Current Projects - Niamey and Kashgar

[Elizabeth]

Special School in Niamey

A school that is a first in Niger—offering full access, gender equality, effective teaching methods and seminars for teachers of other schools—may set an example for schools across the country.

The new part of this unique school will be built this summer, using local materials and the greenest possible construction methods.

Saving Kashgar

Visited by Marco Polo in 1275, the fabled city of Kashgar is being demolished. We are assembling a team of authorities in the fields of architecture, town planning, archaeological resources, photographic surveying and sociology to address the crisis.

Our objective is to not only to record and understand the advanced urbanisation, complex spatial relationships and morphology of the Old City, but also to provide relief—through exceptional design solutions—to the estimated 220,000 people who are being displaced by the demolition.

[Elizabeth]

Dear Robin, many thanks to you and Jessica for your willingness, ability, and outstanding commitment!

It is people like you who help to make the impossible really happen.

[Robin Gosse]

It has become my honour to be one of the two persons selected to visit Niamey, Niger in order to spear-head this project. Among other challenges on my plate is a drill-well, a passive-solar water purification system, a photovoltaic array for power, greenhouses for education and food production, perhaps water purification as well, along with a host of other challenges including a possible shipping-container designed structure.

My stay will be measured in therms of 3 months, and my minimum obligation will be the duration of the first school year, as I will also be hosting english-language classes.

It is a paramount honour to have been chosen, and in this new challenge, I have no other option but complete success in all things. There is too much at stake to consider failure as an option.