Thoughts On Working Abroad

5dotIHQ to be able to work on projects both locally and abroad. Recently we were contacted by some friends of ours to design a house for them in Maun, Botswana. We certainly enjoy working on projects here in Seattle but a little variety is always nice, especially if that variety involves hyenas. Interestingly enough, I met these folks through my best friend while I was travelling after graduate school. That same friend had us design a cabin for him in Costa Rica. You can check that out here.

The Maun project has a lot in common with the Costa Rica project. Both are small residential projects with very tight budgets. Both utilize different construction techniques than we use here in the states. Both will be/were built by non full time professional crews. I was lucky enough to be able to visit both sites once but the majority of the design was done from afar. The Maun project is composed of a main house and a garage/shop with a cottage to be added later. Actually, the main house will be built in two stages with the living/kitchen area being built first to be used as 'loft' type living until the next phase when the bedrooms will be built.

We learned some lessons from working abroad in Costa Rica that we are hoping to use on the current one.

• One big idea. Keep the main concept strong and don’t try to pack too much into it. If you aren’t there to interpret things, they will get lost.
• Pick your battles. You aren’t there and email is easy to ignore. You will get shut out if you never compromise.
• Fight when it is important. If that beam is too small, say so.
• Plans are for permit. Sketches are for construction. A three dimensional sketch is much more effective than a plan detail.
• Make sure you have an advocate. In Costa Rica, the client became the de-facto project manager, advocating for the design in the absence of the architect.

Hopefully this will help us on the current project. Here are some images of where we are at: