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    Building on a hill with trees behind

    Photo Credit: Vicenzo Floramo

    Gaw La Heh Primary School

    GyawGyaw is an NGO located at the Thai-Burma border that supports Karen education through architecture and participatory building processes. Gaw La Heh Primary School is one of 30 projects implemented by Gyaw Gyaw since 2009. At the start of the project the school had approximately 100 students representing six classes and kindergarten. In agreement with the headmaster and the village leader, six small classrooms were designed around a common square connected by a continuous roof shaped to guide the strong winds over and around the buildings. The project also contains two dormitories, toilets, baths, and a renovated kitchen, all built with the principles of sustainable and participatory architecture.

    Cause

    Je Po Kee village is a small remote village located in Karen State where the inhabitants live in and off the jungle. Due to civial war in Myanmar a large Karen population has been living across the Thai border in selforganized communities or refugee camps for decades. Because Gaw La Heh is a popular school in a well-run village it is attracting more people to move back to Karen State and is therefore growing.

    Given the remote nature of the community, access to materials from the outside is limited and can only be delivered by one of the few cars available at a time when the road is accessible. As a result, wood-working skills and material knowledge is well spread among the people and therefore GyawGyaw also works with materials and techniques that can be maintained by the villagers themselves.

    Method

    Being a local organization that works with and within the surrounding communities, GyawGyaw is in continuous dialogue with stakeholders from past, ongoing, and future projects. Stakeholder inputs and lessons learned provide fluid and sustained feedback that influences future design. Within the context of this conflict zone, this feedback mechanism is not in a formalized system but within daily collaboration and conversations. Initial formalized meetings address the needs of the users and set the framework for the design. As these projects are initiated and driven by the recipient communities, GyawGyaw strives to meet the stakeholder’s needs through collaboration and mutual respect: Host communities provide materials, local knowledge and labour while GyawGyaw leads the common design and provides building knowledge.

    Impact

    The most important way GyawGyaw ensures community and stakeholder accountability is by not initiating the project. The communities are aware of their own needs and they approach GyawGyaw with their project idea. GyawGyaw then collaborates with them to fulfill their project’s goal; thus, from the beginning, the project ownership is always held by the community. Additionally, community members contribute with labor and local knowledge, further increasing engagement and mutual trust for future collaboration.

    Client:

    Gaw La Heh Primary School, headmaster: Saw Moo K´Paw; Karen Education department Hpa-An district leader: Thara Lay Taw

    Project Team(s):

    Gyaw Gyaw

    Network:

    Curry Stone Foundation

    Exhibition Issue
    • Cultural Responsiveness
    Social Issues
    • Community Development (rural)
    • Cultural Responsiveness
    Economic Issues
    • Empowerment
    Environmental Issues
    • Climactic Responsiveness
    Project Location

    Kayin State, Myanmar (Burma).

    • Photo Credit: Vicenzo Floramo

    • Photo Credit: Vicenzo Floramo

    • Photo Credit: Line Ramstad

    Take Aways

    The largest impact of educational outcomes is the examples GyawGyaw makes by applying democratic principles and labour rights. This is further expanded through close and respectful collaborations with all local stakeholders. The importance of education and access to it is lifted with the buildings itselves and project implementations in the remote villages which also strengthen an educational network.

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    Design for the Common Good

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