destructive effects on families and communities. Plus, the country’s diverse ethnic heritages—including 23 recognised indigenous languages—make broad-based solutions more difficult, instead requiring localised, culturally-sensitive solutions.

Sources and further reading

World Bank, Guatemala Poverty Assessment: Education and Poverty in Guatemala (2002)

World Bank, Guatemala Poverty Assessment: Good Performance at Low Levels (2009)

UNDP, Human Development Report (2011)

Population Reference Bureau, DataFinder: Guatemala

CIA, The World Factbook: Guatemala

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Today is Earth Day! It’s a day to focus on ways to preserve our environment. 

Inspired, we reached out to IMAP: a Permaculure Institute at the Lake Atitlán to ask for collaboration on our design projects! 

IMAP’s mission resonates with ours:

not-for-profit community organization focused on the development of self-sufficient communities through the responsible management of natural resources, using permaculture techniques and ancestral and traditional knowledge.

We think they could be potentially a great match for us!

How will you be celebrating? ‪#‎EarthDay‬ ‪#‎TribeLAB‬

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On using bamboo as alternative to steel. 

How Tribe LAB’s team of partners and builders worked on bamboo solutions for the past decade to propose a sustainable alternative to steel reinforced concrete. 

According to ArchDaily: Developing countries have the highest demand for steel-reinforced concrete.

In Guatemala the production of concrete is one of the most dominating manufacturing industries. However, the country suffers from a lack of means to produce enough steel to face the demands of the industry.

Rather than put themselves at the mercy of a global market dominated by developed countries, Tribe LAB’s builders, together with one of our construction partners and local architect- Charlie Rendall, have worked with an alternative to this manufacturing rarity: bamboo.

Abundant, sustainable, and extremely resilient, bamboo has potential in the future to become an ideal replacement in places where steel cannot easily be produced.

In trials of tensile strength, bamboo outperforms most other materials, reinforcement steel included.  It achieves this strength through its hollow, tubular structure, evolved over millennia to resist wind forces in its natural habitat.  This lightweight structure also makes it easy to harvest and transport.  Due to its incredibly rapid growth cycle and the variety of areas in which it is able to grow, bamboo is also extremely cheap.  Such rapid plant growth requires the grass to absorb large quantities of CO2, meaning that its cultivation as a building material would help reduce the rate of climate change. These factors alone are an incentive for investment in developing bamboo as reinforcement.

Despite these benefits, there are several limitations. Contraction and expansion is one such limitation, caused by both temperature changes and water absorption.  The grass is also susceptible to structural weakness caused by fungus and simple biodegradation.  Ironically, many of the countries that would benefit from bamboo reinforcement also lack the resources to develop it as a viable alternative to the steel on which they currently rely.

With past projects, Charlie Rendall has proven that we can overcome all the above-mentioned limitations of bamboo. Treated bamboo is no longer vulnerable to weather conditions or biodegradation.

Today, Tribe LAB looks into new ways of using bamboo in construction. Inspired by ancient Mayan techniques of handmade construction, we aspire to integrate this amazing material into our new school project in San Juan La Laguna.

Through conducting research to determine the full gamut of applications that bamboo has as a construction material, we seek new solutions to design light structures and spaces of the ‘in between’. The strength of the material allows us to play with its capacity to hold structures but also create ‘light architectures’ that can be used as an indoor, integrated playground.

Follow us on our creative journey of utilising nature for building!

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Take less than needed; Give more

Unknown

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Made from nature.

On indigenous weaving and the tradition encrypted in Mayan patterns.

Take a walk down the main street of San Juan La Laguna and you just may find your attention being diverted from the gorgeous scenery of Lake Atitlán to the scores of small shops displaying beautiful, handmade clothing – full of vibrant colours and unique patterns. San Juan La Laguna, a tiny village on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, is famous for its weaving cooperatives and use of natural dyes.  The growth of the local industry has done much to boost the town’s economy, and the livelihoods of those who weave this high quality traditional clothing into being.

What some travellers see as beautiful indigenous artefact to add to their wardrobe, is in fact, for the people of San Juan, an intrinsic expression of who they are and where they come from. And it is not only in San Juan that the traditional dress is so important. Every village around the lake has its own type of dress. With a little practice, it becomes easy  to identify indigenous groups belonging to different towns based on  what they are wearing. . The type of clothing worn indicates marital status, village rank, ethnic group, and even family belonging.Everything from the colour, design, and embroidery of a piece of clothing defines many things about the person wearing it.

It also has deep historical roots, since the clothing has always been used as a way of passing on traditions and beliefs when other outlets of cultural expression have been suppressed by outside forces. The traditional clothing follows very specific patterns and guidelines, depending on where the clothing is made. Though, within these guidelines the weaver only varies the amount of intricacy and creativity.  

The symbols, patterns, colours, and designs woven into the clothing allow the Tz’utujil of San Juan to connect with their past, strengthen their identity, retell stories and encrypt various believe patterns and meanings into the embroidery. Such artistic expression offers a piece of living history to the world at a time when all too many cultures seem to be losing their roots.

The new school in San Juanerita will be built around the indigenous identity of San Juan; from its construction to the education it will provide.   The intention is to  incorporate woven patterns into the new school design to help ensure indigenous knowledge and culture are not forgotten. We will partner with the indigenous weavers collaborative LEMA  to work on the design of the school, which will be organised by  mothers of the children who will attend the school.  We want the school  to capture the identity of the people of San Juan and to make the locals proud and inspired by showcasing their rich tradition.

Written by Programme Coordinator Mathew Bass.

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Being a teacher in San Juan.

Challenges of teaching in rural Guatemala.

Teaching in a rural indigenous public school in Guatemala is not easy. Salaries are subsidised by the government and often not paid at all. At most a teacher in a local school makes about 266 USD monthly. 

There is little to no educational and supplementary material to work with.  The teacher is expected to implement an entire curriculum in about four hours of actual course time per day, and is given no practical methods to reinforce the material. 

The majority of the public schools are in very bad condition. The basic programmes often lack sufficient funding to be implemented properly. Hunger and poverty are often the number one enemies of a devoted teacher. Many children also come to school with empty stomachs and as a result cannot focus or participate accordingly in class. In more developed countries, teachers would be appalled by the stark reality of everyday school life in Guatemala. 

The teachers at the San Juanerita primary school are a dedicated group of educators who do their best to provide a quality education despite the challenging circumstances that face the school and the community.   Since the Tribe LAB team has started working with the school, we have come to know many of the teachers personally, and learn of their frustrations with the education system in Guatemala. 

They have also shared their ideas and solutions to the problems at hand.  The new education model that the school will incorporate has been developed completely from those ideas. 

The teachers also continue to find ways to educate their students in creative and heartening ways.  The fourth grade class has been taught about the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, while the children in the sixth grade class have spent time developing their own creation stories based on Christian and Mayan spirituality, as well as recreating visual histories of the Guatemalan civil war with artwork. 

The community and the primary school of San Juanerita already have the resolve, capacity, and organization to succeed on their terms.  They just need the resources to be given that chance. Currently the most pressing need is a new school building to allow for more creative and committed education programmes that focus on the challenges of malnutrition and obstacles to quality education.

Written by Programme Coordinator Mathew Bass.

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Clay modeling- a hand shaped spatial abstraction.

Forming solid shapes as part of concept development workshops for the new school in Sanjuanerita.

The last of the series of design development workshops with the children of San Juan La Laguna Tribe LAB brought in real clay!

Clay is a crucial ingredient in local earthen construction around Lake Atitlán. Our builders work with it on a daily basis, and are currently commissioned into a number of private natural building projects in various communities around the lake Atitlan. We love it for construction, but more importantly we see it as a great, easy and fun working tool for anyone who wants to try their hand at forming simple easy shapes.

It acts like play dough, only messier and more authentic!

The children in rural Guatemala know clay really well. The majority of them live in adobe houses, and some of them seem to know the basic principles of earthen construction quite well.

Since the progress of our workshops brought us into an understanding that most probably the best architectural solution for the new school building will be to combine two very different styles, namely of a some chunky and some light structures.

We decided to commit a day only to clay modelling. We expected the outcome of this workshop to bring us to into a better understanding of our solid formations.

Our expectations were exceeded.

The children loved this workshop the most. It was really hard to loose their attention. They kept experimenting with the material in various ways, often coming up with very intricate shapes. Some used more water for their modelling, some less, which eventually resulted in either more sandy or finer texture to models. As for the shapes, they varied from traditional square housing shapes, to mountain like formations. Some children started off by drawing a plan on a piece of a wooden board that we provided. It showed a great level of forward thinking and planning. One boy started off by forming singular bricks of clay and than used them to construct his tiny house. He spent the most time on his model and the result was really impressive in respect to the level of detail and the sophistication of the engineering. 

It intrigued us as to how a 10-ten year old could follow such appropriate indigenous technique of earthen construction. He told us that he learned by simply observing the elders build an adobe house next to his one.

Amongst the models were some square formations stuck on top of each other, in a pyramidal kind of way. A group of girls worked on a scale of the whole school terrain, modeling trees and various programmes in relation to each other.

The workshop was really inspirational and has helped us decide on the design theme we will apply with the new school building. Over the weekend, following the workshop we hosted a design brainstorming session with our partner Charlie Rendall from Return to the Forest.

Over the next couple of days we will work from the office developing the best possible design response to the concepts, which we gained from our participatory workshops with the children.

Tuesday afternoon we have a yet another community meeting involving the teachers, parents and some elders from Sanjuanerita interested in the development of the new school design.

Bear with us as we update you on our Guatemalan endeavours! Share our blog posts and Facebook page with your friends as following and exposure matter to us at present moment. If our work excites you, write to us, we would like to hear your feedback!

[tribelab]

A day of outings.

Mapping the terrain of the school and understanding real scale dimensions with the children of San Juan La Laguna.

Today, we had the sixth workshop from the series of design development for the new school in San Juan La Laguna. We worked with older children (5th graders). The purpose of today’s workshop was to visit the site of the new school and understand its real scale size and surroundings. We asked the children to show us some of the key facilities located around the new site.

We started by walking down through a little back alley.  We followed the terrain around discussing processes of site preparation for building. The children cleverly pointed out that the terrain would need to be cleaned from rubbish. They suggested that they would ask their parents to help and everyone together will be able to prepare the site for construction. They also said that all big rocks would have to be gathered to one side and coffee trees cut down. There are also several big avocado trees on the site, we all agreed that they would be a great source of vitamins to accompany school dinners. We jointly selected the trees we want to keep.

Then we walked to the front, where a big street connecting the site to the centre of the town is located. We brainstormed reasons why it would be important to us to locate the main school entrance facing this road.  

After that we measured the distance from the closest electric post to our terrain and chose an exact location for placing the new post, which will bring electricity to the building. Next we asked the children to show us the surroundings of the terrain.

They then took us to a rubbish disposal side, positioned about 50 m away from the school. It was really interesting for us to listen to their perception and relationships that some children have with this space. Firstly, they told us that there are children in town, living on the outskirts, who come to the disposal site in search for food. We asked if those children go to school but they explained that those families are too poor to afford schooling, instead from a young age the children work to help their parents pay for a living.  

As we were speaking about food, a boy approached me and asked whether the children will eat in the new school. After I shared the plans about a garden and nutrition programme that will feed the children and their family he started dancing around and singing, “We will eat at school, we will eat at school!” Some girls, who overheard this conversation ran to a young banana tree growing out of the rubbish on the site and started pulling it out of the ground, shouting: “Sara, Sara we can rescue this baby banana tree for our school garden. In a few years we can have sweet bananas for lunch!” They were saying, “Poor plants, we should water them!”

It was a really touching moment for me and my colleagues, since we all found ourselves in a situation of a real culture and reality clash. It was enriching to see how important it is for the children to make this school dream happen.  We really understood what a difference it would make to them and their families. It was a reassuring experience, that all the proposed programmes for the new school building will accommodate the most pressing needs of those little children.

Tomorrow, we will come back to the site with our builders and take down measurements and terrain levels for our design brainstorming session planned for Saturday. This weekend our design team will get together to analyse the outcomes of concept development workshops and decide on a design direction we can pursue.

Please share our posts with you friends, and follow our work on facebook, where we update you on a daily basis with outcomes of our endeavours in the field. Your support matters to our community and us!

[tribelab]

Focusing onstructural integrity.

Model making as concept development for the new school design in San Juan La Laguna.

 Today’s workshop was the fourth hosted in the series of concept development of a new school design for the town of San Juan La Laguna.

 The workshop focused on structural integrity and connections between using bamboo skewers. We wanted to allow the children to develop new approaches to the geometries, joints and aesthetics of the bamboo skewer modelling.

 Some of the ideas that emerged turned out to be really interesting.

The skewers, in real life can represent bamboo or wooden constructions. The models show three-dimensional relations between such lightweight materials and their possible connections.

Some of the models represented tipi like constructions, whilst others expanded into more creative shapes.

 We will use all these models during our design brainstorming session on Friday, when our team will get together with the community and local builders to choose more tangible directions to pursue with the final design of the school.

Tomorrow, we are planning to take the children on outings. We will visit the new school terrain, which at the present moment is being kept by the community as a possible construction site. We are planning to make some mappings of the surroundings, to help give us a better understanding of our locality. For security reasons, we will only work with fifth graders.

 Bear with us as we develop the design of the new school for the children of San Juan La Laguna. Your participation in sharing our blog posts and inviting more friends to our Facebook page will be a great support today, to help us reach more people and create a community of followers who care about our achievements.

[tribelab]

Turning little children into true Architects!

A day of model making as part of design concept development workshops with the children of Sanjuanerita.

Today we hosted the third of a series of design development workshops that we run with the children of ‘Sanjuanerita’ school in San Juan La Laguna.

The purpose of today’s workshop was to interpret last week’s drawings into three-dimensional forms. After last week’s kite making activity with children we realised their incredible talent for model making. We wanted to see what sort of shapes the children would come up with after allowing them to play with bamboo skewers and Styrofoam.

The results really inspired us!

During the course of our workshops we kept explaining to the children a simple process of design development. They now have a very thorough understanding of the role of an architect and first few steps of design development. Today’s workshop reinforced the importance of drawing, through model making.

We try to refer to any artistic expression and its forms as inspiration. They started using this word to describe shapes and geometric relationships on the 2D drawings they produced last week.

Today, the idea was to produce 3D shapes inspired by drawings. To our amazement, the children picked up the concept of this activity really quickly and started producing many really interesting shapes. The Styrofoam helped reinforce strong, bold architectural shapes, whilst the bamboo skewers helped mark lighter architectural details, from the drawings.

There are many great interpretations between the 35 plus models produced today. We will call our design team, teachers and some community members towards the end of this week to interpret the shapes produced by children and choose an architectural direct we can pursue with our final design.

Tomorrow, the workshop will focus mainly on bamboo modelling. Again, with the use of bamboo skewers we will work on relationships between geometries formed by linear elements. Since today’s workshop reinforced the idea of using a solid base as a first floor and a lighter bamboo structure for the second, we will divide the course of the two forthcoming workshops into working with solid shapes and bamboo formations.

Today, after the workshop we purchased a big bag of pure clay and we will start preparing for a clay workshop, which will allow our little designers to work with sculpting in solid shapes.

Bear with us this week, as things are getting really exciting here!

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