Low-cost House Design Consultation with PLWHA and OVC
On August 23, HFH Cambodia conducted a consultation workshop on Low Cost Housing Design with home partner representatives, representatives from HIV/Aids-focused NGOs Maryknoll, Khemara, Sharing Experience for Adapted Development (SEAD), and Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope.
The participants deliberated, discussed and provided feedback on the recent house designs based on key design principles, compared the quality and cost effectiveness of current house designs and proposed new designs and agreed on key effective design principles that will guide Habitat’s PLWHA/OVC housing project in Cambodia.Similar to all of Habitat Cambodia’s programs, the group along with the construction and program team added the use of other construction materials for low cost housing after the workshop. Some examples are the use of metal frame instead of the wooden frame, sera board wall to replace wooden wall, cement block and compressed earth block, which are environment friendly substitutes to fire brick. Over and above this effort, HFH Cambodia maintains the home partners’ discretion in selecting the construction materials for their house.
“I think it is a good workshop because our home partners and partners were able to contribute their ideas, especially for home improvement. Some issues have been raised to us that are useful lessons we can pick-up and address in succeeding building activities. We were also able to discuss and include new low cost materials in our construction list,” according to Mr. Pich Sovann, Program Officer for Building Homes, Building Positive Lives Project.
