One Architecture Student Is Building Dreams In Panama

By Nancy K. Crevier

She started out building houses for her Barbie dolls out of books, but Kate Daugherty, a 2004 Newtown High School graduate and a senior at the University of Hartford, is building structures to build lives now.

An architecture major, Kate recently returned from a trip to Guacamayo, Panama, where she and 17 fellow architecture students spent a little over a week doing site studies and creating building plans that will culminate in a unit they will construct during a return trip in May, that villagers there can rent to surfers visiting the rural coastal community.

“The economy in Guacamayo is really bad. They do have tourists visit because it’s a big surfing area, but they have no services that they can earn money from,” said Kate. The villagers are farmers, and make a few native crafts to sell. Surfers are supposed to pay a small fee to pitch tents on the beach, but it is not always enforced, resulting in lost funds to the town, she said. By building the ten-person “surf cabin” that the group designed, it is hoped that additional paying tourists will be attracted. “It’s a way for the villagers to earn money and to learn about running a business,” said Kate.

The students traveled with Global Architecture Brigade, a student-led global health and sustainable development organization. Each student paid $1,200 to fund the project and to travel to Panama.

The 18 students jumped into the work of site analysis and design right away, following a flight to Panama City on January 9, a ten-hour, overnight bus trip, and a three-hour trip by boat to Guacamayo. “We had no information before we got there. We didn’t know what the site was like, or what kinds of materials they would have. We had to figure out all of that in the time we were there, and the language was a problem. The villagers spoke mostly just Spanish or a village dialect,” said Kate.

The Guacamayons were kind and understanding, though, said Kate, and even built the travelers a makeshift shower from PVC pipes that carried water into a tiny area surrounded by plastic bags. “They don’t have showers there, so that was really nice,” Kate said.

Keeping dry was more of a problem, however, as the remnants of a hurricane that blew through the first day they arrived brought three more days of heavy rains.

Even so, bit-by-bit the group collaborated with the villagers to come up with a plan for a building that might create a sustainable business. “During the week we met with people from some of the surrounding cities to explain our project. They weren’t as excited about us being there. They didn’t believe that we were doing this with no intent of profit for ourselves,” she said. Toward the end of the week, they had convinced the other city officials that they were not there to harm the Guacamayons or to invade their space.

Support From Villagers

The villagers in Guacamayo were 100 percent behind the project, said Kate, and town elders and villagers all actively participated in the planning.

The finished hut will contain a large bedroom with space for ten people, using a mixture of hammocks and bunk beds, a lounge area, and a kitchen with a fire pit. “There is no electricity in the village, and no running water. But the building will offer tourists more shelter than a tent, and hopefully more incentive to visit the area.” Because the villagers are not familiar with indoor plumbing, no bathroom or shower is included in the plan. “We want running the business to be easy for them to understand. We are putting in a cistern to collect clean rain water for the visitors to use, though,” said Kate.

Visiting the remote village was an eye-opening experience for her, said Kate. “This was the first time I’ve ever been in such a poverty-stricken area. We stayed in a room in the school, sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags that Global Architecture Brigade provided for us,” she said. Food and bottled water was provided by the organization, as well, as potable water is an issue in the rustic village. “It was food like the Panamanians ate, though, a lot of potatoes, beans, and rice. It did make me appreciate what we have at home.”

The area surrounding the village was beautiful, said Kate, and she found that as her group taught the villagers, the villagers also taught the university students. “They have a very simple lifestyle. They taught us patience, because everything is very slow there; they taught us about being thankful; and not to be so stressed. They don’t have much, so they don’t have a lot of distractions like we do, with cellphones and computers and technology,” said Kate. “Everybody there is family oriented, and so friendly,” she said.

What Works

Back in Connecticut, the students are working with a structural engineer to see what building techniques will work, and what materials they will be able to use when they return to construct the building in May. “Materials will have to be purchased nearby, in the larger towns, and getting the materials is a struggle,” said Kate. “We were hoping to learn building techniques from them, and they had hoped we could implement new building techniques that they could learn. But most of our new techniques won’t work on that site, and a lot of materials we would use here will not work in that region. We will have to use mainly bamboo and native woods,” she said. “We are testing some new building techniques now in class that we hope we can use,” she added.

Working together with the villagers in May to erect the building, Kate hopes that this hut will be the first of others that will attract business to the village. “They would need the help of an outside organization, though, to build more, because they are just too poor on their own,” explained Kate.

The trip was inspiring to the architect-to-be. “I’ve never been involved in a real life architectural project. It opened my eyes to see how a project goes from paper to a real structure. It will be exciting to see it take shape,” she said.

Although some of the 18 students will have jobs lined up postgraduation and will not be able to return to Guacamayo in the spring, Kate does plan to go back. “Basically, I learned that I can live out of a back pack there. And I will bring better footwear.”

To support the Global Architecture Brigade project in Guacamayo, visit globalbrigades.org, select “support now,” then “donate directly to one of our university clubs.” Select “2010 Global Architecture Brigade,” click on “donate to a brigader,” and type in Kate Daugherty, so that the funds will go to this project.