Project Masaya 2019

by Maasha

“Why should we do it?” “Would it be better to just give them the money?” “Is this really making the impact it was designed to?” “Is this in actuality, entirely selfish?”

Addled with countless crippling questions, preparations for Project Masaya - an overseas CIP - still had to get done. Being a project rooted in participatory design, the 2019 chapter was focused on building a bakery for the GK Arceo Village in Batangas, Philippines based on surveys done in the previous year where we went down to build a playground. This village is one of the many villages run by Gawad Kalinga (GK), a NGO that focuses on building homes for the population below the poverty line. It works on a sweat equity model where a place in the village is earned by building other houses for different villages and is kept by doing the same.

This was the village that we were building for - a one that was rooted in the processes of construction. Needless to say, the transfer of knowledge from the beneficiaries to us was a lot greater than the service and designs that we could offer. From laying the foundation to learning how to mold bamboo for the bamboo elements of, we were led by the villagers who had the experience we did not. Which then goes back to the question, why us? When there are clearly better equipped people to aid in the realisation, what practical skills did we bring to the table? With skills imparted to us from the first round and a general expectation of how things were going to play out, we set off to bring our findings from the first trip to realisation.

We set out to set up a social enterprise in the form of a bakery. Apart from alleviating poverty for the families, the project sought to address a broader theme of women’s empowerment within the village. Managed mainly by the local Titas (middle-aged women), the enterprise aims to produce 600 pastries each day for sale and an additional 200 for the beneficiaries within the village.

We split the project into two - a bakery and a bakeshop set in two different locations, one by the previously constructed playground and the other at the entrance of the building respectively. The kitchen was a refurbishment of an existing sundry shop located within the village. Its strategic location adjacent to the playground allows for the Titas to work while looking after their children as they play. On the other hand, the sales point was constructed outside the village. The high traffic location was intended to accommodate for the sales of the pastries as well as the relocation of the sales of goods from the aforementioned sundry shop.

During the 11 days of our stay, the team was split into two: one taking care of the construction of the storefront and the other building furniture for the interior of the kitchen.

Knowing little to nothing about carpentry save the poring through countless YouTube videos and that one stool project in Y1, it was interesting to see how easily the locals were able to assemble a wooden piece of furniture with the bare minimum - a hammer, a chisel, a measuring tape, a saw, and a handful of nails that was often sourced from neighbours and old furniture - when the videos often portrayed fancier cutting, measuring and treating tools. Taking the utmost pride in getting a piece of wood perfectly angled for the more complicated joineries or simply in the number of strikes it takes to hit a nail into the wood, it was humbling to witness how easily the locals got things done with no excuses and how much they could get done with just the essentials.

When asked, the locals had been at this for almost a decade and it was something they genuinely enjoyed, aside from it being a stream of income. The dedication that went into mastering a single craft was a humbling concept to wrap my head around as an architecture student as we're expected to be able to draw from multiple disciplines in order to curate human experience and yet we more often than not forget the essence of it all - the task of just building.

Similarly, the mixing of concrete for the foundation of the storefront was something that we could draw from past experience but still had a local guide to walk us through the construction of it all. The low-cost construction methods of the form works, walls, and columns was another major learning point. Without the need for fancy technology, the accuracy and speed that these experienced guides possessed was inspiring.

As I reflect on what has passed, the more I’m reminded of the facet of volunteerism being rather selfish. Be it in the form of motives, skills learned or simply the “warm, fuzzy feeling” that is derived from acts of kindness, there is truly more that we gain than give. Adding the need for NGOs to still think of profits when working on volunteer projects to stay afloat, there are selfish intentions on all sides. With these motivating factors removed, it does not seem logical at all to donate time and effort to causes and projects. But letting that stop volunteerism altogether would only make this world a little less bright than it could have been. The truth of the matter is that it is human nature to have an ultimatum of sorts but it remains, at the end of the day, a selfish act of kindness - selfish, but leaving the world just a little brighter than it was if thought through and planned properly.

Lastly, while this could have easily been done by just providing the money to get skilled workers to complete the project, being able to show the care by going down to see the designs through is something that I find valuable. Talking to the beneficiaries, hearing their stories, and being able to see that it is something that could potentially bring about goodness and improvements in their lives is in itself a painfully pure moment. Having an absolutely wonderful and talented team to work with only made it better.

The team!

But at the end of the day, as much as the intentions of this project are clear, the physical impacts are yet to be quantified. Due to the scale of the project as well as the mismatch of time and manpower, we were only able to finish slightly more than half of the storefront but the bakery has been set up for use. Further construction has been paused due to the Taal Volcano situation in January and the current CoVid-19 situation.

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