Parabongo School,

Uganda

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Introduction
This is a report outlining our journey of designing a school for Parabongo
which exceeds all expectations. During the past 12 weeks our team of 8
pupils have invested a great amount of time designing a revolutionary
school which creates a safe, secure and inspiring sanctuary for its pupils.
We have been researching materials and construction methods with in
Parabongo to develop the ideal method of construction, we have worked
with multiple professionals from industry throughout the process to help
realize our vision, at times is has been a difficult journey which has thrown
up many challenges where we have has to work together as a team to find
solutions we are all happy with.

Mission Statement

We are NGD. We are a company that work collaboratively

through a range of disciplines to achieve sustainable, creative
and inclusive solutions. We pride ourselves of a strong team
ethos where every member is of equal importance. Our designs
are under pinned by extensive research to ensure we deliver
build environments that exceed all expectations pre, during and
post construction for all major stake holders.

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Contents

1.Brief
2.Team
3.Journey
4.Design
5.Sustainability and accessibility
6.Construction Estimates
7.Summary

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Brief
The children of Parabongo, like you, deserve the best start in life. Were asking
UK secondary schools, universities and industry to work together to design an
eco-school which will provide 1000 children, age 3-18, with a great place to
learn.
The new Vision Hope School should provide 1000 children aged 3-18 with a great
place to learn. It will teach lots of things numeracy, literacy, STEM, basic life
skills (e.g. washing your hands) and growing food. It will also reach out to the
wider adult community so they can benefit too.
Putting your team together
Each team should have up to 10 members, with each student taking on a
professional role or roles.
Each of the following disciplines needs to be represented:
Architect, Architectural Technologist, Structural Engineer, Civil Engineer, Building
Services Engineer, Facilities Manager, Interior Designer, Landscape Architect,
Project Manager & Quantity Surveyor.
A degree of guidance on these roles can be provided, especially from industry
supporters, but we do want students to think about the project team and learn
about these professions.
Sustainability & Accessibility
Students will need to demonstrate how, in each role and as a team; they have
focused on sustainability and accessibility in their design for Vision Hope School.
Uganda is not like the UK where we can source everything we need with a
telephone call or a Google search.
The building materials that we take for granted are scarce in Uganda. Villagers
make best use of the natural resources around them.
You may have ideas about which materials might be available, but some of them
cause concerns for the villagers. Many have a fear of fire, which may
immediately rule out some of your choices.

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Team
Tom Williams Project Manager
Hi my name is Tom Williams I am a year 11 student at St Ambrose Barlow
RC high school. For my options I have chosen Design engineer construct,
Geography and Product design. I chose these subjects because I find
them interesting and they are all to do with building and being
sustainable. In my spare time I like to hang around with friends and do
boxing and rugby.
When I am older I want to go into the building business and learn all the
trades. I want to learn a lot of the trades and then look into buying and
selling houses. I have always liked the idea of going into the building
trade because I like being constructive and making things.

Lauren Cunningham Architectural Technologist

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Alice Boldrini

My Name is Lauren Cunningham; I am 15years old, and currently attend

St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School in Manchester. I am currently
-studying:
Architect,
Civil
Engineer
Maths,
English,
Triple science, French, Design Engineer
Construct, Geography and RE. I opted for more academic subjects as I
Iusually
am Alice
Boldrini.
amI currently
student in high
school.and
I believe
prefer
themI as
am more a
systematically
inclined
a keenI am
confident,
hardworking
andan
ready
to takeas
onitany
challenges
in the future
learner; however
DEC was
exception,
includes
a lot of
coming
my way.
my GCSEs
I have
chosen
Spanish
and
imagination
and For
creativity
which
I usually
findGeography,
more difficult
but it is
my
DEC,
and
I
am
also
studying
maths,
English,
RE
and
triple
science.
I
have
favourite lesson! I plan to continue to study when I leave school- I would
been
part
piano lessons
since the
age Iof
seven
I am
still
like totaking
become
aninarchitect.
In addition
to this,
am
also and
a very
reliable
doing
it to this day.
I am as
a keen
learner
and
at the
moment
I am day-out
trying to
and responsible
person,
I have
looked
after
my horse
day-in,
teach
myself
Spanish
and
Italian
with
the
help
of
my
favourite
linguist
from being 9years old. I am also well behaved; I try my best in
Poseur.
I amand
alsoI interested
in animation
and have
made
quite
few but
everything,
am very punctual
for school.
I have
taken
parta in
have
notclubs
posted
them for
theas:
public
eye Hockey,
to see. When
several
at school
such
Netball,
STEM,I am
andolder
Peer I would
either
like toI am
be aalways
doctorwilling
or teach
English
different countries.
My need
mentoring;
to offer
anyinassistance
to those who
ultimate
goals
in
life
are
to
travel
the
world,
be
able
to
speak
many
help as well as loving sport and participating in groups because it is a
different
languages,
a difference
the worldI have
and to
live in three
great opportunity
to make
meet new
people. in
Moreover,
recently
become
different
centuries
(I've
already
lived
in
two,
just
one
more
to
go!)
Deputy Head Girl, an achievement I am exceptionally proud of, and my

Laura Janicka - Architect

My name is Laura and I am going to St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School.

I am student and I picked Design, Engineer and Construct as my option.
When I will be older I want to be an architect. Why? I like to design and
see that my creations become reality.
I speak 2 languages fluently; Polish being my mother tongue and English
being my second language.
My hobby is singing (I am quite good at it I hope) , reading fantasy books
and I like to play some video games like everyone. My favourite colours
are red, black, yellow and orange and my favourite animal is a wolf. I
listen to many music genres like rock, hard rock, acid jazz, classical, folk
and heavy metal. I also like to play around with a voice synthesizing
program called UTAU just as a small side hobby to relax.

Joseph Shearer Facilities Manager and Interior designer

My name is Joseph Shearer and I am undergoing the DEC (Design
Engineer & Construct) course at St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School. I am
also studying: Maths, IGCSE English, Triple science; consisting of
Chemistry, Biology and Physics.
When I leave school, if I get good grades I hope to use them and try and
get an apprenticeship in the engineering industry. I would like to work in
digital designing or digital engineering. I would like to work for
companies such as Laing O'Rourke and or any major car company. I enjoy
engineering as a subject and or a project because it allows me to use
creativity and use my imagination. I also am very good and calm when
problem solving, thisPage
would
Next Generation Designers
6 benefit me when I am in a working situation.

Kieran Smith Building Service Engineer

Hi my name is Kieran Smith and I am a student that goes to St Ambrose
Barlow.
For my options in Year 10 I chose to study Design, Engineer and
Construct. I also chose to study Creative I Media and History. I was born
February 16th 2000 and currently play football for Moorside Rangers
Football. I am planning to become a architect when I'm older. I also like to

Ethan Gallatley Bid Manager

Hello, I'm called Ethan Gallatley and I'm currently at pupil and St
Ambrose Barlow RC High School. The GCSE'S I attend are English, Maths,
Science, Geography, Art and Design, Engineer, Construct
My hobbies consist of skateboarding and hanging around with my
friends, I'm also primarily on my gaming PC playing games with my
friends on that and due to my obsession with computers is has allowed
me to gain a lot of knowledge in that certain area.
My aspiration in life is to become a qualified architect and then create my
own architecture firm which will hopefully become a multimillion pound

Ben Casey Structural Engineer

Hello my name is Ben I am 15 years old and I go to St Ambrose Barlow
High School. i am really into engineering and construction so I chose this
course. I am an avid gamer who plays video games as soon as I get
home and I like to create my own designs and use my imagination to
achieve creations.

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Journey
In week one, when we were first made aware of the exciting Parabongo
competition, sir put everyones name in a hat and split us into two teams,
adjusting a couple of people to ensure that both St Ambrose Barlow teams
were equal. We then created our company name NGD Next Generation
Designers, and then went on to brainstorm ideas we think should be
included into our mission statement, where Joe composed the final motto,
demonstrating how we will create a sustainable ethos that our company
will follow.
Week two is when were all designated a role which contributes to the ongoing task of completing our eco-class room. We understand each role is
vital, and that we all must work in harmony as a team, bring confident in
the our own role and ourselves. Therefore, we can all offer and deliver the
prospects the job roles include, ensuring that our eco-classroom is the
best it could possibly be.
Week three, we all began to get into role, where Lauren and Alice began to
design the Eco-class room using Revit. Ben and Ethan worked to design
the logo, demonstrating how we should feel like a community,
represented by the hands, and how we are a family working together. The
logo incorporated the company name and a building hat, so when
potential customers see the logo it is self-explanatory, explaining what the
company is. Kieran assisted Tom in the over view of the group offering
ideas to the logo and the design of the building. As well as this, Tom and
Kieran did research on materials, air flow and other aspects of building
designs in Parabongo, how our make our building the most sustainable it
can be.
Kieran and tom finished off any final research. Alice continued to work on
the building, and did first handed research, where she E-mailed the
Institution od Civil Engineers where they replied with a very helpful
website, bursting with information about how we can make our building it
could possibly be! Whilst Tom began to compose a draft script for the
presentation him and Lauren will eventually present. Lauren worked alone,
recording all the substantial events that the group have succeeded in
creating since the competition began.
Its the first week back after the summer holidays, and we have a fully
completed script, a finished, rendered logo, and our Revit project is well
on the way to completion stages!! We all took a substantial amount of
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time to contribute to the project, all passing round research, which

enabled Lauren and Alice to create the Eco-classroom. We also created a
wind distribution map, with figures, enabling us to plan the layout of the
building, which was just the beginning for our exciting project!! When we
returned to school we took time to look at the work we have each done
over the holidays, identifying or rectifying anything on the original building
that we think needs to be changed.

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So we are all back after summer, and it is fair to say, as a group we have been
very productive. We realised that although our building was almost complete, we
needed to analyse the use of sheltering as we were very unsure of how to
incorporate it into the school design. We are all so excited about the final
building; we were able to offer our design in order to benefit the lives of 3-18year
olds, where we in fact were also able to cater for adults in the community as
well. We also carried on to develop our branding, where we created a lorry and
uniform design, in order to develop the company and gain recognition.
This week has been very exciting, but unbelievably challenging, as Stewart from
Laing ORourke came in to assist us with our building, however we realised that
our measurements for our building we too big to work with the plot. We
immediately had to reconsider our design, were we thought it would be
beneficial to draw out the plots outline in Revit. So Stewart began to help us
draw the outline in Revit, where Lauren and Joe stayed behind to work with him,
in order to work out angles to create the plot. However Stewart realised there
was an easier way, as he did it on his laptop, with our assistance, and transferred
it onto our computers, where we were able to build our building into the plot.
Alice has been very busy re adjusting the measurements. The next lesson, we all
sat down as a team, and helped Alice, and we recreated many aspects of our
design, as we realised alternative ideas maybe more efficient. For example the
buildings height, the shape and the repositioning of the different sections. We
reconsidered this because we were able to navigate around the plot, working out
where exactly the best air flow would be etc.
Alice has been very busy re adjusting the measurements. The next lesson, we all
sat down as a team, and helped Alice, and we recreated many aspects of our
design, as we realised alternative ideas maybe more efficient. For example the
buildings height, the shape and the repositioning of the different sections. We
reconsidered this because we were able to navigate around the plot, working out
where exactly the best air flow would be etc. We have also done detailed
research on common landscapes in Parabongo, and how we can incorporate the
landscape to benefit the community.
Well week nine took a very different turn. It was becoming obvious that the other
team were just not being as productive and working as well as they could, and
talent was being wasted. Sir decided that it wouldnt be a fair thing to do to keep
the team going, and that it would be more beneficial for people from the other
team to create a one minute presentation to us, NGD, and propose their qualities
and why we should recruit them. Laura, Ben and Shania from the other team
presented themselves to us, where we had already considered what it was,
exactly, we were looking for. We needed somebody to enhance our original ideas,
a hard worker, who is dedicated and a good listener. After careful deliberation,
we decided that Laura was exactly what we were looking for; she has already
come into the team and made a huge impact!! We cant wait for next week! We
have also developed our own website so we can present easily and
professionally.

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Its the tenth week on the competition, but we took a few weeks off over
Christmas, mainly because we find it easier to work to a tighter deadline, and act
more efficiently. Our website looks great and has come together nicely, we have
a date for a film maker set to help us put together a professional 5minute clip,
where we have a developed min-map including things we need to include, such
as our journey and the stages of the required elements. We are all working
together, but on separate computers to combine the different sections of our
building.
Its week eleven on the competition and this week we have made a lot of
progress in all aspects .
We are very happy on how all our members are equally contributing to the team.
This week we have greatly improved our building on Revit and we have almost
finished our branding. Ethan and Joe have created business cards , t-shirt
designs, vehicle designs, helmet designs and hi-vis jacket designs. This gives
NGD more publicity and means that NGD members are easily identifiable. We
have also developed our building design and have decided as a team with the
professional advice of individuals from Laing ORourke that building underground
would be very beneficial as it is cooler and to an extent is limitless, allowing us to
use our imagination and building something creative to make use of the space.
Its week twelve on working on the Parabongo school project and this week we
have been working heavily on our Revit model. Also we have had help from two
people, one person that joined us this week was a digital engineer, the other was
a qualified architect, both of these experienced men used their knowledge to
help fine tune and polish our building. They helped us make sure all of our
measurements were correct and were accurate enough to ensure that our
building will function as hoped. This is our final week of production on our task.
We have made great progress with our building.

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Design: Level 0 (Ground Floor)

This is the above ground level of our school design. It contains a large open area
around the building which will provide the pupils with a safe environment to
spend their free time. The school has only one main entrance and multiple fire
exists to provide pupils with a safe environment to learn and discover.
The design includes a gap between the walls and the roof, which is held up by
columns. The building is spilt into 3 spaces. Both these methods allow for
maximum airflow through the building.
We have one access road in and out of the site which will be for the school bus.
This will be a free service put on for the village as not many people in Uganda
have a car. This is also why we have not included a large car park.
We also have an amphitheatre in the centre of the building for outdoor teaching
and learning.

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The centre of the school is styled on a traditional Ugandan hut and acts as the
heart of the school.

Design: Level -1 (Underground Learning Facility)

This is the underground section of our school design. It contains:

- 38 classrooms
- 6 living spaces
- 4 toilets for both female and male students.
A circular shape gives the below ground section an easy airflow which will
provide the underground section with fresh air from the outside.
The corridors provide easy access from every part of the structure.
Lighting was needed and we wanted to stay as sustainable as possible so we
used skylights to create a natural light source from above.
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We used the ground floor as a source of added security for the children. We did
this given the recent history of Uganda e.g. civil wars.
The below level will keep cool throughout the year.

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Landscape Design

.Access road (One way in and out)

.Play area is made from locally sourced hard wood
.Amphitheatre
.Seating areas
.Pathways
.Local foliage
.Secure outer wall
.Sports Pitches
.Shaded area
.Area for growing and harvesting crops
.Horticultural area

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Sustainability and Accessibility

Environment
We have taken great consideration into the sustainability of our building; we
have designed a building which blends into the local landscape. We have
achieved this by using locally sourced materials which will give the school an
original Ugandan feel. We will use traditional building techniques which will
minimise the impact of the surrounding environments, this consist of;
. Using methods such as brick laying and stone masonry, this will minimise the
need for large machinery to access the site.
. We will work with the community to enable a smooth and easy process and to
apply the input of the local civilians into our building.
. We will be using natural foliage and the natural landscape on the site, which will
be easy to maintain with the Ugandan climate.
We are providing a free bus for the community, which will pick up students and
drop them off to and from school; this will save some students a long walk to
school and will encourage them to attend the school.

We have also minimized the need for electrical lighting within the underground
facility by using the natural sky light; this is where mirrors reflect the suns
natural light into the underground facility through multiple reflective mechanism
which are located all around the building to enable light to every classroom.

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Community
We will use local people to build our building, this will enable jobs for the local
community and decrease the need of overseas employment, also this will allow
the civilians to become more knowledgeable within this field and maybe enable
them to get a job in the future.
One of the buildings main priorities is the safety within and around the school,
we have achieved this factor by using the underground learning facility for both
education and safety, this will ensure that the pupils who attend the school will
have both a positive and secure learning environment.

Economy
By developing the school it will raise aspirations and education in the area. This
will contribute to an improvement in the community which will benefit the area
both academically and socially.
The building will have relatively low cost to maintain due to the natural resources
which will be provided by the local community, this will decrease the amount of
money needed because it means large machinery will not have to be hired
throughout the process of construction.

Construction Estimates
This is the overall cost of the building; we secured this price by doing extensive
research into the Ugandan material cost, construction cost and exchange rates.
We also rued contacting the Ugandan Embassy however we had little luck in
securing a response.

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We estimated the overall cost of the building to be 3,000,000, the cost have
been projected at this because of the additional cost is higher due to the
underground level which has increased the overall value of the building.
We achieved this amount by comparing the Ugandan building costs per m by
the overall m of the building.
5172m x 580 = 2,999,760

Summary
The obstacles we faced throughout the project were challenging however we
overcame these issues by working as a team. We are proud to have produced a
building with a calm and secure environment, where all children can learn and
develop to ensure a brighter future. One of the difficulties we encountered was
working underground but we felt the benefits of this for the school in the long run
outweighed these reservations and initial added costs. We worked hard to make
it sustainable while ensuring it is a practical and safe place for all pupils. We
have combined modern techniques such as a reflective mechanism and light
boxes, with traditional construction methods, which are suitable for the
development and its work force. We believe we have produced a winning design
that would change the communitys lives for the better.

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