Master II final report + thesis: "BuilThere: A digital tool for remote construction management"

MASTER DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

Architecture,Urban Planning and Heritage in the Global South

I edition 2019/2020 Politecnico di Milano and Poliedra

I and II level Master

Carla Procida

The materials collected within this booklet are related to the didactic activity carried out within

Master Design for Development Politecnico di Milano and Poliedra FIRST EDITION, 2019/2020

director Camillo Magni co-director Laura Montedoro co-director Sonia Pistidda technical director Paola Bellaviti tutors Alice Buoli, Alessandro Frigerio, Alessia Macchiavello, Roberta Mastropirro, Giuliana Miglierina Students Fabrizio Bancalari, Arianna Bazzaro, Mattia Bertolini, Chiara Bonfiglio, Francesco Bottaro, Tomà Canessi, Ugwuonah Chinonyerem, Agnese Chittaro, Giulia Ciusani, Elisa Goncales D’Albuquerque, Natasha Eckstein, Pietro Filippi, Niccolò Fioretto, Matteo Imbriano, Marta Marini, Manfredi Mazziotta, Mehreen Mustafà, Carla Patnett, Carla Procida, Enea Serjani

Index

HERITAGE_ DESIGN STUDIO 1

1

ARCHITECTURAL_ DESIGN STUDIO 2

2

URBAN PLANNING_ DESIGN STUDIO

3

WORKSHOP MAPP_ MAPUTO

4

INTERSHIP REPORT

5

CRITICAL PAPER

6

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

Johnny Miller - Unequal Scenes

I EDITION 2019/2020

Heritage_ Design studio 1

1

HERITAGE_ DESIGN STUDIO 1

Strategies for protecting and enhancing cultural heritage in urban-rural areas in transition 11-15 November 2019 Professors Maria Cristina Giambruno, Sonia Pistidda Tutors Roberta Mastropirro, Francesca Vigotti

During the Design Studio, the students worked on the simulation of a Call for Proposal around the theme “Cultural Heritage for development. Heritage as a trigger for social inclusion of the local communities”. Divided into groups, the students were guided through the various steps that characterize the writing of a proposal: the careful reading of contents of the call, the definition of a relevant theme within the requests, the search for effective partners, the articulation of the idea, the work program and the definition of the budget.

At the end of the workweek, the students presented the proposals to an external committee of experts who discussed and evaluated the different projects.

I EDITION 2019/2020

LILA - LINKED LAZARAT A path to reconnection

Giulia Ciusani, Niccolò Fioretto, Carla Procida, Enea Serjani, Chinonyerem Ugwuonah

1

After evaluating different contexts to use as object of our proposal, the team decided to focus on a locality in the South of Albania, in the Gjirokastër region. The name of the place is Lazarat, and it is located only 6,9 km away from the renowed Gjirokastër urban center, whose historical areas were listed as UNESCO World Heritage site for its rare vernacular architectural character from the Ottoman period. Unfortunately Lazarat, that only counts 2800 inhabitants nowadays, is famous, or better infamous, for less prestigious reasons, namely the former, extensive, illegal cannabis cultivation. The place is currently facing a difficult economic and social situation after the massive destruction of the cannabis farms and consequent arrest of inhabitants in 2014, that forced especially the younger generations to and exodus to other parts of the region to look for other occupations. Despite this, Lazarat presents a series of monuments and points of interest both in the village and along the medieval path connecting Lazarat to Gjirokastër.

Our project proposal, LiLa - Linked Lazarat, foresees the valorization of Lazarat’s untapped cultural heritage as a mean to foster the social inclusion of the segregated Lazarat community in the Gjirokastër region. More specifically, LiLa intends rediscovering and developing a footpath that used to link Lazarat and Gjirokastër in medieval times, best symbolized by the magnificent yet neglected Ali Pasha Bridge (also known as Dunavat Bridge), whose name clearly derives from Albanian soldier and politician Ali Pasha, that commissioned the bridge as part of a larger aqueduct, later destroyed. The footpath presents other interesting spots, such as the Bektashi shrine, a bunker dating back to the communist era, and several viewpoints.

I EDITION 2019/2020

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

1

I EDITION 2019/2020

In order to identify this design opportunity, the team firstly attempted to understand the context and assess the main problems and need of the Lazarat community. First of all, the whole community has been a victim of a harsh police intervention that destroyed the, although illegal, economy of the place, and is nowadays still facing a collective trauma. This led the community, through the years, to a strong segregation from the rest of Gjirokastër region: the need for the community of Lazarat to be reintegrated has become more and more urgent. Moreover, Lazarat has earned a bad reputation, presents a great number of afflicted families, where one or more members have been imprisoned, and a lack of new economic opportunities. Finally, as previously mentioned, there is little to no dialogue and a great economic imbalance between Gjirokastër and Lazarat.

Therefore, LiLa’s aim is to employ culture as a transformative force for community regeneration, by creating an opportunity to give Lazarat inhabitants a new sense of value. Lazarat’s untapped cultural heritage will be a crucial tool to promote the the community’s social inclusion through an innovative intervention, whose primary feature will be that of promoting the medieval path linking Gjirokastër and Lazarat as a landscape experience for hikers and any other kind of visitor willing to explore it.

Lazarat and Gjirokastër - position and basic information

1

It is intended that, as a result of the project, the shared cultural heritage will open up opportunities for dialogue between Gjirokastër and Lazarat, therefore bridging the gap of social inclusion and improving the sense of value placed on the cultural heritage of Lazarat, rediscovering the place’s touristic value, that is currently not even acknowledged by the municipality itself. Promoting the social link between Lazarat and Gjirokastër through the existing path will also meet the Faro Convention 2005 principle of ensuring that heritage contributes to the social cultural and economic dynamics of communities.

To ensure a proper design and achieve the objectives proposed, LiLa project benefits from the employment of a multidisciplinary team, comprising of architects, interior designers, service designers and curators. The multidisciplinary nature of the team has enabled the promoters to explore a wide range of ideas and implementation strategies for the project, ensuring a high quality standard both in physical terms, for what concerns the physical intervention on the path, and in intagible terms, with strategies of community engagement spacing from brainstorming and ideas exploration tools with a preliminary community engagement, to the design of a unique user experience using the touchpoints installed all along the footpath.

The medieval path and its main attractions

I EDITION 2019/2020

Viewpoints and interactive panels to be installed along the footpath

TARGET

1

PARTNERS

The analysis of the community and the identification of the possible target are essential elements of a successful design intervention. LiLa project team identified, as main recipients of the project: hikers and slow tourists, unemployed local and students. More specifically, LiLa plans to: - attract at least 5% of the visitors in Gjirokastër, especially those who are interested in activities related to hiking, slow tourism and nature. This is meant to increase the interest in the cultural heritage of Lazarat and include it in the tourism economy of the area. The strategy to engage them is made of a promotional campaign and inclusion of the path in the touristic itineraries.

- engage approximately fifity young students from Lazarat’s local school, afflicted by the past police intervention and the imprisonment of many relatives. They will be involved in a series of activities including meetings, collective talks and trips on site. The main goal is to set the preconditions for future independent meetings for the project continuation.

- employ two to five local inhabitants among those who are currently unemployed. These people should be hired for maintenance and management purposes along the whole duration of the project. The aim is to set a base for a possible permanent job position after the project is completed. This will hopefully impact not only on the single employee, but also on their families on the long-term.

Project target

I EDITION 2019/2020

Li.La. project benefits from few but relevant partnership, that will ensure not only a successful start, but especially the continuation of the project. The first partner is the Municipality of Gjirokastër. The local administration clearly has knowledge on the contexts that can be used to be sure the project is implemented in the most relevant way for the place. Moreover, it comprises of policy makers and has human resources that will make the implementation possible.

The municipality will need to support the Li.La. project by firstly taking responsibility of the project for the long-term continuation and maintenance of it. Additionally, it will need to give the Li.La. team all the needed permissions to physically intervene on the area. Finally, a continuous production of promotional material and the organization of the local opening event is expected from the administration.

The second relevant partner will be a local association for cultural promotion, which owns a website to promote touristic paths and spots in the region: Visit Gjirokastër. The association’s member will inform Li.La. team about the heritage sites in the area and will provide connections with local tour operators and facilities, as well as engage in continue promoting the project and the related events through its website.

Last but not least, a relevant Li.La. partner will be the Muhamed Gjollesha High School. The younger generation is by far the greatest engagement focus target of the project. The high school will be asked to plan some relevant activities with its students and enrich the process with the teachers’ pedagogical methods.

Project partners

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

1

Apart from the main partners, more stakeholders will be involved in the project, in order to make it successful.

One is surely the Polisocial award as main donor: the project is indeed a simulation of a project proposal to the Polisocial award, a price supporting socially innovative projects.Moreover, the project aims to obtain the advocacy of the local directory for monument conservation and the regional directory of education that will recognize the value of the project as a starting point to implement the national “100 villages project” programme in Lazarat.

A local newspaper will be identified as media partner in addition to the main partner Visit Gjirokastër. For the kind of physical interventions along the medieval path, Li.La. project will need to employ a local carpentry and local workers as main suppliers and contractors.

Finally, in order for the project to obtain everyone’s approval and a successful implementation, some external expert will be needed, such as an expert on social tourism, a restoration consultant that will indicate the best way to restore the medieval path, and a local guardian for when the path will be ready to open its doors to visitors. In terms of project management, a financial advisor and a local project manager will be needed, and Li.La. will also employ an external project evaluator to mitigate the risks of project failure and to be able to really quantify its success. For some of these figures, Li.La. aims to encourage them to participate because envisioning the possible continuity of the employment positions.

System map

I EDITION 2019/2020

The Li.La. team believes in the power of community engagement, and the participation of the local will be one of the main focuses ad implementation strategies adopted. Li.La. project aims to achieve its objectives by employing community engagement tools and collaborating with stakeholders and policy makers. Also, the project proposes community sensitisation on the values of cultural heritage through periodic workshops. The key target group for what concerns the activities for the preparation of the project is the young generation of the community. As a result, the local high school will be at the forefront of the community sensitisation and awareness activities, as well as practical ones.

The working programme will be divided in six working packages, organized in this way: WP1: Preliminary activities (1 week, the last week of the first month) - Find local suppliers and workers, both in Lazarat and Gjirokastër; - hire 2 people, a technician and a guardian; - organize a meeting with the local municipality and obtain permits of intervention; - organize a meeting with the other stakeholders.

In this phase, we expect to receive the permissions to intervene on the footpath by the municipality.

Promotional banner

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

1

WP2: Community engagement (1 week, the last week of the second month) - Use the service design “community on a map” tool with high school students and their grandparents to identify important places in Lazarat; - inspect the path connecting Gjirokastër and Lazarat with the children, in order to decide the locations for intervention; - acquire data and maps of the area; - highlight Banesa e Bote Monument of Culture as starting /arrival point and set of temporary exhibition about the history of Lazarat and the ongoing activities outside the house.

During this working package, the Li.La. team expects to be able to organize the workshops with young students and their relatives, as well as the inspection of ancient path with the help of the Muhamet Gjollesha High School.

WP3: Intervention on the ancient path (2 months, third and fourth month) - Signal the start and the end of the path with the help and approval of the local administration; - design 5 information panels; - commission 5 interactive panels, 6 benches and 3 trash bins to the local carpentry; - send two local workers to install the items in the rest areas along the path; -plant trees with the participation of the primary school children having imprisoned relatives in the rest areas of the path View of the Ali Pasha bridge source: https://www.visit-gjirokastra.com/see-and-do/ali-pasha-bridge/

I EDITION 2019/2020

In this phase, we envision the support on the municipality with the signage placement, and the active participation of the Muhamet Gjollesha High School and its students with the tree planting activities.

WP4: Promotion of the new touristic path (next 14 months) - Include the new path on the Gjirokastër municipality and Visit Gjirokastër websites; - print and distribute foldable touristic maps with Lazarat and the new path included; - publish articles/advertisements about the ongoing project on local newspapers.

During these months, we expect an active participation of Visit Gjirokastër in promoting the project and the events on their website, as well as the municipality’s in producing and placing promotional material in Gjirokastër.

WP5: Organization of opening event (two preparatory days and one as a ceremony day, on the fifth month) - Organize the official opening ceremony; - invite polyphonic music performers to play along the footpath’s rest areas.

Here, we clearly demand the municipality of Gjirokastër’s support for the organization of the opening event by providing permissions and security.

Left, top: Work packages timeline; left, bottom: promotional material; right, top: web promotion; right, bottom: polyphonic music performers

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

1

WP6: Short-term monitoring during the development of the project and after the implementation - Organize meetings every 3 months between stakeholders; - hire a Professor from Gjirokastër’s University to evaluate the project, from the 5th to the 18th month; - hire a guardian to inspect the path once a week for maintenance.

As any successful and award-winning project, also Li.La. will need its own indicators to assess that all the objectives will be reached. In this case, the team will base its success metrics on: - number of QR code scans to measure the level of engagement with the interactive elements along the path; - the evaluation of the Gjirokastër University’s hired professor who will set his own parameters: - the continuity of meetings and workshops between local authorities and stakeholders after team Li.La. will leave the project in the hands of the local community; - the permanent employment of the local workers by the municipality in order to verify the interest in the process on community involvement; - public and private investments in the area, in order to verify the effectiveness of intervention, for what concerns the objective of placing new value on Lazarat and its surroundings.

The Li.La team is strongly aware that not every part of the project could go as planned, or even that the objectives could not be met due to complications or the partners’ different choices with respect to what was envisioned for the proposal.

I EDITION 2019/2020

The main risks and threats that we identified are: - The financial benefit coming from the intervention could be mostly used for the further improvement of Gjirokastër city, rather than using it to improve the village of Lazarat and its cultural heritage; - Lazarat locals could be excluded from the management and employment opportunities generated by the project; - the municipality may not consider it important to maintain the intervention after the duration of the project, as they could be more concerned about the Gjirokastër city centre.

In order to try avoiding these risky situations to come into reality, the team will implement the following mitigation strategies: - The promotion of periodic workshops for Lazarat locals, sensitizing them on the value of preserving their cultural heritage. Community representatives will be selected from this exercise, such as cultural heritage experts, and attend the meetings between the two communities; - the encouragement of conversations between Lazarat and Gjirokastër cultural heritage experts to participate in the Visit Gjirokastër periodic meetings.

Positively considering that most of the project will go as planned, especially after the careful implementation of the risks’ mitigation strategies, Li.La. project’s social relevance will be high: indeed, the whole project is about placing new value on the community of Lazarat, together with giving shine to its tangible cultural heritage.

Budget breakdown

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

1

In particular, Li.La.’s landscape intervention aims at educating the young Lazarat locals on the importance of preserving cultural heritage and the role it plays in fostering social inclusion.

Additionally, through the awareness raised by the project, the community will hopefully gain more visibility, as the intervention will open up the village to hiking tourists and consequent potential economic growth of the community.

Moreover, the expected social impact of the implementation is on the micro-economy of Lazarat, through touristic activities and inter-community engagements, and of course through the creation of new job opportunities in the community.

The budget requested by the Li.La. team from the grants is 115.380 euros for the total ten months of project development. Of these, roughly 49% (56.750 euros) will be needed for human resources mostly distributed in the Work Packages 1 and 2. 19% (22.100 euros) will be spent on missions of the team to the Gjirokastër region and Lazarat, only in Work Packages 1 to 4. 16460 euros, corresponding to 23% of the budget, will be needed in Work Packages 1 to 4 again, in order to buy the needed equipment for the different activities. Only 2% (2.300 euros) are needed on Work Package 3 to cover the materials expenses. Additionally, another 2% will be needed for the first 3 Work Packages to be spent on dissemination and communication costs. Finally, the rest of 5.494 euros (5%) will be spent on Work Package 3 for other types of different expenses.

The Li.La. project was developed as a simulation project proposal to apply to a Polisocial grant. The project was judged by a committee of different professionals, and was indicated as the most suitable and likely to win the grant.

I EDITION 2019/2020

Architectural_ Design studio 2

2

ARCHITECTURAL_ DESIGN STUDIO 2

Architectural Design Studio in informal precarious settlements 9-13 December 2019 Professors Alessio Battistella (Arcò), Camillo Magni.

Tutors Valerio Marazzi (Arcò)

The academic exercise focused on a real project commissioned to Arcò: the design of a school building in the village of Kobo Robit in Ethiopia. The students, divided into groups, developed a proposal for the extension of the existing educational building starting from a functional program defined by the local association. The students had to study and use construction techniques that include the use of earth as the primary material for the construction of the building.

I EDITION 2019/2020

PROJECT OF A SCHOOL IN ADOBE in Kobo Robit -Etiopia

Giulia Ciusani, Carla Procida, Chinonyerem Ugwuonah

2

During the architecture workshop with ARCò, the group designed the expansion of a secondary school for visually impaired children. The school consists in eight classrooms, a kitchen with canteen, a library, a study room and dormitories.

The project also includes educational gardens. The buildings comprehend the use of different techniques using earth, like rammed earth and adobe bricks.

I EDITION 2019/2020

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

4

I EDITION 2019/2020

Eritrea Yemen Tigray

Sudan

AMHARA Kobo Robit village

Afar

BenishangulGumuz Somalia

Addis Ababa

Gambela Oromiya

South Sudan

Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’

Sid am a

Somali

Somalia Kenya

On the North-East side of the Amhara region, near the border with the regions of Afar and Tigrè, in the Kobo woreda, the town of Kobo Robit is situated. The location has a population of over 36.000 people, and stands 1468m over the sea level.

The climate of the place has been of the most important factors evaluated for the project of the school. The rain season lasts from June to September, with twenty-three days of rain in July. Minimum relative humidity is 40% in April, while maximum is about 80% in July and August. The temperatures are rather high the whole year, reaching a maximum of 30,5 C degree in April.

The Amhara region is one of the least to be affected by Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Moreover, the present schools are mostly equipped with water and food for the pupils, which reduces the possibility of school dropouts. On the other hand, data from 2018 coming from the Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners estimated that more than three-hundred thousand people are in need for education in the Amhara region only.

Amhara region and Kobo Robit

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

N

Average daytime and nighttime temperatures in °C

0°

33°

N

23°

E N 5° 4

31 W 5°

28°

18° 13°

E

W

90°

270°

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Hours of Sunshine per day

2

S

13 E 5°

SW25°

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

S

180°

Precipitation in mm/day 12.0 10.8 9.6 8.4 7.2 6.0 4.8 3.6 2.4 1.2

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Relative Humidity in %

Kobo Robit village

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

LEGEND Climates* Tropical (Aw) Arid (BWh) Arid (BSh) Arid (BSk) Temperate (Csa) Temperate (Csb) Temperate (Cwa) Temperate (Cwb) Temperate (Cwc)

LEGEND Main winds Hot-humid wind Cold-dry wind

I EDITION 2019/2020

Kobo Robit is mostly rural, a river passing through. It presents a variety of dwelling types, from concrete houses to corrugated iron shacks, from chikkas (typical huts made of wood and straw) and tukuls (made of stones). Major infrastructures are lacking, and the school to be extended, a school offering education to a percentage of visually-impaired pupils, is one of the few.

The school extension is set to host nine-hundred and sixty new students. Among these, fifty-nine are visually impaired. Low vision and blindness are very common in Sub-Saharan Africa, and dramatically common in Ethiopia, especially among children. The causes of the most frequent eye diseases are: lack of Vitamin A, measles, refractive errors and, last but not least, living conditions, including crowded settlements, presence of flies and midges and ultimately poor hygiene habits.

The most common visual impairments in Ethiopia are active trachoma, trachomatous trichiasis, and blindness. Tragically, 6% of total blindness is registered in children, and people living in rural areas are more prone to suffer from either one visual impairment. The Amhara region is one of Ethiopia’s regions most worryingly hit by low vision and blindness: a study concluded in 2006 was registering about 5% of Amhara’s population with low vision and about 1,5% of blind people.

2

KOBO ROBIT Village

Project Area

With these preconditions, an extension of a school in Kobo Robit, already hosting visually impaired pupils, was designed for the architecture workshop.

The task was to design the extension of a secondary school, therefore hosting students between 15 and 18 years old, on a plot right next to it, able to offer education to 960 additional pupils. The brief of the project included the design of eight classrooms with sixty seats each, a dorm to host 80 pupils and some additional service spaces, such as school staff offices, a guardroom, a canteen with kitchen and a study room. To offer additional education opportunity, a didactic vegetable garden was also foreseen on the South side of the new classrooms.

The whole masterplan of the school extension is based horizontal axe constituted by the walking path connecting the entrance on the West side and the existing school wing on East side. The eight classrooms are all perpendicular to this central walking path, paired in groups of two and slid on one another, in order to create outdoor shadowed space at the entrance of each room. The walking passage is also semi-transparent and shaded by bamboo sticks, as well as the vertical axes connecting the vegetable garden on the South side with the toilets and dorms on the North side.

These shaded outdoor spaces allow the presence of playgrounds for the pupils, as well as seats for outdoor classes.

Identification of project area

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

River

Kobo Robit Village

02

01

2

03

PROJECT AREA

Existing school 04 04 04

Kobo Robit Village Kobo Robit Village

Each classroom will host 60 students, for a total of 480 on the morning shift and other 480 to attend on the afternoon shift. On the North side, five rooms for girls and five for boys, with eight beds and eight lockers each, will host students that live too far from the school and would benefit from sleeping closer during the school period. There will be four showers and four toilets, to be used by the students hosted in the dorm, as well as by all other students during the day.

As additional service spaces, at the entrance on the West side, there will be a guardroom with accommodation for the guard, two offices (one for the school director and one for the teachers), and two accommodations for four teachers moving to Kobo Robit especially to teach. On the East side, after the classrooms, we can find a study room, a library and the canteen with annexed kitchen.

Existing school and project area

I EDITION 2019/2020

Masterplan

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

2

I EDITION 2019/2020

LEGEND Functions a.

Female dormitory

b.

Male dormitory

c.

Toilets and showers

a.

Guardroom

b.

Offices

c.

Prof. accomodation

a.

Classroom

a.

Study room

b.

Library

c.

Canteen

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

LEGEND Outdoor spaces Green play area Educational gardens Aggregation spaces Outdoor classrooms Main paths Secondary paths New entrance Connection with the existing school

FUNCTIONAL MACRO-AREAS

FUNCTIONAL AREAS

PRIVATE AREA (DORMS)

PUBLIC AREA (SCHOOL)

ADMINISTRATIVE/ STAFF AREA

2

scale 1:1000 0m

scale 1:1000

10m

25m

0m

FUNCTIONS

10m

25m

OUTDOOR SPACES - DISTRIBUTION

c.

a.

b.

b.

a. c. b.

d.

a. b. h. a.

e.

scale 1:1000 0m

10m

Distribution and functions

I EDITION 2019/2020

c.

g. f.

scale 1:1000 25m

0m

10m

25m

BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN

N

W

E

scale 1:1000 0m

10m

25m

S

The orientation of the plot, as well as the direction of the major winds blowing in the area, where of primary importance to decide the orientation of the buildings, as well as designing strategies to ensure proper shading and ventilation of the spaces. For the principles of bioclimatic architecture, environmental comfort inside the spaces is reached with a series of precautions, first of all of to limit the direct sunlight to enter in the spaces from the South, in order to avoid overheating. All the entrances to the classrooms are either on the North side of properly shaded with a bamboo structure covering the whole middle walking path and inner outdoor spaces. Windows are also overlooking shaded outdoor areas.

The region has three main winds: a mild warm wind coming from South the whole year, a stronger, warmer wind blowing from South-West, especially during the rain season, and a colder wind blowing from North-East mostly during the dry season. To ensure a natural, proper ventilation of all spaces was considered of primary importance for the project. Classrooms openings are mostly on the longer sides of the units, to catch more wind as possible and for the air to circulate, shading direct sunlight at the same time.

Project orientation and main winds

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL’S PRINCIPLES 1. SHADING SYSTEMS (especially to the south)

3. SOLAR/ PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS

1. NATURAL VENTILATION

SUN

4. USE OF MASHRABIYYA

WIND

E

W

2. CORRECT BUILDING ORIENTATION

2. SHADING TREES

1. RAINWATER COLLECTION

3. REUSE OF COLLECTED WATER FOR GRAY-WATER

3. PERMEABILITY TO THE MAIN WINDS

1. ADOBE BRICKS

WATER

4. EUCALYPTUS WOOD

MATERIALS

2. RAMMED EARTH

3. BAMBOO

2. REUSE OF COLLECTED WATER FOR IRRIGATION

1. EDUCATIONAL GARDENS

4. HEALTHY AND CONTROLLED DIET

1. NO ARCHITECTURAL BARRIERS (one-storey buildings)

CIRCULAR FOOD ECONOMY

2. FOOD PRODUCTION (cultivation of local products)

Sustainability of the project

I EDITION 2019/2020

4. USE OF APPROPRIATE COLORS

INCLUSIVITY

3. FOOD CONSUMPTION (local products cooked in the canteen)

2. FLOORING WITH DIFFERENT TEXTURES

3. TEXTURE IN RELIEF ON THE WALLS

The project foresees the use of different techniques that are typical of tropical Sub-Saharan countries, that are usually also natural strategies to reach thermal comfort. One of these are the mashrabiyas, that were included in the design of all classrooms. Mashrabiyas are a traditional and natural ventilation strategy made of an intricate grid that accelerate the speed of the winds, shading sunrays at the same time.

The choice of natural and traditional building techniques, with the use of locally-sourced materials, was also extended to the foundation, the walls and roofing of each building. Both the classrooms and the dormitories, as well as the offices and the services areas, raise from foundations made of earth and stones, that can be found in the area. The classrooms’, offices’, library’s and study room’s as well as the canteen’s walls would be made of adobe bricks.

On the other hand, the dormitories’ walls are made with earth, and more specifically with the rammed earth technique. It consists in compressing a specific and balanced mix of earth, sand and water into wooden formworks and let it to compact and dry. When the first 50-60cm of earth is dry, it is possible to proceed with the same formworks until reaching the desired building height.

Classroom section

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

2

The choice of particular techniques is also a way to implement a few strategies that could make use of spaces by visually-impaired students more easy, comfortable and convenient. The fact that the wooden formworks used to pour rammed earth can be built on the site, would allow the engraving of particular shapes that would eventually be embossed on the earthen walls. These shapes can be touched by the students to orientate within the spaces and to distinguish the different areas more easily.

Another strategy is differentiating the paving by area. So the shapes of the outdoor paving in the dormitory areas will be different from the one along the classrooms and services areas.

I EDITION 2019/2020

SECTION AA’

scale 1:250

SECTION BB’

scale 1:250

SECTION CC’

scale 1:250

Elevations

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

2

Elevations

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The school extension project is an architectural project, as it is manifested in the expansion of a school trough physical (indoor and outdoor) spaces, and aims at providing the school’s pupils and staff with additional facilities. However, considering it as the place where education is dispensed, the school is also a service. The project, therefore, is also an improvement of an existing service in its most intangible features. In this sense, the project has been analyses also from a Service Design point of you, and the experience of the users (pupils with and without visual impairment, in this case) has been tracked and compared with the one previously experienced by pupils who had to reach the school from their families’ compounds and attend classes in the old school wing. In order to do so, the Customer Journey Map has been used as a comprehensive tool.

The experience is divided into three phases: the moment preceding class (waking up and getting ready), the classes attendance and the extra-class activities such as eating, doing homework, playing and working in the educational vegetable garden. The map also tracks the emotional level (positive or negative) of pupils in every particular moment of the experience, and the “touchpoints“, the physical points of contact between the users (pupils) and the service (school), therefore in this case all the physical amenities and features provided in the new school extension. As we can observe, the experience is generally improved when compared with the one experienced previously.

One of the main strength points that deeply improve the experience is the fact that the pupils, or at least some of them, have accommodation in the schools new dormitories, which are located a few metres from the classrooms.

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This avoids having to walk several kilometres from their house to school. For visually-impaired children, some additional precautions have been taken when designing these spaces, for example the reliefs on every room in order for them to better identify theirs, and the diversification of flooring texture to recognize paths to and from classrooms.

Another aspect is the general improvement of internal comfort and conditions inside the classrooms: they have been designed to be naturally well ventilated so that they don’t become unbearably hot, and also outdoor classrooms have been designed, which completely stands out in comparison with the hot and crowded classrooms present in the current state of the school.

Moreover, pupils can enjoy meals every day in school prepared with the vegetable garden’s harvest, and prepared in an equipped and safe kitchen in comparison with the previous outdoor charcoal stove, which is unsafe. This also takes the burden of providing the food off the families, making home-grown school feeding one of the most important government investments Last but not least, the new school extension offers a variety of different additional spaces and activities such as playground, study room and educational garden which improve the usage of the space and provide pupils with a better and more complete educational experience.

A striking example is having room to do homework, both in the study room and in the dormitories, away from the pupils’ possibly chaotic house. In this sense, the school extension projects not only provides additional spaces to the pre-existing school, but offers an improved service and overall educational experience to its pupils, which would hopefully result in improved school attendance and completion.

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Urban Planning_ Design studio 3

URBAN PLANNING_ DESIGN STUDIO 3

Planning strategies for integrated regional development of rapidly urbanising areas 13-17 January 2020 Professors Laura Montedoro, Tutors Alessia Macchiavello Guests: Francesco Chiodelli, Fabio Manfredini, Luigi Carboni, Antonio Longo, Alessandro Frigerio, Alice Buoli

The purpose of the exercise was to introduce the students to understand how to build cognitive frameworks and analytical interpretative maps in contexts characterized by the scarcity of available data, poor reliability of those available, extreme rapidity of territorial transformations and urban dynamics, widespread and prevalent informality of practices (mobility, trade, housing); how to intervene in contexts with high institutional fragility where the traditional western approach to “rational-comprehensive” planning is a candidate for operational failure.

The chosen case study was the “Greater Maputo”, both as an example of certain rapid urbanization dynamics and because it was preparatory to the field workshop. Students worked in groups of four and they were invited to produce five thematic maps with the technical help of mapping (Qgis software was introduced during the week by experts through two days of practical lessons) and with the critical approach proposed in the lessons. The final outcomes was the construction of cognitive frameworks and analytical interpretative maps of the “Greater Maputo”, themed in order to identify some strategic dimensions of development and particularly sensitive issues to pay attention to.

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DEMOGRAPHICS, WATER, ENERGY SYSTEMS

Arianna Bazzaro, Pietro Filippi, Mehreen Mustafa, Carla Procida

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My team was assigned to work on maps describing demographic dynamics, energy systems and water systems.

We considered both the provincial and the metropolitan scale for our analysis.

Firstly, we produced demographic maps showing the difference between the population in 2007 and in 2018 at a provincial scale. We can observe that there was a general increase in the population, especially in the Maputo urban center and toward North. In the same areas, we can observe an increase in the density. At an urban scale, we can observe that the city and the built environment are expanding towards North and towards Matola (West of Maputo).

For what concerns water and energy systems, the whole country is innervated with a network of water streams. Many dams are present, and they are used for different purposes: hydroelectricity, flood content, irrigation and as water supply.

Indeed, Mozambique’s electricity market is dominated by hydropower generation capacity, largely utilized for exports to neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe via the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). At an provincial scale, some dams, hydropower and power plants are present.

The energy grid generating from Maputo extends towards South, North and West. In the country, there are three main separated network systems (North, Centre, South) and the main electricity providers are Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (Independent Power Prj) and Aggreko (IPP). At a country level, the electricity access is around 67% in urban contexts and 27% in rural contexts.

Considering Maputo, comparing the urban population growth, we can observe how the more peripheral expansions tend to be in the same direction of the energy grids. Due to the probable informal nature of settlements on the peripheral expansion, we can expect that this is due to provide informal shelters a connection with the energy grid. Indeed, in the city center 97% of the households have electricity, especially in the formal part of the city. However, also in the informal and peripheral areas around 50% of the houses are registered as having electricity, mostly along the electric grid.

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Province population in 2007

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0 - 30000 30000 - 50000 50000 - 100000 100000 - 400000 400000 - 700000 700000 - 109500 1095000 - 1395000 Source: OCHA Mozambique HAT Province population in 2018

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Province density in 2007

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0 - 50 50 - 100 100 - 500 500 - 1000 1000 - 2500 2500 - 3000 3000 - 3500 Source: OCHA Mozambique HAT Province density in 2018

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Urban growth

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Hydroelectricity Hydroelec+flood_ content Irrigation Irrigation+hydroelec +flood_cont Water supply Water suppy+irrig.

Water supply+irrig. +flood_cont Water supply+irrig. +hydroelec.

Unknown Bridge Water streams Source: HOTOSM Image_Title/Description

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Dams Hydropower plant Power plant Energy grid Urban growth

54% 66% 97%

Province energy systems, as compared to urban growth

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Urban energy systems and households with electricity, as compared to urban growth

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Dams Urban trajectory Rivers and streams Source: Image_Title/Description

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Water pipes

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At an urban scale, comparing the density with the water sources, we can observe that the water grid supply is only present in the areas closer to the city center. Other informal water supplies are spreading towards North-West as the population increases in those areas. When people cannot provide water for their household from the official water grid, they tend to find alternative ways to procure it. A final important observation lies in the comparison between the areas illuminated at night and the ones that are not.

Comparing these data with the map on urban growth, we can observe that the areas developed in and around the city center are mostly illuminated, while the last settlements to form in the more peripheral areas are completely cut off from night lighting.

From a more comprehensive and critical analysis of these maps, we can conclude that there is great disparity between the center’s dweller and the ones living on the outskirts of the city of Maputo. The maps suggest inequality in the access to basic urban services such as water and energy, and that the ones who are mostly excluded from the benefit of those services are the people who are informally expanding on the outskirts of the urban center.

Nevertheless, Mozambique intends to further expand the transmission grid until 2025, and to provide grid-connected access to 50% of all households by 2030.

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Urban lights

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Urban light and not illuminated areas

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Workshop MAPP_Maputo

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP MAPP_Maputo

Malhangalene Architecture Pilot Project 2-22 february 2020 Professors Camillo Magni, Laura Montedoro, Sonia Pistidda, Michele Ugolini Tutors Alessandro Frigerio, Roberta Mastropirro, Giuliana Miglierina Partner Institution Eduardo Mondlane University, Faculdade de Arquitectura e Planeamento Físico Joao.Tique, Carlos Trindade, Elis Mavie Invited Guests Municipality of Maputo, AICS Italian Agency for International Cooperation, AVSI, OIKOS, Architecture without Borders Spain, UN-Habitat, Kaya Clinica, Studio Forjaz.

Local participants Abdul Rachid Afande, Vanilza Aiuba Abdul Camal, Homayra Daude Mussagy, Alexandre Ácio Nhantumbo, Anuwar Momade Ossumane

Objective of the workshop was to identify the functional program needed to encourage slum upgrading, along with the definition of the most appropriated strategy to achieve this goal. The core is to understand how to engage the community to target slum upgrading. Each group identified a different strategy for slum upgrading.

The chosen area for the project is located at the crossing point between the Baixa, the modern city, and various informal settlements, among them the historical Barrio of Mafalala.

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SLUMS DEFINITION UN-Habitat defines a slum as an area that has one or more of the following five characteristics: – – – – –

poor structural quality of housing overcrowding inadequate access to safe water inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure insecure residential status. 1

The UN-Habitat definition is strongly underpinned by a rights-based approach to the universal fulfilment of the right to adequate housing. To the above definition the Cities Alliance adds that slums do not have basic municipal services (such as water, sanitation, and waste collection), schools and clinics within easy reach, safe areas for children to play and places for the community to meet and socialize. 2

WHAT IS SLUM UPGRADING? The narrow definition of slum upgrading refers to improvements in housing and/or basic infrastructure in slum areas. In a broader sense, upgrading also includes enhancements in the economic and social processes that can bring about such physical improvements. 3 At its most comprehensive it consists of physical, social, economic, organizational and environmental improvements undertaken cooperatively and locally among citizens, community groups, businesses, and national governments and city authorities.

Slum upgrading interventions typically include the following:

1 - UN-Habitat, 2002c 2 - Cities Alliance, 1999 3 - UNHabitat, 2004 4 - Cities Alliance, 1999

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– installation or improvement of basic infrastructure – regularisation of security of tenure – relocation of and compensation for the residents (both men and women) dislocated by the improvements – housing improvement – construction or rehabilitation of community facilities such as nurseries, health posts and community open spaces – improvement of access to health care, education and social support programmes – removal or mitigation of environmental hazards – provision of incentives for community management and maintenance – enhancement of income-earning opportunities through training and micro-credits – building of social capital and the institutional framework to sustain improvements; 4

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Area of the project - Drone image

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(IN)FORMAL CITY GRID

Tomà Canessi, Pietro Filippi, Giulia Ciusani, Carla Procida

The project lot is in an intermediate position between the “formal” city (South and East), dating back to the colonial period, and the “informal” city (North and West). The area has very marked boundaries and is surrounded by two main arteries connecting Maputo CBD with peripheral areas, nearby cities (Matola), and important services (airport). This makes it a strategic area (leading to the presence of shopping malls, formal and informal commercial activities, and a public park) but also an area with difficult accessibility. As a result of its central position, the informal settlement is the most vulnerable part of the lot as it is not legalized and is subjected to pressures from the public and private investors.

Following the will of the municipality to densify the area, and considering the structure of the “consolidated” city, the project aim is to progressively bring the “formal” grid in the informal settlement without disrupting the internal dynamics of the lot and providing the inhabitants with the conditions for obtaining the DUAT (the right to use and benefit of land).

The first step consists in improving the accessibility to the lot through the creation of safer connections with the surrounding streets, the neighbourhoods, and the public transportation system. The attention is then dedicated to bringing the city grid into the lot improving its two main axes.

They will be enlarged, paved, and provided with a drainage system. The North-South axis will be made two-way vehicle accessible, while the West-East axis will remain pedestrian and will be shaded by a row of trees.

This will be possible through two different procedures of slum upgrading: the first involves the demolition of the buildings that would obstruct too much the route of new road and the backward reconstruction of 2/3 storey buildings; the second involves a dialogue with the inhabitants to enhance and widen the road through small adjustments of a portion of their courtyards. The densification process allows the creation of public spaces along the roads usable by the population and by small local commercial activities. It was also analysed the possibility of using Praça de Touros for placing photovoltaic panels and a rainwater collector to provide energy and water to the entire neighbourhood in a legal way.

The project is considered as a starting point for the complete upgrading and homogenisation of the lot. It will be possible to proceed with enhancing the road network, increasing the density and the open spaces within the informal area, but also continuing the grid in the south part of the lot.

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The analyzed area is characterized by three typology of city: the formal one, with an ordered grid and large blocks; the informal one without territorial planning except for the portions with DUAT (with a dense grid and small blocks); and, in the middle, a portion of mixed typology city (informal in the north-west and semi-formal in the south-east) in which the project area is inserted. By overlaying the formal grid on the project area you can see that the latter is perfectly divisible into four lots with the size of those of the formal city.

Typological analysis_Formal and informal city grid

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A more specific analysis of the project area shows how one of the main problems is the lack of connection with the context, which brings the development of activities and services not within the area, but only on its perimeter. To the South, the formal commercial area, with fences and security guards, is inaccessible to the inhabitants of the informal settlement, while on the other sides of the area the connections are almost non-existent. The few access points, unsafe or difficult to reach, develop at the ends of what are the two main roads of the settlement.

Analysis_Borders, accesses and functions

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Analysis_Sections of the three main accesses

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What should be the main accesses are characterized by the presence of obstacles, and dangerous crossing systems. The two main streets are narrow, not paved, without drainage system, and not safe as they are not illuminated and mixed-used by cars and pedestrians. The lack of services and infrastructure, in these strategic points, reduces the attractiveness of the area and forces it to remain closed in its degradation.

Analysis_Sections of the two main axes/streets

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Project_Masterplan

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The aim of the project is to open the informal settlement to the context, trying to bring the formal city grid into the lot, while respecting its nature and its characteristics. The plan of interventions links together the renovation of the three acceses to the lot, of its two main roads, and of the buildings along them, in order to densifiy the area and to get new public spaces. Two different processes of slum-upgrading will be undertaken: demolition and reconstruction of 2/3 storey buildings (Casa Minha approach), and small adjustments of existent buildings’ portions, in dialogue with the inhabitants, to widen the roads (Chamanculo approach).

Project_Strategy Image_Title/Description

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Project_Sections of the three main accesses

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The accessibility to the lot will be improved through the creation of safer connections with the surrounding streets and the public transportation system. The main roads will be widened, paved and equipped with drainage system. The vertical axis will have different spaces for pedestrian and for vehicles, while the horizontal one will be only pedestrian, shaded by a row of trees and flanked by local commercial activities to recreate and not lose the typical aggregation dynamics of informal settlements’ roads. Services and facilities will be positioned in strategic points to increase the attractiveness and the quality of life of the area.

Project_Sections of the two main axes/streets

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The project also contemplates rainwater collection and a large exploitation of solar energy, both of which expandable as long-term upgrading hypothesis. The streets and the public spaces will be enlightened by photovoltaic lamps to increase the safety and the usage of these spaces during the night; rainwater tanks will be provided on the new buildings for domestic use and in the public areas for water supply points and to irrigate the new trees. On the roof of Praça de Touros 179m2 of photovoltaic panels will be added.They will meet the electricity needs of the new buildings and they will be expandable to 845m2 to meet the future energy demand of buildings throughout the project lot. The possibility of legally obtaining electricity and water is a fundamental step for obtaining the DUAT.

Project_Implementation schemes_Supply of water and energy

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The project concerning the two main axes is only a first step towards the complete redevelopment of the area. Thinking about future development, it will be possible to apply the same design concept on the secondary roads present in the lot. The formal city grid will fit into the area respecting its nature, finally reaching a compromise between formal and informal. In a further development of the area, it will be important to design following bioclimatic guidelines (*UN HABITAT- Energy and resourse efficient urban neghibourhood design, principles for tropical countries – Pratictioner’s Guidebook).

Project_Implementation schemes_Future scenarios

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Project 3D view_Access 01’

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Project 3D view_Access 01’

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Project 3D view_Street upgrading, new houses and public spaces

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Project 3D view_Street upgrading, new houses and public spaces

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Internship report

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INTERNSHIP REPORT

A remote experience with ARCò Organization/NGO ARCò - Architecture and Cooperation Internship Title A remote experience with ARCò Tutor Alessio Battistella Location Work From Home Period 14.04.20 / 15.09.20 Main tasks carried out during the internship - Report for Al-Ekhlaas primary school, Mosul, Iraq; - website prototype for BI0N Network; - translation and enhancement of the Sustainable tourism guidelines for Inle Lake, Myanmar; - research for the Secondary school in Kobo Robit, Ethiopia; - research for St. Josepth Hospital, Kitgum, Uganda.

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ARCÒ - ARCHITECTURE & COOPERATION Introduction

Carla Procida

Between 14.04.20 and 15.09.20, I have been an intern for ARCò – Architecture and Cooperation. My internship tutor has been the practice’s founder, Alessio Battistella. Due to the Covid-19 induced situation and consequent restriction, I have started and concluded my whole internship experience in a Work From Home modality.

The internship was planned as a two-month experience at first, but then, in agreement with my tutor, I decided to continue for longer. Due to the length of the internship, I was involved in a series of project, and I had the chance to support the team with different tasks.

For some projects, I did some research, for others I translated and revised some official documents, and for others I could actually propose some concepts.

The overall experience was positive for me. I had the chance to be involve with different tasks in different kind of project, and I think this allowed me to learn to be more flexible and be able to adapt to different responsibilities and to different stages of a project. I was able to coordinate with the different members of the team in order to deliver on time and ensure a good quality of the work. I also took more responsibility for some tasks, as I was involved in meetings where I had to represent ARCò and therefore make proposals on behalf of the principal architect. Overall, the experience taught me a lot, and made me more ready to my future positions.

As negative sides, I personally think that the Work From Home modality has made the experience less valuable in terms of mutual enrichment with the other members of the team, and in terms of personal networking possibility. I was mainly communicating with my tutor and partially with other two architect of the office, as well as a fellow intern, but it was difficult to have moments of mutual exchange on architectural topics or experiences that were not related to the project. I think going to the office would have given me the chance to enrich my network and my overall knowledge even more, also considering that most likely the physical office is filled with interesting material and books. Of course, the Work From Home modality was unfortunately due to the Covid-19 induced situation and was not anyone’s fault or responsibility.

Following, is the report of the specific projects I was involved in, and the tasks I undertook.

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Al-Ekhlaas primary school, Mosul, Iraq ARCò was commissioned and completed the project of a requalification of a primary school in the old town of Mosul, Iraq, a town that was nearly destroyed and occupied for three years by ISIS, until 2017. Despite the security issues, ARCò set as a prerequisite for the project that of having a direct involvement of the stakeholders, especially the end beneficiaries. Therefore, two representatives of ARCò went to Mosul in order to personally complete a survey of the construction / restoration area, and also organized meetings with the future school pupils, their parents and their teachers, apart from also the municipality and other relevant actors and decision makers.

After the project completion, ARCò was asked to provide proof of community involvement. I was in charge of writing the report, and reconstructing the participatory process, from the first trip to the very last consultations between ARCò and the clients. I also provided some insights on what worked and what could have been done differently, as well as proposing the use of some participatory tools for community involvement deriving from Service design.

Additionally to this, as some details of the project were not completely defined, ARCò also asked me to research on what colour would be the best choice to paint the interiors of the school classrooms, and I wrote a paragraph providing literature supporting the colour white in order to foster concentration and creativity in schools.

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As ARCò is one of the partners of the Building Impact Zero Network (BI0N), an Erasmus+-funded network of organisations active in low impact building techniques, I was asked to propose a renovation of their website (www. bi0n.eu). I thought of a way to keep the same language and style in the website, but making it more userfriendly, more clear and easier to navigate, and I used Adobe XD to prototype this newer version of the website.

Unfortunately, the website is still not updated.

Simultaneously I was involved in other activities related to the BI0N Network. During the past months, BI0N received more funds from the Erasmus + Programme to spread the voice about their educational activities, especially the workshops, therefore BI0N partners decided to produce some videos to promote themselves as partners, as well as the educational opportunities they provide. I was involved in some Skype meeting with all BI0N partners, and reported directly to my tutor about the decisions took regarding the videos to be produced. I myself was asked to produce some ideas on which kind of videos should have been produced and how they could look like, on behalf of ARCò.

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ARCò built a sustainable “Eco-lodge” in the area of Inle Lake in Myanmar. The Eco-lodge is part of a bigger project of dissemination of best practice for a sustainable tourism, generally speaking but also focusing on the specific region. Therefore, ARCò wrote two long volumes describing the area on intervention and listing all the guidelines to follow to start and maintain a touristic activity or hospitality structure sustainably. I was asked to summarize all the guidelines in a short, translated document, where all the most relevant sustainability principles for tourism are concentrated.

These include: - environmental guidelines, on hydrology, soil, protection against fires, topography, fauna and vegetation, buffer zones, as well as light, acoustic and visual pollution; - architectural/bioclimatic guidelines on passive solar energy design, mechanical system and equipment, renewable energy and embodied energy of materials, as well as materials choice, water and waste management, transportation, wellbeing and accessibility; - economic and societal guidelines, regarding the company’s communication and security, the use of local resources and a proper land use, all while respecting the local traditions and histories; - guidelines to achieve the desired customer experience, curating the aesthetic aspects of the structure and the surrounding, to which I added the possible advantages of employed user experience design principles and tools.

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The expansion of a secondary school for visually-impaired kids in Kobo Robit, Ethiopia, was the base for the Master’s architecture workshop (nr. 2), and was a project that occupied the ARCò team for the longest time during my internship period. The school project was already at a preliminary design stage by the starting time, and it was moving forward to an executive design stage. Some distributional parts of the floorplan were being revised or rethought, and some construction details were being decided.

I was asked to research on the different types of low vision conditions, and on which colours would make the best choice for the different areas (dormitory, canteen and classrooms).

Also, ARCò was moving towards a definition of the roof, and asked me to start researching on the thatching technique, as well as proposing a simplified version of the usual thatched roof layering, according to the availability of the materials in Robit’s surroundings. Unfortunately, this option was later considered too complicated, and a corrugated iron roof was preferred.

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Finally, this project started by the time I was two months away from completing the internship, and was therefore at an initial stage. The project was an expansion of an existing hospital in Kitgum, Uganda, with a clinic offering eyecare and eye surgery.

A great part of the team, including me, spent some time researching on the ideal operation of a surgery unit, especially for eyecare, referring to western standards. We spent time to understand how the different flows (patients, materials, medical staff) should be organized, what could and could not cross, and how to have a safe and sterile surgery room.

A floorplan had already been proposed by architects previously hired by the clients, so I proposed my own functional diagram for a floorplan within the perimeter proposed by the previous architects, complying with the Italian regulation on flows, necessary areas and rooms and their minimum dimensions. Later ARCò decided to disrupt the perimeter and to start the floorplan from scratch.

The team proceeded researching case studies of surgery units in hospital (both Italian and in the Global South), and I contributed with case studies from Uganda, Nepal, Morocco and Rwanda. For each of these case studies, I analysed the surgery unites operation and intertwining of flows.

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Critical paper

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CRITICAL PAPER Facing the challenge of “Design for Development” in the Global South implies to put in place an “olistic” view that include a multidisciplinary and design-oriented approach in which architecture, planning and heritage protection are all parts of an integrated strategy.

The “learning-by-doing” approach that represents the fil rouge of the Master finds its final conclusion in the field experience of the internship. Students are requested to wright the final thesis starting from this last experience, using this opportunity to develope a retrospective critic about the entire training.

The request is to draft a paper, by identifying a specific topic in accordance with the teaching staff. The specific topic could be directly connected to the internship experience or could be a focused question derived from the entire training or related to a significant book for the research.

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BUILTHERE A DIGITAL TOOL FOR REMOTE BUILDING MANAGEMENT Carla Procida

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KEY WORDS builiding site, international cooperation, remote management, app design, service design

ABSTRACT Despite the wide use of digital tools in the design stages of a building, the construction sector still relies of the constant presence on site to control the building process, as well as on manually produced reports, dashboards and printed drawings. When remote management is necessary, when the stakeholders and distant and dispersed, the communication among all them becomes difficult. Many experiments have been attempted as digital solutions to support the construction sector in managing building sites remotely.

In development architecture, it is common that an architecture studio based in a western country with a project in the Global South is forced to manage a building site from remote, because of the distance, costs, and recently the covid-19 induced lockdown constituted another reason. From interviews and surveys to development architects, the authors have concluded that when it comes to remote management, many issues can be caused by a dispersed and fragmented communication and exchange of materials, because of the use of different tools.The author propose a solution that is comprehensive of all the most needed features to support development architects manage sites from remote. The solution is well positioned in the market and can be used by architects, site supervisors, NGOs and project donors.

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1. Introduction Digitalization within the construction industry is still nowadays a slow process, and is rarely present in all aspects and moments of a construction project.

Despite the fact that “computer application within construction companies began little more than a decade after the first electronic computer was built (1950s)” and computer-based project management tools such as the Critical Path method (CPM) were rapidly adopted by the construction industry (Kajewski et al., 2003), nowadays this sector still relies of the constant presence on site to control the building process, as well as on manually produced reports, dashboards and printed drawings.

The use of digital tools is much more present in the design stages of a building, and the communication among all the project stakeholders becomes difficult, especially in the construction moment, and when the stakeholders and distant and dispersed.

This becomes even more evident when the design office and the construction site are very far from each other, sometimes even in different countries. This is the typical case for architecture offices or associations based in Western countries and operating for the International Cooperation sector. It can happen for different reasons that the architecture practices find it difficult to send someone internal or an external expert to the building site, and in this case managing a building site from remote can bring problems, slow down the process and lower the quality of the construction.

Language barriers aggravate communication, exchange of drawings can be difficult and accidents can occur, that cannot be timely managed.

For all these reasons, digital systems and tools that can facilitate all these aspects should be considered as valid options for remote management of construction projects, not only in the industry in general, but also within the International Cooperation architecture sector.

This paper explored the possibility for Western-based architecture offices working in the International Cooperation sector to adopt a comprehensive ICT tool, specifically designed for the construction sector, in order to facilitate the overall exchange of information between the design office and the contractor on site, and ultimately reach an effective remote management of building sites.

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2. Methodology This paper is both a research and service design project work. The methodology adopted consists in different research moments to better inform the design stage and related choices.

The desk research consists in a literature review of the state of art of digitalization within the construction industry, as well as of different cases and experience of digital solutions to facilitate remote construction management, starting from very early experimentations to the recently mainstreamed BIM applications until recent projects.

Simultaneously, a field research is conducted, and the author investigates the same issues of remote management but with a focus on the International Cooperation architecture branch. The author has conducted and exposes the results of a survey, some interviews to the main actors of this particular condition, and extracts insights useful to identify design opportunities and formulate a design concept.

Furthermore, the author, a Service Designer by profession, proposed a design solution consisting in a mobile and desktop app, and illustrates it features, market positioning and implementation strategy.

Fig.1: Kajewski et al., 2003; Online Remote Construction Management Part A: Construction Project Case Studies; Business use of PCs and the internet DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

3. Desk research: literature review 3.1 The construction industry, digitalization and remote management The terms digitization, digitalization and digital transformation discern from the same process taking over in our era, as the use of digital tools and systems is profoundly changing our society, businesses and companies, and the way people operate within them.

While the three terms are clearly similar, they refer to three different, yet deeply interconnected, processes. Digitization is defined by the Gartner’s IT Glossary as “the process of changing from analog to digital form”, being it from handwritten to digital text, or from analog photographs to digital ones, which in companies additionally refers to the conversion from paper-based information to digital one.

Digitalization is the forward step when, by digitizing information, a digitalization of the whole process occurs, therefore resulting in a profound transformation of the business operations. Digital transformation, in its broader, societal acceptation, is ultimately the overall effect of digitalization on society, and is within companies the general change resulting from the digitalization of the single processes.

The construction industry involves some of the most complex operations and a large number of stakeholders, that makes management particularly demanding and draining. Some of the load on project managers could be reduced with an effective adoption of digital tools to facilitate any stage of the building process.

Indeed, “the potential of digitization is enormous, as it would not just make the construction processes more efficient, but will also provide valuable tools and services through the whole life cycle of construction projects” (Bucchiarone et al., 2019).

But digitalization in the construction sectors is still in an initial stage when compared to other industries, and “Construction businesses are typically still in the early phases of digital adaptation.

Many processes are not tracked at all or only by using paper-based document sheets for reporting” (Bucchiarone et al., 2019).

Already in 1997-98, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted and a survey that shows how the construction industry’s adoption and use of ICT was below average in all the indicators involved.

Since the early 2000s, an increase of adoption of computer-assisted tools were registered more in the design offices rather than on the building site (Kajewski et al., 2003), and still nowadays “most of the digitization work has been done at the design and planning levels.

However, without proper feedback from the real world, these plans and models can deviate from the reality on the construction site” (Bucchiarone et al., 2019).

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The adoption of the Building Information Model (BIM) by many, in the latest years, has already been a huge step towards digitalization within the construction industries, and in 2017 the European Construction Industry Federation (ECIF) “establishes that digital transformation of the industry will occur: from top to bottom with the adoption of European and national norms outlining the switch from the traditional process to BIM” (Rotilio et al., 2019) in its manifesto “Making BIM a Global Success”. BIM makes it possible to visualize a digital model of a building with all the information about its components, and allows project stakeholders to work together and identify issues with the building before the site is set-up. A powerful tools which has been adopted in many practices. Despite its success, the tool seems not to be able to still fill all the gaps when it comes to the construction phase, as it is a tool that requires a specific training and preparation to use, and it is not of immediate and easy use for building site supervisors, apart from not allowing real-time communication in order to quickly resolve unexpected issues.

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3.2 Remote building site management, international cooperation and the consequences of Covid-19 on the industry

“Construction projects by their nature are fragmented, complicated, risky and uncertain. These challenges are, arguably, exacerbated in remote construction projects” (Arayic et al., 2012), because “remote projects have their unique problems” resulting in “loose control over communications and management” (Sidawi, 2012).

Therefore, all the previous arguments acquire even more meaning when the building site needs to be managed from remote. But why would the site need to be monitored from a distance? Côté et al. cites as main reasons for building supervisors to manage the site remotely the remoteness of the site itself and its difficult accessibility, work overload at the office and so on. The authors also point out how “construction site monitoring takes time and involves costs. Solutions that would save users from having to visit the site by letting them do the monitoring remotely would contribute in saving time and lowering costs”(Côté et al., 2011).

One case is described by Mcanulty and Baroudi (2010), showing results of their survey among Australian contractors that experienced remote management of one or more construction projects, assessing their difficulties especially when it comes to severe climatic factors.

Another case is that of SEC (Saudi Electric Company) in Saudi Arabia, whose projects are often dispersed in isolated areas “with rough terrain such as mountains and deserts and operate in undeveloped and environmentally sensitive regions “, as well as being distant from any office or urban centre (Sidawi, 2011).

Therefore, the distance and problematic accessibility of the building site is an additional issue for the construction sector, regardless it being an civil, infrastructural or architectural project.

Deng et al. highlights how, in any remote project, the broad distance among stakeholders, often even located in different countries, is the main source of delays in decision making (Deng et al., 2001).

Arayici et al. build on the same argument affirming that “problems around communication, coordination and management occur especially in remote construction projects, in which stakeholders are all located in discrete locations or even in different countries” (Arayici et al., 2012).

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The stakeholders distance crossing countries’ or even continents’ boundaries is the usual situation occurring for projects that are designed and planned by an architecture office or association in a Western country, to be built in a country of the Global South. Within this framework, the author’s purpose is that of investigating the causes and effects of stakeholder’s distance on the construction timeline for those practices involved in the International Cooperation sector. The aim is to understand when remote management of building sites becomes a necessary compromise for these practices, and how digital tools can come into help.

In particular, the paper builds on the recent facts caused by the spread of the new Coronavirus a.k.a. Covid-19, which forced many countries in a sudden lockdown. The majority of sectors and professions have been influenced by the situation, causing many to revise and reinvent a way to continue the work. Architecture and the construction sector are certainly among them.

The construction industry has been forced and will continue to be reshaped by the pandemic crisis. Among the most common effects, are the increasing remoteness of some of the work, virtual meetings among stakeholders and a preference for locally-sourced materials, as local suppliers can be more responsive to unexpected situations.* Especially for what concerns practices with imminent building sites planned in a country of the Global South, the situation limited the possibility for architects and/or external experts to travel to the project locations in order to supervise the building site(s). * source: https://www.letsbuild.com/blog/6-ways-the-covid-19-crisis-will-reshape-the-construction-industry

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Therefore, all the negative repercussions on the industry in general has been aggravated by the difficulty, and sometimes impossibility, to gain control over the building site. This caused many offices to experiment the use of mix of different tools to try to let their projects continue on schedule, but also caused many others to give up on their timeline and totally postpone the construction.

3.3 Benefits of digital tools employment Among all the aspects influenced by a forced remote management of the building site, communication, sharing of information, process tracking, drawings exchange and contingency management are surely the most affected.

As more extensively illustrated in the following paragraphs, many of the lucky practices that decided to and were able to ensure continuation of their building sites, most of them relied on a mix of different tools: some for communication, some to exchange drawings and some others to have control on the different elements of the project.

Studio Taxibrousse, an Italy-based architecture association operating largely in the African context, has written a series of inputs to suggest and alternative methodology for the remote management of a building site. The methodology consists of four steps, that were taken as a base for the author’s design proposal. The methodology is again a set of suggestions and guidelines to refer to in order to consider managing the site remotely when the conditions are imposing it. Nevertheless, the guidelines are mainly theoretical, and do not specifically refer to certain tools to put them in practice.

The study is at an initial stage, but generally every step or process would need to be executed with traditional tools, not specific for the construction sector.

On the other hand, some specific digital tools to manage construction from remote do exist, even though they may be more useful for complex buildings or infrastructure, and may not constitute the best options for International Cooperation – involved practices running on a budget.

Despite this, we argue that architecture firms should consider managing their building site from remote, and entrust the supervision of the site to local actors. To do this, firms should consider adopting a digital tool, possibly specific for the sector and able to blend in all the major features required to effectively complete the construction, as the benefits are possibly vast.

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“Davidson & Moshini (1990) and Bowden (2005) state that construction costs can be reduced by 25% through efficient transfer of information between the construction teams; that transfer can be achieved through ACMS” (Advanced Computer based Management Systems) (Sidawi, 2012).

More benefits from the literature are: - improved communication and information exchange among project stakeholders; - better integration of project participants; - decrease of delays with drawings and documents exchange, as well as on the overall project timeline; - increased accessibility to project data; - reduced costs for travelling to the project country; - reduced errors in technical drawings due to a major definition in the planning stage; - digitalization of processes, especially on the production of dashboards and reports; - a major integration of project infobases and databases; - a better reputation and strategic position for the organization (Sidawi, 2012; Alaghbandrad et al., 2012; Kajewski et al., 2003).

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Among those, effective communication and information exchange is by far the most evident benefit. Uden & Naaranoja (2007) suggest that “The success of a project depends heavily on the quality of cooperation between the different actors involved during the project. Thus communication and interaction are essential” (Uden & Naaranoja, 2007), while Yang et al. (2007) states that to reach a good level of communication and information exchange, traditional communications are inappropriate, therefore the need for a specific tool.

Due to the particular circumscription of this paper, which is focusing on the particular case of western-based architecture office implementing project within the framework of International Cooperation, we argue that the advantage of costs reduction is a major factor to be considered, as the lack of funds to implement a project is one of the main causes of delays for these practices, possibly more than a pandemic.

Additionally, more benefits from the remote management for these particular international projects should be considered, and they deal with the social sustainability component of these projects.

Indeed, most of the architectural projects implemented as a result of International Cooperation in the Global South aim to have a social impact, and often bring basic services to marginalized communities, such as schools, healthcare units, hospitals and so on. For this reason, despite the fact that being present during the construction ensure a better control over the realization from the project manager, as well as being a precious experience, delaying the construction means that those beneficiary communities will spend more time lacking those services, prolonging their condition of victims of inequality.

On the other hand, another crucial aspect, that is usually desirable and considered when it comes to these particular projects, is that of empowerment of the locals, their active participation and capacity building. Most of the time, local workforce is employed so that people directly involved for the construction can earn a living for that period of time, and can acquire skills and experience to spend on the search for future opportunities. Sometimes, some training is also necessary so that the local workers can perfectly learn a building technique, and some other times they are employed specifically because they are already masters of some technique that is typical of their region. In all cases, for the project manager to manage a building site from the office means entrusting the supervision of the site to a local actor, being it the contractor or the leader of the workforce, or even a community leader.

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Delegating the supervision of the building site to a local ensures that this person will gain even greater expendable experience from the responsibility, empowering the community and its representative of some skilled figures that could independently build more spaces for their own people.

3.4 Experiences of remote construction management systems and IT systems in literature The literature regarding the implementation of a digital tool for a construction project presents a variety of cases, technological possibilities and experiments. They will be here shortly presented in chronological order.

One of the first is surely the project ORCM (Online Remote Construction Management). The ORCM team worked for two years, starting from 1999, on trial and evaluation of IT and web-based tools, in collaboration with Australian civil and building construction industry partners. As the authors write the project aimed to demonstrate leadership in facilitating the use of online technologies for the design, management and construction of building and civil construction projects, by identifying and implementing appropriate IT (Web-based) communication solutions that will ultimately: (a) help improve the flow of project communications […] (c) ensuring that all members of the project consortia are in possession of the most up-to-date and accurate project information.

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The team designed a web-based tool called projectCentre, basing their idea on some principles, such as the user centrality, the training on the use of the tool, and the specificity of it for the construction industry. The overall purpose is that of helping “the user do the job more efficiently and effectively” (Kajewski, 2003).

The peculiarity of this first experiment is that the tools is completely accessible through any browser. There is a public part of the website where the project team can choose to share details of the ongoing projects with the general public. The tools also includes a private platform that can be accessed through credential of each team member, where they get access to all the project documents, send and request information and drawings, and even order prints.

The projectCentre tool had not installation cost, only a set-up cost and a weekly usage charge. It was tested on any actor possibly involved in a construction project, such as architects, contractors, engineers, managers, superintendents and so on.

Another valuable, yet much more recent, experience is that of ForBAU, “the virtual construction site project”. It has been conceived for infrastructure projects, and in this case not only the infrastructure, but the whole site, is virtually constructed. The overall process and its duration are simulated, and the divided in individual work steps.

“The digital model is fed with real-world data during the execution phase, including information about the current progress of the construction project”, and tracks the use of resources and materials.

Some of the benefits are: early identification of critical aspects and bottlenecks, assistance to the planner in choosing transportation routes, prediction of the project duration and optimization through the detection of resources under-usage (Borrmann et al., 2009).

The work of Côté et al. consists in an immersive remote construction site monitoring. The peculiarity of this experience is in the intelligent use of Augmented Reality. A Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera installed on the site captures images from the site and creates a 360° panorama. The user wanting to remotely “dive” into the virtual building site only needs to wear a pair of VR goggles equipped with an orientation sensor. The user can therefore virtually explore the building site remotely. Additional features are the live stream from the site which allows the user to see what is happening in a particular location of the site in that precise moment, and the visualization of the whole building process thanks to the recording of every stage.

The user tests highlighted great usability and satisfaction with the immersive feeling, that facilitates the inspection of the site from remote.

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A slightly different experience is that of Sidawi (2011), who conducted a research on the remote construction projects undertaken by SEC (Saudi Electric Company) in Saudi Arabia. Sidawi highlights that the company uses a nearly traditional management methodology also for remote projects. This means the supervisors travel for many hours to visit each site, even more sites every day, having loose control on each of them. They send pictures from the site to the regional office through mobile phones or e-mails. The author carried out a survey that highlights negative effects on the company’s performances due to the delay in sorting out queries because of the inefficiency of the communication tools. The author proposes the use of Advanced Computer-based Management Systems (ACMS) equipped with wireless connection, satellite or mobile tools to sort out problems that may occur, especially “mistakes in construction works, delays in the project timetable, changes to the project’s scope, changes to the specifications/ specified materials, and increases in the costs of materials during construction”(Sidawi, 2012). The survey respondents mostly agreed on the possible benefits of adopting such systems, but were reluctant to do so mostly because of possible disruption within the company’s organization, running and maintenance costs, as well as the insufficient level of IT skills within the team members.

An experience dated back to 2012 was that of Arayici et al., who tested the shared use of BIM between the Liverpoolbased architectural company John McCall Architects, and the contractor in Cheshire, for the Broom lane project in Manchester. The contractor and the remote site management team received a lightweight version of the BIM model from JMA, that could be accessed without a license through a browser.

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The authors found out that working on the 3D model […] was a significant experience for all the stakeholders at discrete locations in avoiding misunderstanding and lack of understanding in communication, ordering the correct building material at the right size, managing site activities remotely, monitoring site progress in relation to planning and safety by the site team (Arayici et al., 2012). Moreover, the architectural company gained experience in storing all the information in one tool and registered an increase in effectiveness to review the project and “avoid potential problems arising from mistakes in the future such as changes to specifications, specified materials, effective planning and scheduling” (Arayici et al., 2012).

Despite the positive results of the experimentation, the authors highlights some limitations in the use of BIM, such as in the information collecting process. Furthermore, BIM seems to focus mainly on the final form of the construction objects rather than on the single architectural elements, while “designers also need a continual stream of abstractions, advice and information to facilitate the process from information to the knowledge distillation” (Arayici et al., 2012).

Last but not least, for large civil engineering projects, the Smart Construction team tested this IoT cloud-based platform in order to facilitate the remote management of complex construction sites for site managers and coordinator. Smart Construction is a platform consisting of devices, called smart nodes, attached to vehicles, materials and on the site workers’ suits. The nodes “continuously stream data to storage inside the cloud platform” and send realtime notifications to managers, as well as historical statistics and information. This facilitates the visualization of the construction progress, as well as the identification of deviations from the norm.

Despite all the advantages of this system, the users were still reluctant to adopt it permanently, as they felt they lacked the technological skills needed, and they were not committed to wait to see long-term benefits (Bucchiarone et al., 2019).

3.5 Barriers hindering the adoption of a digital tool After reviewing different experiences of ICT use in construction industry, especially in supporting remote site management, and the related benefits that companies, architecture offices and studios can obtain from it, it is still interesting to note that the majority of companies and contractors, as well as the overall industry, is still far from digital transformation, and is actually one of the least digitalized industries.

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Of course, due to the complexity of the industry and its processes, a deep operational transformation like the adoption of a digital tool in its practice is not easy nor immediate. There are clearly many barriers that stop companies and offices to adopt a digital tool to manage a construction site, and by that we here mean a new, comprehensive tool that needs to be learnt by many team members.

The following barriers and complications that hinder the adoption of such a tool are retrieved from literature (Sidawi, 2012; Alaghbandrad et al., 2012) and from the related authors’ experiences and studies.

-Low tech skills, commitment and time to learn them: this applies both to the office team and to the construction team. If a new digital tool for an effective remote management is to be adopted, it will clearly need to be used as a tool to connect the two teams. Therefore each member that has a role in sharing information, photos and drawings, reporting, warning on issues, monitoring the progress and so on, needs to be proficient in using the tool. This takes time and commitment at a personal level. Alaghbandrad et al. (2012) draws particular attention on the unfamiliarity of local personnel with ICT in remote construction sites. This observation makes special sense in architectural international cooperation interventions. Indeed, the construction team is usually local, and apart from the use of mobile phone, local workers may not have familiarity with the use of software and digital tools.

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-Strategic IT investment: the investment of such a tool that may possibly disrupt the traditional operations and processes is seen as an investment that is too big for the companies to do.

-Time and issues to adopt a standardized method: Ahuja et al. (2009) highlight the fact that the adoption of ICT needs the standardization of all the protocols and communication methods among team members.

-Long-term effects: one of the most relevant barriers is surely that of the time for the effects of the investments to return back to the company. When a lot of internal transformation is needed, the company is naturally more concerned to make a big investment money-wise as well as regarding the adaptation of the operations, unless they receive short-term positive effects.

-Low connectivity for communications and downloads: another aspect hindering the use of a digital tool may be the fear of it being useless when the connectivity is low in remote areas. This can be especially true for international cooperation building projects in rural areas.

More barriers are: - limited budget for ICT investment; -data security issues; -periodic upgrade of software and systems.

A digital tool specifically thought for the construction industry and for international cooperation projects must take all these barriers into consideration, and will need to provide a solution that possibly overcomes most of these barriers, making the benefits overtake the complications.

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4. Field research In the previous introductory paragraphs we have seen how the digital transformation of the construction industry and on the construction phases within architectural office is still far from being fully realized. We have also seen some of the prototypes and experiences done during the years, and the barriers that were in some cases hindering the users to adopt those solutions. We have as well seen many of the possible benefits that an architectural office can obtain by adopting a digital tool.

As previously mentioned, this work focuses on those architecture offices working for development within the International Cooperation framework , and therefore building structure for needy communities of the Global South mostly. As well as with any other architecture office and construction project, these practices were also hit by the consequences of the spread of Covid-19 and the related lockdown. Possibly even harder, as for these studios the presence on site is quite important for a good project success, but being present means travelling across countries, continents 100% of the time. For the purposes of this work, the author conducted some additional research, and retrieved information about postponed or remotely continued projects from the architects themselves.

Fig.2: Author; case studies.

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4.1 Survey First of all, fifteen architecture offices and practitioners were identified, each of them being based in a western country, that had to postpone or remotely manage a project construction due to the lockdown in the last months.

Figure 2 shows the list of the studios and associations identified, where they are based and were their projects are, as well as the names of those projects.

As we can observe, all of these offices had projects in the Global South either at a design stage or already being built, and these projects had to be postponed or remotely managed.

Among these offices, a short survey was submitted to ten of them.

They are: • Taxibrousse • Article 25 • Asociación de Amistad con el Pueblo saharaui de Sevilla, AAPSS • ARCò – Architecture & Cooperation • Architettura senza Frontiere Piemonte • We-Building e.V • LOAD • Bioarchi rigotti • Associazione Balouo Salo • Newill Academy The survey had the purpose to investigate which projects were invested by the lockdown, how they were influenced and how the difficulties were managed. It also investigated the needs of these architecture studios with regard to building site remote management and what features a digital tool should have for them to successfully complete a project from remote.

The survey was structured in four sections: an introductory section, two alternative sections on whether their projects continued or were postponed, and a final section about a possible supporting app as a digital tool. It was submitted to the studios for two weeks from 19th of October until 1st of November 2020.

The results show that 100% of respondents had project programmed in the Global South that were influenced by the lockdown. In total, the projects are 22 and 26% of them were at a design stage when the lockdown started, while 74% of them were already at a construction stage.

Surprisingly, the studios managed to start or proceed with the construction in 62,5% of cases, while in the remaining 37,5% of cases the construction were postponed.

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Among the most common reasons given to postpone the project, we can find: •

Impossibility to send someone from the studio/association to run the building site: 3 respondents;

•

Impossibility to send an external expert to run the building site: 1 respondent;

•

Mistrust towards the possibility of effectively communicating remotely between the studio/association and the internal/external/local person on site: 1 respondent;

More answers were added as follows: •

Impossibility of raising funds: 1 respondent;

•

Closure of production activities in the project country (Ethiopia): 1 respondent;

No respondent said they could not entrust the building site to a local, therefore it can be deduced that this could have been possible in all projects. The interviewees were asked which consequences the postponement had on their schedule and on the office operations in general: most respondents registered a big delay on the timeline way longer than the few months of lockdown, and one respondent even had to give up on their projects as the relationships with local stakeholders and institutions were damaged. Among the effects of the delay, one studio also registered longer work periods for the project for the same parcel.

Fig.3: Author; survey.

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For what concerns the constructions that started or continued, in most cases the building site was entrusted to a local person, either an expert or simply a community representative. In one case, the building site was supervised by both a local person and a person part of the association. Finally, in one case, the local person supervising the site is also part of the association, which is very integrated in the community and operates locally most of the time.

One of the aims of the survey was to understand how the main office communicates with the local site supervisors. The majority of respondents used Whatsapp (6), phone calls (4), and e-mails (3), while more sporadically Skype and video calls. One respondent said they use sketch-up with georeferencing features.

As conclusion to the survey, the interviewees were asked whether their studio was ever forced to postpone or remotely manage a building site. 60% of them had to, and gave as main reasons: • To reduce costs • The ONGs prefer to manage it themselves to avoid more costs • Security issues (on building site) • Security issues (political/religious conflicts) • Training sessions • Waiting for funds It was asked whether they had ever considered to adopt a digital tool (an app, specifically) precisely conceived for the construction industry. The majority of them never considered it, and one said they did but did not know which one to choose. We asked which features an app supporting with the remote management of a building site should have. The replies are here ordered by from most to least chosen: •

Communication (chat, sending files, etc…): 9 respondents;

•

Manuals and step-by-steps guides of the project’s elements: 8 respondents;

•

Timeline of the building site’s progress: 7 respondents;

•

3D visualization of the projects: 4 respondents;

•

Management of employees’ / workers’ shifts: 2 respondents;

Other answers were individually added:

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Good internet connection

•

Costs / estimative metric computation worksheet

•

Drawings & documents management

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•

Calendar with local holidays & festivals

•

Contingency management system

•

Feature to organize meetings on site or with civil society representatives

At this point, we asked whether they would use an app with such features. 40% said they would use it if it had a low price, 40% would use it but only when free, and 20% would still not use it.

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4.2 Interviews At this point of the research, some of the actors involved in the projects from these offices were interviewed.

Interview with Raoul Vecchio, president of Association Balouo Salo: • Apart from the local responsible that is part of the association, did you also plan to go and supervise the building site? If yes, how did you react when you knew you couldn’t go because of the lockdown? How did you adapt on time, for the construction to continue with the only supervision of the local responsible?

Our association is built upon principles of constant relationships in the place of implementation, a relationship made of friendships, institutional contact and dialogue with the community. Our aims is to give self-reliance, so it’s important for us that the community has a sense of belonging towards the projects, only possible by deeply knowing the culture. That is why every year I live in Senegal for 6-7 months, and the community sees me as a local that wants to develop his village, and this is crucial to really involve the locals to participate in the project, in order to break the barrier created between the donor and the beneficiary.

For all these reasons my absence was problematic, not just for technical aspects, but because my presence generates security towards the project and more belonging. Nevertheless, having consolidated friendships on site allows constant communication.

The two projects were managed differently: Concerning the well in Sanoufily, the place is isolated and hard to reach, but before the lockdown it was already in an advanced construction phase. Because of my absence, it was not concluded because the community is afraid of damaging the tools for the installation of the solar panels. About the cultural centre in Tanaff, the project is vast (more than 1200 mq), many of the needed work was already illustrated and the workers were trained for it, so this could be managed remotely.

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• What tools were necessary to manage the site remotely, for communicating, drawings exchange and so on?

When remote exchange is necessary between a professional and a team member who didn’t complete high school, it is difficult to understand and avoid mistakes. The knowledge of the local language (Mandinga) is important. Training the team, usually for 15 days, is part of our activities, as well as seminars and tests. We manage the project remotely through phone calls, sketches, renderings and photos, on top of which wr draw, add texts or drawings. The foreman we usually work with understands all the problems connected to the project and can transfer it to the team. We usually have video meetings to explain the activities to pursue true 3D models or scale models. But there are some elements that need the presence on site, to ensure the workers’ safety. We normally use Whatsapp (phone calls, videos, images) and Libon (only for phone calls). When I am there, seminars and lessons are made through images, drawings and scale models to explain the behaviour of some structural elements and materials. During the lockdown, some seminars were done with prints of a pdf presentation that was illustrated through phone call.

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• What are, in your opinion, the positive effects of a building site exclusively managed by locals?

I think no project can last long if it is not realized by the local community. It’s common to think that donating means only to build or to provide something, but one cannot help by just donating, because it doesn’t generate sense of belonging and therefore responsibility, it is not given value to and it is destined to fail. Some continuous donations created a sense of “donations addictions”, and many local entities don’t make an effort to provide solutions because they know they will receive money. This doesn’t create development.

The only way for a project to succeed is to let the community develop a feeling of belonging.

Tools need to be created so that local knowledge is developed and exploited to create self-sufficiency.

That is why we insist on community participation.

• What were common contingencies during the construction? And how did you manage them from Italy?

Western culture is used to program and define every phase or the project and productivity is crucial, while in the area of intervention time does never limit an activity. Therefore, one contingency could be that of respecting the western timing. But knowing what is the local culture, we already set the project time according to it. Another issue is that of the team that is mostly unqualified and sometimes can commit basic mistakes hard to foresee, that is why continuous training especially for complex elements. When a mistake is committed, this is explained to the whole team to avoid it being repeated.

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Interview with Federico Monica, principal architect at Taxibrousse Studio: • How did you react when you knew you couldn’t go because of the lockdown? How did you adapt on time, for the construction to continue with the only supervision of the local responsible?

Actually the project was already thought and developed to be managed from remote, only one site inspection to verify the measurements and conditions of the soil and to assist the foundations tracing.

Since we normally work on a low budget, we are used to adapt the process to be managed remotely. In this case, we used a method consisting in poles and ropes. We also slightly modified the project to adapt the foundations to be similar to those the contractor is used to do.

• The person you entrusted the building site to is the school responsible, so not a technician. How did you face the difficulties linked to the management of the construction by someone outside of the profession?

Also in this case, we adapt and simplify the way we tell the project: to forget any convention of representation can create issues. It is important to learn how to tell a project in the contractor’s language.

For example, if a wall is to be built, we need to explain how they will be built, what are the risks and the aspects to pay more attention to.

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It takes time, but it allows a better control over the building site.

We were lucky in this case because the school responsible was helped by a technician as a link with the workers’ team, but she also became a very precise construction manager.

• What tools were necessary to complete the construction, at a level of communication, drawings exchange and so on?

We used traditional software like CAD for the main drawings, always A4 or A3 printable sheets. Then we always proceed creating 3Ds of the main construction steps and details using SketchUp. Estimative metric calculations and descriptions were shared through Gsuite tools, while for information we used Whatsapp or Messenger, and through the same platform we receive images of the construction progress. Finally we used software for photo retouch to include indications on the pictures.

• What are, in your opinion, the positive effects of a building site exclusively managed by locals?

When talking about remote management we tend to pay attention to the limits. Yes, being on site and having the chance to follow each step of the construction progress is an extraordinary and unique professional and human experience. But I also believe remote management is interesting because it forces you to never overlook anything: it forces you to rethink the project, discuss it with the contractor and learn to tell it in another “language”. The relationship with the contractor is crucial: even if the beautiful relationship with the contractor on site is not possible, at the same time the distance forces the contractor to be more responsible, and it becomes an actor in the design. Let me explain myself better: I think not all projects can be managed remotely. The project needs to be thought and modified appropriately for remote management. This implies confrontation with the contractor to use materials and technologies they normally use, even if these are not the materials we wanted or the most “sustainable techniques”.

Another positive aspect is that it pushes the architect to set priorities. We easily lose ourselves in the details. When you receive a photo of an element that is not what you imagines but it works, you accept it because they are not a priority.

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• What were common contingencies during the construction? And how did you manage them from Italy?

Most of the contingencies derive from mistakes in communication and taking some things for granted.

The funniest one happened to us in Kinshasa some years ago: we sent the elevations of a toilet with a texture indicating the wall to build with sunshading bricks, but a blacksmith started to build a grate with the same texture drawing. We kept them, but from that moment on we always produce small 3Ds as well.

For what concerns the kindergarten in Dakar, we had to modify the project after finding a septic tank and knowing the water network had to be expanded and new road was about to be built next to our kindergarten. This things happen and are part of the game.

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Intreview with Stefano Rosso, Operative Director for ARCò: • What phase was the school in Sudan when you arrived there?

I took part in a first mission in March 2020 for the Ghar Hiraa school in Mayo, while working for ARCò, and I was the site responsible and coordinated all project activities. I had to supervise the building site, but the construction didn’t start because of covid-19. So I went back, this time as AICS consultant, in October 2020 to assist the site supervision, as Operative Director.

•

Why do you think ARCò proceeded with the building?

ARCò considered working in the Mayo contest very important, as it is an informal settlement and a former refugee camp where many ethnicities merge, but where people live in poor health conditions.

ARCò has always investigated these contexts, so it was important to go on, and it was an experience of growth and I learned a lot about building sites in difficult contexts.

•

How did you and ARCò communicate?

We used Skype, Whatsapp and e-mails. We needed to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) as Sudan strongly controls and limits internet traffic. Every week we had a Skype meeting to update each other and make considerations about the project.

•

What kind of materials did you exchange with the office?

Mails, drawings and photos. Especially during the construction phase, photos constituted a great sharing tool.

• What contingencies occured and how did you manage them?

The Covid-19 emergency surely delayed the whole process.

Moreover, the context and its construction sector is very different from the European one. Language was also a barrier to information flow, so an interpreter is usually needed. Nevertheless, the biggest issue is to find the contact between local practices and our knowledge. Finally, other contingencies are usually delays in materials delivery and composition of the workers’ team.

• Do you think a specific tool to manage building sites remotely would have helped with some contingencies?

I think the project management though BIM would have surely helped during the design stage.

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From the research, both desk and field, we can extract some insights. The construction industry is experiencing a slow digitalization process. Most development architects find themselves forced to manage building sites remotely, without having the proper tools to do so. Communication becomes despersive and difficult, and this can bring problems with the construction progress. Most of development architects use a series of platforms and tools to undertake all the needed tasks, and this creates major fragmentation.

Fig.4: Author; Offering map.

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5. The project

5.1 Concept After collecting insights from the desk and the field research and identifying areas of opportunities, a concept was conceived, consisting of a digital tools, and more specifically an app that could help architecture offices manage their projects’ construction from remote when the conditions don’t allow the presence of someone internal or external on site for supervision.

BuilThere takes its name from “Built”, that stands for construction and a finished, complete building suggested by the past tense, and There, indicating the remote nature of the projects that the app is targeting. Moreover, the assonance with the noun “builder” suggests the fact that all the features integrated in the app support the construction, as if the app was the builder “making the work”. As a general vision for the app, we envision a world where marginalized communities no more need to wait to see their much needed space come to life, while the mission is to enable development architects to complete projects for marginalized communities, even when presence on site is not possible.

The app is conceived to have different features integrated together, as well as different interfaces for different users. Fig. 4 shows the offering map displaying all the feature included in the app: • Communication through a chat with vocal messaging included; • possibility to send files with integration with Adobe Reader for pdf format; • exchange of step-by-step manual of the different architectural elements of the building; • a checklist of elements to be built, that automatically generate and update a timeline with the project progress; • an integration with Google sheets to keep track of costs and estimative metric computations; •

a contingency management system;

• the possibility to organize virtual or in-person meeting among stakeholders and local actors/administration.

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Moreover, the app will work through a Offline First system, allowing the service to continue working with flaky internet connection, since this is a problem highlighted both by survey respondents and interviewees. The developer is expert in this kind of system, and confrmed its feasibility.

The service is conceived to be realized thanks to a network of different stakeholders, all contributing to the project in some way. The stakeholders analysis in Fig. 5 displays how the various stakeholders can influence the project, based on the two measured criteria: level of power and level on interest in the project. Stakeholders with low power and low interest are marginal, and therefore will only need to be informed about the implementation and use of the app within the building projects. This can be for example the case of local administrations in the project country/locality.

Stakeholders with a high power but low interest need to be involved in the project and they are usually institutional stakeholders that can favour the project by funding it or advocating for it, but will not need to concretely contribute to its development. In this case, the Italian Association for International Cooperation (AICS) and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) could partially fund the app development. Also Wehubit could financially support the project: it is a grantmaker whose aim is “to support and enhance digitalisation as a tool to accelerate sustainable development, increase prosperity, reduce inequalities and empower people and businesses in developing and emerging countries”.

Fig.5: Author; Stakeholder analysis

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Moreover, Innovazione per lo Sviluppo, a Programme by Fondazione Cariplo to innovate International Cooperation could sponsor the project. The same goes for Politecnico di Milano’s DAStU, (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies), as the project is being conceived within the Master “Design for Development” promoted by the Department Additionally, stakeholders with low power to influence the project, but a great interest in it can be classified as operative stakeholders. It is appropriate to consult these stakeholders to develop the project properly. In this case, Gnucoop Soc. Coop. will be involved as a developer. Indeed, the cooperative society specifically develops app and digital systems for international cooperation sector. It has developed apps for many international actors including UNHCR. Finally, stakeholders with high interest in the project and high power to influence it must be classified as key stakeholders, therefore partners. In this case, for example we can find AOI, a network of Italian NGOs, that would have the power to suggest the use of the app to the NGOs belonging to the network, which will surely have an interest in using it. The same applies to the CNAPPC (National Council of Architects, Planners, Landscape architects and Conservators), but concerning the architecture offices that could adopt the app.

Indeed, recently the CNAPPC launched a new network of architects involved in cooperation and solidarity, and most of these were among the survey respondents and could use the app for their projects.

Fig.6: Author; Stakeholder matrix

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Lastly, Parma-based studio Taxibrousse was contacted to be more actively involved in developing the project, and to be pilot-testing the app in one of their upcoming projects. They were chosen for the partnership because of their recent experience of remotely managing their latest project, a kindergarten in Dakar named “Le fil rouge”, and because they already developed a method* of remote construction management, as already mentioned in paragraph 1.3 Benefits of digital tools employment. Their methodology consists in four steps: • adapting the project and the construction techniques to the local needs and revising it, as well as producing different 3d models of each step to be able to transmit precise guidelines; • defining a team consisting of architects and referents of both the NGO and the contractor, and training the team on standardized communication methods; •

monitoring the progress in real time through GPS data, videos and photos;

•

managing contingencies though step-by-step instructions.

Their work has been of great inspiration and a base for this project.

In order to further clarify the role and relationship between the project and its stakeholders, a stakeholders matrix (Fig. 6) was produced.

Fig.7: Author; System map

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On the first columns we can find the different actors’ nature, while on the first line we find the actors’ names, the relevance they have and therefore their interest in the project, the potentials of the stakeholders to solve problems and therefore contribute to the service use, resistance to adopt the service and possible solutions to mitigate their resistance.

Finally, the system map of the app explains how the actors and elements involved in the project are related to each other. Following a typical service design system map structure, the relationships among elements and actors were divided in three distinct flows: material flow, information flow and financial flow. Apart from the service itself, the building project is certainly a central element of the ecosystem, because it is the object that the service will try to support. The architecture office and the NGO both actively contribute to the building project, and they also share a direct relationships where the NGO is the architects’ client. The donor funds the project through the NGO. Being the app a tool supporting the project progress as well as its monitoring, in this case the NGO can obtain funds from the donors also for the use of the app, and therefore include the app operations cost in the project budget, so the donor will indirectly give a financial contribute to the service.

As previously explained in the app offering map, the architects, NGO, local site supervisor and donor interact with the service on different level, mostly by giving and receiving information and materials that will be than sent to the counterpart. Moreover, Gnucoop will be involved as app developer.

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5.2 Market positioning and benchmarking

Clearly, the service is inserted in a context, the construction industry, that is complex and vast. Despite what previously exposed about the late and slow digitalization process, some important construction projects do need and have made use of digital tools to partially manage construction stages and facilitating some moments.

Therefore, some tools supporting remote construction do exist. Moreover, most of the development architects forced to manage their site from remote use a series of different team management and communications tools, generally free to use. Therefore, all these apps providing services like site monitoring or simply communication are possible competitors of BuilThere. In order to understand where the service stands in the market, and its possibilities to overcome competition and assert itself, a positioning map was created. On the horizontal axes the range goes from single feature, meaning apps only providing one feature for example communication, to integrated features, when the app provides different tools in one service. On the vertical axes we can find accessible on one extreme, and expensive on the other.

More specifically, some apps provide communication or remote team management (Whatsapp, Skype, Slack), some other provide employees shifts management (Spica my hours, Mitrefinch), while the rest are specific for the construction industry, and have different features.

Fig.8: Author; Positioning map

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As we can see from the map, most of the apps simply providing communication or team management are mostly free or have a free option, while the most complete ones have a higher price. BuilThere has the ambition to stand in an empty market position, integrating different features or a low price. The added advantage is that, being it a service specifically thought to support development architects involved in International Cooperation, it could receive funds from different donors and reach a point of breakeven faster. From this analysis, we can conclude BuilThere’s competitive advantage is the integrated features for an accessible price Through the radar graphs, it is possible to explore even more features of both BuilThere and its competitors.

The characteristics listed are: •

user-friendly: the UX design is conceived to be immediate to learn and use;

• integrated: the app will provide integrations with Adobe Reader and Google sheets in order to support files exchange; • multilingual: the app is conceived to be used in different languages according to the user’s spoken language, so that even users that are not fluent on the same language can effectively communicate;

Fig.9: Author; BuilThere radar graphs and comparison

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• capacity building: one of the aims is to empower locals to supervise the building site and earn experience without the supervision of someone from the architecture office; • visually oriented: in order to make the experience feel more real for the architects managing the site from remote, the focus will be on visual elements; •

connecting architects and contractors;

•

specific for the construction industry;

•

specific for international cooperation.

BuilThere includes all of these characteristics to some extent. The competitors were also analysed according to these characteristics and then the graphs were compared to understand for which features BuilThere stands among the competitors.

Fig.10: Author; Target analysis

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For what concerns the target, we can delineate it from the stakeholders analysis. Indeed the target can be divided in marketing target and communication target. The marketing target is made up of those who will use, so in this case it includes the development architects, the local site supervisors, the NGOs and the donors. On the other side, the communication target identifies who will talk about and promote, directly or indirectly, the service.

Therefore, in this case, we can find AOI and CNAPPC, as well as DAStU, who will suggest the use of the app to their respective networks, apart from architects or NGOs to other ones after using it.

For what concerns the marketing target, it is possible to also analyse what target will possibly start using the app and which target has a future potential to use it in the future.

As potential market, all the architecture offices and contractors could be included, since the app provides support that can be used not only for very remote building sites, but potentially for all building sites. The available market could be all architects needing to manage a site from remote. As served market, we can indicate all development architects based in a western country, and with projects in the Global South. As penetrated market, we could include the survey respondent that declare they would use it, as well as part of AOI’s NGOs and CNAPPC’s architecture offices.

Finally, a Business Model Canvas was produced to clarify the economic sustainability of the solution.

Fig.11: Author; Business Model Canvas

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7. Results; The aim of this paper is to investigate the digitalization process happening in the construction industry, the application in the architecture for International Cooperation sector and to propose a comprehensive and integrated solution specifically thought for development architecture. The research shows an insufficient level of digitalization in the construction industry in general, and highlights difficulties of development architects in managing their building site remotely, when needed, and the fragmentation that the use of different tools bring. The interviews also confirmed the problems that an ineffective communication can bring, and the need for a more integrated solution.

The solution provided was conceived with the support of Taxibrousse Studio, especially on some functionalities and features. There was also a confrontation with Gnucoop, indicated as the app developed, which also well received the idea and confirmed its feasibility, as well as the possibility to implement the Offline First system in the app. The proposed solution integrates most of the features that were highilighted as needed to complete a project throgh remote management.

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8. Discussion; The study has of course some limitations. First of all, not all past experiences were reported, to have a broader idea of the state of the art. The field research through survey and interviews was limited by the impossibility to have a direct meeting with interviewees and by time constraints. A longer and deeper research could have highlighted more needs from future users. Moreover, the solution was not yet prototyped, and the prototyping and user testing would have provided more insights for further iteration.

The next step will be that of prototyping all the four different users’ interfaces and to submit it to user tests. The tests will be submitted to the survey respondents.

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Acknowledgments This work was possible thanks to the participation of many architecture office representative to the survey, as well as of the interviewees. I want to thank especially Raoul Vecchio of Balouo Salo for the interesting exchange we had, as well as Laura Gomez Agudelo of WEbuilding for the kindness and availability even in a crucial moment of her life.

The work was supported and conceived together with Federico Monica, principal architect at Taxibrousse Studio, which I thank for all the contribution and time dedication.

The work has also been further defined thanks to Paolo Palmerini from Gnucoop, that supported the idea and definition of technical aspects.

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References • Kajewski, S., Weippert, A., & Tilley, P. (2003). Online Remote Construction Management Part A: Construction Project Case Studies (pp. I, 3, 25). Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/2019249/Online_ Remote_Construction_Management_ORCM_ • Bucchiarone, A., De Sanctis, M., Hevesi, P., Hirsch, M., Royo Abancéns, F. H., Fernández Vivanco, P., Amiraslanov, O., & Lukowics, P. (2019). Smart Construction: Remote and Adaptable Management of Construction Sites through IoT (pp. 38, 43). IEEE Internet of Things Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate. net/publication/338436893_Smart_Construction_Remote_and_ Adaptable_Management_of_Construction_Sites_through_IoT • Rotilio, M., Laurini, E., Lucarelli, M., & De Berardinis, P. (2019). The maximization of the 4th dimension of the building site (p. 15). The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-4/W17, 2019 4th International Conference on Smart Data and Smart Cities, 1–3 October 2019, Malaysia. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate. net/publication/336163903_THE_MAXIMIZATION_OF_THE_4TH_ DIMENSION_OF_THE_BUILDING_SITE • Arayic, Y., Egbu, C. O., & Coates, S.P. (2012). Building information modelling (BIM) implementation and remote construction projects: issues, challenges, and critiques (pp. 76, 82, 87, 89). University of Salford Manchester, UK. Retrieved from: http:// usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/22736/ • Sidawi, B. (2012). Management problems of remote construction projects and potential it solutions: thecase of kingdom of saudi arabia (pp. 103-105, 110). Journal of Information Technology in Construction. Retrieved from: https://itcon.org/papers/2012_7. content.06348.pdf • Côté, S., Poirier, S., Latulippe, M., & Barette, Y. (2011).

Immersive remote construction site monitoring using live augmented panoramas (p. 2). Conference: the International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality. Retrieved from: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/229059866_Immersive_remote_ construction_site_monitoring_using_live_augmented_panoramas • Mcanulty, S., & Baroudi, S. (2010). Construction challenges in remote Australian locations. School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia (City East), North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. Retrieved from: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/268438827_Construction_ challenges_in_remote_Australian_locations

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• Deng, H., Yin-Sheng, L., Tam, N. M., Shuzhong, S., Q. D. & Love, P. E. D. (2001). An application of the Internet-based project management system (pp. 239-246). Automation in construction.

Vol. 10, Elsevier. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/30869354_An_application_of_the_Internet-based_ project_management_system • Alaghbandrad, A., Nigel Preece, C., Asnaashari, E. (2012).

Problems and barriers of ICT utilization on Iranian construction sites: Case studyon the successful use of ICT in remote construction sites (pp. 94-95, 97). Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/288538739_Problems_and_barriers_of_ICT_utilization_ on_Iranian_construction_sites_Case_studyon_the_successful_use_ of_ICT_in_remote_construction_sites • Uden, L., & Naaranoja, M. (2007) ITcon Vol. 12 (2007). The development of online trust among construction teams in finland (p.

305). Journal of Information Technology in Construction. Retrieved from: https://itcon.org/paper/2007/21 • Borrmann, A., Ji, Y., Wu, I.C., Obergrießer, M. , Rank, E., Klaubert, C., & Günthner, W. (2009). ForBAU – The virtual construction site project (p. 2). Proc. of the 26th CIB-W78 Conference on Managing IT in Construction. Retrieved from: https:// www.academia.edu/22055289/ForBAU_The_virtual_construction_ site_project • Ahuja, V., Yang, J., & Shankar, R. (2009). Perceptions Affecting ICT Adoption for Building Project Management in the Indian Construction Industry (pp. 415-23) Automation in Construction 18. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/article/abs/pii/S0926580508001611

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List of figures

Figure

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Fig.1: Kajewski et al., 2003; Online Remote Construction Management Part A: Construction Project Case Studies; Business use of PCs and the internet

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Fig.2: Author; case studies.

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Fig.3: Author; survey.

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Fig.4: Author; Offering map.

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Fig.5: Author; Stakeholder analysis

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Fig.6: Author; Stakeholder matrix

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Fig.7: Author; System map

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Fig.8: Author; Positioning map

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Fig.9: Author; Radar graphs and comparison

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Fig.10: Author; Target analysis

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Fig.11: Author; Business Model Canvas

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