February 2008
8build Sponsor A4A in the Construction of a Bridge in Thailand
This year we have made a donation to Architects 4 Aid to support a bridge building project in Thailand, with the charity Whispering Seed. The bridge originally connected the village of Wikhadi to farmland, where people received education, assistance and training, as well as enabling supplies to be delivered to the farmland. This project aims to resurrect the 80m bridge which was washed away by the floods in 2005 through building a bamboo superstructure.
A4A is a non-profit charitable organisation providing support for refugee children, displaced people and other ethnic minorities groups living in the border region of Burmese, including those that have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Their aim is to share new models for sustainable living and learning whilst supporting the traditional wisdom and local knowledge.
Often the charities A4A partner with, such as The Whispering Seed, are unfamiliar with how to build and do not know where to begin. A4A connect them to skills, expertise, supplement and coordinate local solution providers. Rather than provide cash, they provide the expertise to maximise the benefit of charitable funds for organisations who need best value and best information when deploying every penny of funding.
Bamboo is an incredible resource, proving to be a sustainable environmentally friendly material which is exceptionally durable. The bridge must be able to withstand a seasonal river level change of 2+ meters; be safe for children to use and be able to carry a motorbike or sidecar. The bridge is to be built in two stages. The first stage is the timber substructure and the second is the bamboo superstructure . The substructure consists of 8 self supporting timber frames that range from 3 to 7m above the low season water level. The superstructure is a bamboo grider that spans the 8m is 1900mm wide and 21000m high. This will be roofed with banana leaf to protect the bamboo.