Via Mahboob Khan, Architecture for Humanity Karachi

"We are fast gearing up for the reconstruction work. On the ground the following is underway:

- Work has started on the first village at Munda headworks. 30 brick homes and a school are planned. Layouts, excavation and foundations for 12 homes has started.

- Swat, Fizagut Bridge fund raising is underway. Site survey work has been awarded, the team starts today. Hydrological and River morphology work will also start this weekend. Design concepts are being discussed. We have bridge designers from Halcrow and Mushtaq and Bilal Engineers assisting us.

- On Friday we are back in Swat to start 48 homes near Khawaza-khel in cooperation with the military. This work is being expedited because the first snowfall has been recorded in Swat, last week. Here the homes will be in cement block masonry and sloped metal roofs as we had done for the 2005 earthquake affectees. These houses are designed for the seismic conditions prevalent in the area.

- In Nowshera Khala we have started an uplift programme for 7 schools, our team of architects have spent a week documenting the buildings. Uplift and improvement of several neighbourhoods has also commenced.

- As the water is receding in the south we are surveying villages which will be rebuilt by us. Presently, several villages have been identified in Thatta district. Field investigations will begin next week.

- Model units will be ready in Karachi in October for testing some material options.

Presently, the Karachi Relief Trust and Architecture for Humanity Karachi have commitments from the following design and engineering firms in Pakistan:

Arcop, Mushtaq & Bilal engineers, Halcrow, YH Associates ( MEP engineers), NESPAK, TAQ Architects and Najmi and Bilgrami Architects"

The team has put together a 50 page PDF (10MB) documenting initial work which can be downloaded through the link or the attachment below.

• Attachment: Report[1].pdf (8.95 MB)