Sunday Diners

In similar fashion to last Sunday, we held a team meeting in the warmth of Brasov, this time with Russell’s input.  The extra hour in bed made a good difference this time and following a quick breakfast we reviewed what we hope to produce for Daniel, for the Whole School Event and for submission at the end of the Live Project.  Concious that our site work had taken over from design, we divided up topics and areas where we needed creative input and so would hopefully have a pool of work ready for us to compile on arriving back in Sheffield.  This ranged from macro strategies such as urban refuse collection right down to micro tactics such as fitting a window cill correctly, and will all go towards forming the ‘filofax’ of ideas about Better Homes and Tarlungeni.

From there it was on to Bella Musica, a cosy restuarant in a vaulted basement which was set below the main square of the Old Town, and, in the true fashion of a Sunday lunch, we proceeded to eat much more than we really could, perhaps drink a little bit more, and of course, round off the afternoon with the insatiable urge for a quick nap.

Four hours later we emerged into a moonlight Brasov and made our way back to Tarlungeni, where a fun evening of cinematic entertainments in all their glory awaited.  Unfortunately, these were the Studio Introductions…

John

The Long Lie In

Following on from the long day yesterday, today became considerably shortened.  A long and well-earned lie in, followed by a cooked breakfast of eggs and sweet pancakes began the day before heading into Brasov.  We had planned to spend part of the day sightseeing with Russell, and so some of our number wandered around the Old Town and headed up the hill by cable car from where there were some spectacular views of the town.  It was interesting to see how the town has grown with an urban grain squeezed between the hills, yet without the obvious presence of a river, and how architecture from the Soviet era so radically ruptures this order (or disorder).

In search of dinner that evening, we seemingly found ourselves amidst a Romanian wedding and missing Lorenzo who was suffering in the grasp of a quite smitten elderly lady.  This theme seemed to continue throughout the evening as we went elsewhere for dinner although less said would perhaps be better!

The day had proved a little long for some of us, and so we returned, at various points during the late and early hours to our utopian Rolling Stone Hostel.  Mercifully this time, there was no snow.

John

Building in the Dark

Well well.  A busy day indeed.  The shortage of power tools continued and unfortunately so did the shortage of hours in the day.  We were feeling under pressure for most of the day as we rushed towards the milestone of a finished stair.  By mid-morning we had enough timber to design and cut a second staircase, for House 1, a front door for House 3 and a half-finished balustrade.

As the hours wore on we did see progress on the stair and the arrival of a new power drill helped matters enormously.  With all hands on deck we saw dusk pass, and, in the true fashion of students of architecture, the lastest hours of the evening too.  Come midnight the final touches were being put to the stair and for the first time the family we able to walk upstairs. 

At the same time we also finished off choosing some photos for an exhibition in the village next week, something that seems close to Daniel’s heart and which we’d really like to host for the local people as more of a social event rather than a consultation exercise, and all before a spectacular dinner by Simon’s fair-hand rounded off the early hours of the morning. 

John

Sleeping with the Roma (yes, we did)

Another eventful day on site, we have yet again been working out the construction of the stairs, but we are moving a step closer to completion (no pun intended!). With a shortage of tools for most of the day, we discovered how frustrating it is to have designs worked out in your head that cannot be realised and so instead we continued mapping the site and the village.

As evening approached and a cold hostel beckoned, we decided to take up Sorin’s offer to sleep in his new house. We arrived excitedly, laden with sleeping bags, rugs, cherry brandy and cards; and were honoured to be included in their family life. Watching all nine children sleeping on two mattresses was pretty humbling.

As we settled in for a game of bluff and a swig of village tipple, Simon continued work with a chisel downstairs on his Corinthian capitol!  Certainly something to distinguish Sorin’s house from the neighbours…

Anna

Planting Seeds

Another busy day onsite, this time without the kids, preceeded meeting with Daniel over dinner to discuss the direction of the project. It is plain to see the concern and passion which drives his work with FAST and so we had some useful discussions about the work we could produce for him.

Our work, stairs aside, on House 3 is drawing to a close. The internal door and cills are now fully fitted, Lucian is crafting some furniture under the watch of Anna and since the kids drew so many flowers with Sarah and Emina yesterday, we have decided to help furnish the home with some pot plants too! The staircase debate continued for much of the day and by the time the sun was setting a full-height newel post and a single tread were in place. We still hope to complete the stairs and to fit a front door by Friday and, maybe, to have a homestay with the family before we leave.

This leaves us a more visionary role to play, and so we are in the process of planning to stage an event that will centre on the idea of planting seeds of community which will then grow over time as the people catch hold of this vision. Using simple interventions such as goal posts, benches and a noticeboard we hope to suggest what community in Tarlungeni could be.

John

Happy families and a Russell

Today Emina and Sarah decided to get away from site work and an try an altogether more unusual job, childcare! Looking after the 9 children from House 3 was indeed rather crazy, but getting them to draw ‘their perfect home’ led to a new insight into what the children dream of and aspire to. Moving around the houses with Simona who provides the children with help on their homework gave a further insight into the Better Homes families, and the many problems which they face.

Construction wise, cills were installed, door frames finished, the wood for the staircase finally arrived and work onsite began once again. We hope to have the staircase completed in the next day and a half so that we can begin to shift our primary efforts from site work to design and ideas.

The evening took us to Brasov to a traditional Romanian resturant in celebration of Lorenzo’s birthday, where we met up with Russell Light (MArch Coordinator and our Live Project tutor) who will be onsite for the next few days.

Sarah

Future Plans

Replenished by our weekend in Brasov, we resumed work in Tarlungeni. This entailed finishing floorboards and putting finishing touches to window sills. We all appreciated working indoors as a thick snow still lay all about outside.

The design for a new staircase was begun as three of our party visited a local timber merchant to source the material. Here the interaction of Romanian people with their landscape could be clearly seen. Vast expanses of potato fields lay all around the yard, where felled trees stood in huge piles, dark and monolithic. We saw the hardened faces of labourers hewing off the bark with axes, and were relived to find that inside the mill itself the technology was more sophisticated: an adjustable band saw on a 10m track! Before long we had befriended the owner’s wife and agreed on our requirements, the price and scheduled delivery.

That evening we hosted our colleagues from vdb in our lodgings. The intention was for a meeting of minds and the exchange of ideas was very helpful. As a group we were keen to produce a document addressing a wide audience as an aid to Daniel for attracting sponsors. At the same time we wanted to convey the practicalities of working in our present environment. Our construction techniques (worked out on site) also needed to be documented. This last point, we hoped, could inspire or inform future volunteers or Roma builders.

Cards and village wine before bed!

Simon

Sunday

Unfortunately most of our Sunday was snowed off. We awoke top find several inches and counting and although Brasov indeed looked picturesque, our sightseeing plans were somewhat hampered. We began the morning instead with a group meeting to discuss the project, and, in the warmth of the hostel perhaps for the first time fleshed out with some finality what we hope to achieve. Our experiences onsite have been key in forming these ambitions and directions, and so we now see the project as providing Daniel (de facto client) with:

1. Effective promotional material explaining FAST, their vision and Better Homes.
2. A record which tells of our experiences.
3. A ‘filofax’ of ideas for the Better Homes project (micro) and the Roma Village (macro).

The session came to a close just before lunch and we enjoyed the rest of the day off before leaving (warm) Brasov for (cold) Tarlungeni once again.

John

Saturday

Today we were gifted an enthusiastic helper in the person of Lucian, a typical ‘interested-in-everything- 12 year old. The son of the house’s future occupants, he was never happier than when shunting floorboards into place or hammering nails. He pursued Tao like a banshee with screams of glee and an infectious smile.

Tony (architrave man) fitted a door and the remaining windows were plastered by Lorenzo and Emina. The design of the staircase was also begun.

Come the evening we travelled to Brasov in search of a bar in which to watch England play in the rugby world cup final. Moving from the Auld Scots Pub we descended (with our colleagues from VDB) for some strobe-lit revelry and a chance to learn some typical (techno) Romanian dance moves from the locals.

As it was getting late we stayed in Brasov thast night just as the snow began to fall…

Simon

Hard Hats and Luminous Vests

Today some super safety gear arrived, courtesy of our lovely friends at Earthtech, Sheffield.  It’s time to introduce Romania to Health and Safety!

Here Tony, Tom and Tao demonstrate how to use a circular saw responsibly……