ECO ORPHANAGE:Model of Sustainability

15 536 Words (Not including bibliography)

- For obvious sustainability concerns, this research has been printed both sides -

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to Robinson Rojas, whose admirable life and work inspired me and for his precious support all along the project. Furthermore, it is important to outline that without Ole Jorgen Edna, this entire research wouldn’t have been possible because he is the exceptional being that started

and directs the children’ s home. By doing this study, I had the unique chance to meet one of the cleverest, most

generous and humble enlighted people on earth.Also, thank you to Louis Rougier, who always pushed me when I was giving up, and supported the project from the beginning and giving me the force and the place to write.

Finally, thank you to Georgina Toliss, for sharing her brilliant works on U.K. schools green architecture and its benefit on children that allowed me to back up everything I have ever

thought with the strongest credibility!

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Plan

AbbreviationsAbstract

1) CHAPTER ONE: p8 Introduction or research context

2) CHAPTER TWO: p12

Literature Review or Conceptual Framework: Identification of the problemA) Orphans and vulnerable Children: development and sustainability

concerns p12 B) Green Architecture, its benefits and interests

p15 C) Case study Context Settings: Burma/Thailand

p18

CHAPTER THREE: p22 Methodology

IntroductionA) Paradigm of the study

p22 B) Methods:

p26 Introduction-Triangulation-Samples-Fieldwork methods

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-Organisation of the findings-Reliability, validity and trustworthiness-Researching Ethically

C) Methodology p30

CHAPTER FOUR: p 34 Findings: Case studies

IntroductionA) Context setting and focus on children

p 37 B) Eco orphanages and green architecture

p 38

Operational Data gathered:-Children’s home fulfil a huge need-Architecture and low costs-Easy to copy-Traditional building revival-Use of local resources to limit importations and other harmful materials-High possibilities of development

Inoperative Data gathered:-Roofs-Walls-Insulation

C) Self-Sustainability:

Operational Data gathered: -Crops and food production -Local thinking

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-Water matter -Waste disposal

Inoperative Data gathered: -Limited dependence…

CHAPTER FIVE: p 55

Analysis Introduction

A) Thesis p55 B) Antithesis

p 57 C) Synthesis and model p 59

CHAPTER SIX: p 62

Conclusion

COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY p 64

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APPENDIXES:

GGGC CRITERIA FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE BUILDINGS APPENDIX 1: p67

PLAN OF THE SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS SOE KER TIE HOUSE (OR BUTTERFLY HOUSES)APPENDIX II: p 68

PLANS OF THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING WITH IMPROVEMENTAPPENDIX III: p 70

RETRANSCRIPTION OF THE FIRST VIDEOTAPED RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH OLE JORGEN EDNA:APPENDIX IV: p 73

APPROVAL OF THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION APPENDIX V: p 75

RESEARCHER CRB CHECK

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APPENDIX VI: p 76

PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE ETHICAL REPORTING ON CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 18 YEARS OLDAPPENDIX VII: p77

Abbreviations:

CRC Convention on the Right of ChildEfS Education for SustainabilityLEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental DesignMDG Millennium Development GoalNE New EconomicsRSC Refugee Studies CentreOVA Orphans and Vulnerable AdolescentsOVC Orphans and Vulnerable ChildrenUNESCO United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganisationUNHCR United Nation high Commission for RefugeesUNICEF United Nation International Children Emergency Funds

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Abstract:

The development of new eco buildings around the world is an important element in the fight for a safer planet, as the current environmental degradation is a threat for human life. The particularities of eco buildings are numerous, such as the use of local resources, the research for natural or recycled materials, an easy reconfiguration or a trickle down of the skills. These types of buildings are a response to two challenges: harmless effects on their environment, but also an answer to fight extreme poverty. Indeed, this research also focuses on the use of cheap local resources and recycled materials, in addition to the easy individual accessibility of such buildings, which allows its reproduction in the poorest part of the world. Thus it leads to another challenge for this study that of generating a model of sustainability and autonomy viable at low cost to encourage individual initiatives. The study of such projects will rely on an in depth case study of a children’s home in

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Thailand, which will also hopefully help to fill the lack of literature about unaccompanied children and education for sustainability.

I. CHAPTER ONE: Introduction or research context:

Children are more vulnerable to climate change, especially phenomena such as higher ultraviolet radiation or higher air pollution because the body is developing and childhood is a fragile phase of human life. Thus, as the least developed countries on the planet are the first to experience the disasters of climate change, they are also the countries with the highest proportion of children and young people: “about 85 per cent of the world’s youth live in developing countries” (UN General Assembly, 2005).Furthermore, climate change provokes higher risks to diseases, water scarcity, malnutrition, political and social tensions. It tends to make the poorest countries also the hardest for the youth to survive. Therefore, more than ever, young people are concerned by climate change and they are one of the strongest hopes to reverse the effects as their future actions and behaviour will shape the planet of tomorrow.

For this reason, every initiative for a greener living involving children should be encouraged, promoted and supported. With over 18,000,000 “full” orphans over the world, the initiative to create sustainable and environment

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friendly children’s homes isn’t negligible and deserves to be explored in more depth by the EfS domain.

The motivation behind this study also stands in the personal desire to open a similar project. However, after studying International Development, NGO management, and education and sustainability, it became obvious that a harmonious life with a natural environment along with self-sustainability were the two main keys for a good project. After visiting several orphanages and children’s homes around the world, one in particular, sustainable and eco friendly attracted the attention of the research that will therefore be founded on the case study of Noh Bo children’s home in the province of Tak, in the North of Thailand.

For a better understanding of the subject, it is important to clarify that Burma has been officially called Union of Myanmar since 1989, but both names are still valid and will be equally used in this research.Similarly, it is also important to define that this study is using the term “orphanage” as a synonym of “children’s home”, but it is in fact slightly different and worth the explanation. Indeed, “orphanage” is an old fashion word, normally describing a place where children are waiting to be adopted by outsiders and “disapproved” by the United Nation for refugees children stating that “Institutional placements, such as orphanages, should be avoided as they generally cannot provide for children’s developmental needs nor for their social and cultural integration into society. The creation of orphanages should be discouraged” (UNHCR, 1994:55). As a matter of fact, it is also argued that orphanages discourage the families tracing. However, a children’s home is a different institution where children are not fostered by outsiders, but instead grow up with their siblings in a safe environment, which fits more the definition and function of what has been also called “group care” by the UNHCR that advices “ a small group care within the community”. (1994:55)

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Indeed, although it may be uncertain that globally orphanages are “bad” for children, it is important to clarify that this study will not employ the term in its initial sense but as a global reference to institution caring for children without any legal carer and the term will thus be employ as a synonym of “children’s home”.The argumentation of this research is supported by a case study detailing the case of the Blessing Children’s home of Noh Bo, Thailand, where there are no adoptions.

Thus, this study will attempt to answer a leading research question: What is an eco orphanage and is it possible to provide a model to expand the construction of sustainable children’s home?

To answer this question at its best, the dissertation has the first duty to point out and put light on the problems of orphans and unaccompanied children, undeniably concerning human and social development studies as they are part of the poorest population of the planet, but also because children will play an incontestable role in shaping the future of the world. Therefore, the education to sustainability of the 18,520,000 “full” orphans (who have lost both parents) -counted in 2007 by the UNICEF throughout the world- is a massive challenge that will be the concern of the following chapter. Indeed, the literature review chapter will be composed of a first section reviewing the current solutions proposed for unaccompanied children and a second one studying the benefits of green architecture and sustainable buildings. This literature review will finally establish in details the case study’s temporal setting of the current military threat to civilians and its geographical parameters at the Burma- Thai borders in a last part to clearly set the context in order to enhance the holism of the study and ensure that the study provides all the elements to facilitate the personal interpretations of the reader. Undeniably, for similar concerns of objectivity, it is crucial to situate the context of the research, and to first acknowledge the researcher view. This study is a combination of different points of views, despite being before all, a

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case study. The research could be argued to be mainly written under an interpretivist and critical paradigm with deep green and post developmentalist influences that will be further explained in the first part of the third chapter concerning the methodology. After situating the paradigm leading the study, the same third chapter will expose the methods of research and the methodology they fit in, before exposing the foundational part of the research: the case study.

The following chapter will be then devoted to the case study, and starts by setting its inherent contextual configurations of case studies, and then will expose the findings in two different sections: a primary exclusive to green architecture and a secondary dedicated to the efficient use of resources also enhancing self sufficiency. Both of these two parts will classify the data collected in two sections: the findings defined as operational and the one designated as inoperative findings.

Subsequently, an in depth analysis of the findings is necessary, and will be the concern of the fifth chapter. A first part will analyse the positive findings and their meaning for development and education for sustainability. Inversely, a following part will counter balance the first one to point out the numerous problems linked to these buildings and the difficulties to design a model from such a context linked case study. Finally, a synthesis of both parts will give the basic guidelines to develop similar projects along with advice and recommendations.An overall conclusion in the last chapter of the research will finally close the entire study.

Hence, this paper has the main goal to explain and illustrate what an eco orphanage is and how it could be a model for further initiatives. The purpose of the dissertation especially concerns the EfS core theme of politic of knowledge because an eco orphanage can empower a group that then do not need to work for food or shelter, and so have a certain freedom from the rest of the society. The purpose of the research is to provide an example of a functioning model of this freedom that can be extended to poorer community

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throughout the World to empower more children and provide a help to similar initiatives.The promotion of sustainable techniques could change and empower lives of poorer people in similar context. An applied EfS research here is concerned with the investigation of how traditional knowledge such as architecture can bring a more sustainable lifestyle thus concerned by another of EfS theme intituled process and management of change.

Finally this paper could also fit in the academic landscape as a supplementary study of child protection, as the field is currently lacking of such resources. Indeed, the UNICEF confessed that “Strong researches is essential to effective programming but reliable data on these children are currently in short supply (…) Detailed situation analyses of the plight of these children are vital complement to statistical information. Collecting accurate data and compiling qualitative studies on excluded and invisible children is clearly fundamental to the assessment process” (2006, pp60-61)Therefore, the choice of a case study with in depth analyse of a specific community will hopefully contribute to the general research about unaccompanied children’s well-being and education about sustainability.

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2) CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review or Conceptual Framework:

Identification of the problems

A) Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Development and Sustainability Concerns:

Children are our future. Indeed, ever so true, today’s children will be tomorrow’s people and with the current World order, the survival of most of them will be harder. First facing an unstable and unfair World economic system, there is also the growing problem of environmental degradation seriously threatening the future generations.

Child protection is an essential key in Development Studies. The United Nation’s International Children Emergency Fund defended: “The persistence of Child protection abuses threatens to jeopardize everyone of the MDGs” (UNICEF, 2006:52), which leaded to an analysis of each Millennium Development Goal on a children protection perspective.

Already in 2003, a press release from the organisation predicted of the orphan crisis that “The worst is yet to come, in some countries such as Botswana or Zimbabwe, more than one in five children will be orphaned by 2010” (UNICEF Press release 26/11/2003)

On the first hand, growing poverty is threatening children, all over the world, the UNICEF website denounced that: “One in three UK children lives in poverty”(2011)! The UNICEF explains that: “children are disproportionately represented among the poor, since the least developed countries tend to have the youngest populations, and poor income families tend to have more children than the richest ones.”(2006:12).

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Furthermore, poverty enhances the risk of missing school, of lacking basic health care and malnutrition.

On the second hand, the second biggest threat to childhood today is armed conflict as most of the countries where one in five children die before five have experienced armed conflict since 1999: according to UNICEF, Sierra Leone has the biggest under five mortality (nearly 300 deaths per 1000live births), followed by Angola, Afghanistan, Liberia, Somalia… Wars maybe the worst experience for children, as it multiply the risk of loss of the family home, family members, abuses, and violence and destruction of every surrounding familiar structure. Additionally to traumatic experiences, there is the great risk for children to be forced to enrol in the army and become child soldiers.

Finally, a central objective of the MDG is to combat HIV/AIDS, also another growing menace for the world’s children. HIV/AIDS is also one of the main causes of family loss and exclusion, responsible of numerous orphans.

UNHCR definition of unaccompanied Children: “Unaccompanied children are those who are separated from both parents and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible to do so.” (1994:52)

The UNICEF is also denouncing the gender inequalities, usually preventing girls from going to school, just like widespread discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. Indeed, here as well it is easy to witness the important link between child protection and the objective of the MDGs, for example, the Third MDG is “to promote gender equality and empower women” which is intrinsically linked to children as:

“-girls are disproportionately engaged in domestic work, which compromises their school participation

-Child marriage leads to the removal of girls from school-Violence and harassment in schools are obstacle to gender equality in

education. Sexual violence, exploitation and abuse undermine efforts to empower women and girls. (2006:53).

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Furthermore, another danger to spot is also that children tend to reproduce models of their childhood when they become adult and thus are the main perpetuators of gender disparity, violence or abuses.

The term unaccompanied minor is preferred as “orphan” can only be used if both parents are dead and encourage adoption instead of parent tracing that should be done effectively during two full years before considering.

Unaccompanied children are facing challenges hard to imagine and they require immediate protection and care as they are maybe the most vulnerable people on earth. Indeed, unaccompanied children are most likely victims of forced labour, forced sexual exploitation and forced violent armed fighting. Thus, child trafficking has been strongly denounced by multiple agencies, because it has caused children the deepest distress imaginable. Trafficking include removing children from their original place (from rural to urban, or international border crossing), which isolates them, preventing their access to any kind of help, but also making statistics and research on the subject extremely difficult. For this reason, precise numerical data is impossible and the UNICEF exposed the closest estimations: ”Although reliable global statistics are impossible to compile, it is estimated that trafficking affects about 1.2 millions children each year” (2006:50)Domestic forced labour is an even worst situation because “The number of children involved in domestic service around the World is unquantifiable because of the hidden nature of the work, but it certainly runs into the millions.” (2006:51)The serious lack of documentations stopped a complete literature review but allowed this study to fit into the academic landscape by attempting to partially fill this major gap.Indeed, there is a dramatic lack of documentations and academic reviews and researches about orphans, as pointed out by Dr. Kersey (2001:1) stating: « The difficulty is the dearth of documentation in regards to how many kids

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left orphanages without being adopted and were able to lead a productive life. » Adolescent orphans (between 12 and 17) researches and literacy is even scarcer, although there are major risks as well such as sickness, forced prostitution or exploitation.Advocate For Youth in a 2007 publication called to the necessity for OVA to access to:

-Reproductive Health Services including HIV education, testing and councelling

-Livelihood and life skills training-Adult mentors to assist the youth in creating positive relationships and

building good interpersonal and communication skills (Osborn, 2007:2)

B) Green Architecture, its benefits and interests:

Architecture is an inherent feature of humanity, from creation; people have to shelter from the natural elements. However, a complete report of the United Nation Environment Programme estimated that “the amount of time we spend in the built environment-and on it, in vehicles- range from 80 to 90 per cent. If current patterns do not change, expansion of the built environment will destroy or disturb natural habitats and wildlife on over 70 per cent of the Earth’s land surface by 2032, driven mainly by increases in population, economic activity and urbanisation” (2003:5). In industrialized and developed countries, construction and building sector is one of the main responsible of the environmental damages, especially for the European

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Union, where the sector is responsible for over 40% of the overall energy consumption! (Ibid)

Understandably “sustainability” as the beginning of an answer, became a buzzword for the last few years and the classic definition given by the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development became the official meaning:

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987).

Along with sustainability, holistic thinking have been promoted especially in developing countries where construction and building sector is growing faster everyday: “While most available statistics related to these impacts are for developed countries, experts believe on the whole that these impacts are worse in developing countries. The developing world’s share of world construction activities was 10% in 1965, 29% in 1998 and still growing” (UNEP, 2003:5). However, green architecture seems to have two perspectives, on a first hand a highly advanced technological way such as the recent CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Centre in Hyderabad in India that include photovoltaic cells, dimmable electronic ballasts, occupancy sensor, or extra-insulation (Rajghatta 26/10/2003), and on the other hand an inventive seeking of cheap natural solutions such as traditional architectures from developing countries like wood or cob building, but also the use of recycling of abundant toxic materials such as bottles, cans or tires.

The GGGC agrees that there are different definitions of “green buildings” as there are different degrees of sustainability but defines that “ The ideal “green” project preserves and restores habitat that is vital for sustaining life and become a net producer and exporter of resources, materials, energy and water rather than being a net consumer. A green building is one whose construction and lifetime of operation assure the

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healthiest possible environment while representing the most efficient and least disruptive use of land, water, energy and resources.” (GGGC, 2010:1)There are basic common features to green architecture that allowed the GGGC to create a list of criteria for green buildings, also called “High-Performance Green Building”, produced in the Appendix 1Similarly, the movie “Garbage warrior” (Hodge, 2007) shows Michael Reynolds architectural skills and fight for the self sufficient “earthship biotecture”, a natural recycling architecture that government tried to make illegal. Thus, Earthship has the advantages of being harmless to the environment and accessible to every able human being that needs to shelter (and the need is increasing particularly in today’s growing world slums) which links it with development studies because it also means that even the poorest can have a higher independence and freedom from the Global economic instability. This great independence from the world unstable economic system is also a feature of the post developmentalists views of development and particularly the theory of the New Economics, based on three key principles: Enabling, Conserving and on a Multi Level One World system, further developed in the last chapter of the present research.

Hence, architecture can help the fight against poverty and climate change. However, architecture also has the other power of being able to provide wellness for people. Indeed, green architecture also aims to raise the quality of life of the people, and in particular children. Indeed, different buildings and materials provoke different feelings, for example religious buildings provoke emotional reactions due to their beautiful and inspiring architecture. The Golden section that formed the basic design principle for classical architecture or mathematics such as Pythagoras geometry was seen as sacred. Materials and colours also have huge influence on people’s behaviour, especially children. Indeed, Georgina Toliss made a useful contribution to green architecture researches by interviewing children from six to eleven years old.

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To the question “Which do you like better: wood and natural materials or concrete and plastic?” she found out that 95% show a preference for wood and natural materials. She also found out that 77% of the children think that different buildings make you feel differently (2008:93).

Therefore, it becomes also possible to evolve architecture to a higher level, for example, it is known that “The use of coloured glass and imaginative lighting design maximising natural light can bring luminosity to a space stimulating a range of moods each appropriate for different activities” (Toliss, 2008:52).Pearson further explains that: “architecture supports life and health and brings regeneration to the body and soul. When you are in a healing environment, you know it; no analysis is required. You somehow feel welcome, balanced, and at one with yourself and the world. You are relaxed and stimulated, reassured… you feel at home.” (1995:23). Green architecture has common features attached to each building, as clarified by the architectural NGO that created the Thai children’s home of the case study: “Just like every green building, natural ventilation is preferred, and “the special roof shape of the Soe Ker Tie houses enable an effective, natural ventilation, at the same time as it collects the rain water for dryer periods.” (TYIN, 2009:9)

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C) Case study Context Settings: Burma/Thailand:

map from BBC News, 2007, available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6397243.stm

To illustrate the utility and relevance of a green architecture for a children’s home, a case study of the Noh Bo Children’s home in Thailand has been studied. Therefore, it is important to set up the context and explain the specificity of the Indigenous group Karen’s situation and why armed conflicts are particularly poisonous for development and environment. In this context, Rajah clearly stated that: “The search for the roots of ethnic conflict in Burma is in many ways a futile exercise.” Indeed, it is further explained that the ethnic brutality could have roots in numerous events through Burmese history such as British colonialist practices, U Nu’ attempt to impose Buddhism as official religion in the 60s or simply the ethnic nationalism and the social conflict. (Rotberg, 1998:149).

Indeed, deeper researches leaded to an untold problem, with very little information about: it is said that Karen people in fact started fighting for the allies against Japan during the Second World War. For their help, they have

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been promised an independent land to settle in peace. Alas, after wining the Second World War, the allies left without fulfilling any promises and left Karen fight alone for independence. Since then, a military Junta took the country and systematically pursued minorities. Lloyd Parry in The Times explained: “It began with British betrayal after WWII and has stubbornly outlived every other conflict” (24/03/2009)Qualified as “ethnic cleansing”, the situation seems to get worse everyday, especially since 1962, when ”the Burmese army under General Ne Win staged a coup against the democratically elected government in Rangoon and took control of the country. Within weeks, basic freedoms were severely restricted and have never been regained.” (Human Rights Watch, 2008:11). Since then, massive killings, village destruction, rapes and landmines forced an estimated 150 000 refugees from Myanmar to Thailand (UNHCR stated “100, 000 refugees from Myanmar who have been registered, and an estimated 52, 000 who have not”, 2011:1).

Pattisson, is an example of one between many others that openly denounces the passivity of the International Community who doesn’t “identify any threat to International Security” (Although it enhances the political tension between Burma and Thailand and also inside Thailand as Inge Brees stated “Lastly, Burmese refugees could, in theory, also have an impact on internal politics in Thailand because they affect the ethnic balance of the country, the Karen people constitute 46 % of the entire hill tribe population in Thailand, and this percentage has increased due to the refugee influx” (2010:39).) and he also further states: “A report commissioned by Desmond Tutu and Vaclav Havel in September 2005 compared Burma with other countries where the Security Council has recently intervened in internal conflicts, including Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. The report identifies five criteria for intervention, including the overthrow of an elected government and human rights abuses. Burma was the only country that met all five criteria.” (16/01/2007,

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/on-the-run-with-the-karen-people-forced-to-flee-burmas-genocide-432267.html).

Refugees and displaced people are some of the worst off people on the planet, but for the purpose of this study, it is important to focus on the fact that “usually more than half of any refugee population are children” (UNHCR 1994:1) and “refugee children face far greater danger to their safety and well being than the average child. The sudden and violent onset of emergencies, the disruption of families and community structure as well as the acute shortage of resources with which most of the refugees are confronted, deeply affect the physical and psychological well being of refugee children.” (UNHCR, 1994:1).

In addition of an enhanced risk of being raped, sold, trafficked or exploited, conflicts also affect children’s role: If one parent is missing, a child may have to take on adult responsibilities and his or her time to play or attend school may be limited.

Furthermore, the explosion of the society, the killing of the men and the intense upheaval of the social structure can break down normal rules and the natural tendency of the children to adapt to new environment, or country also often results in the loss of the mother tongue along with the disappearance of the cultural tradition. Culture disintegration is particularly intensified when conflicts extend to several generations, such as the Burmese conflict lasting for over 50 years. Additionally, it is crucial to remember that the severe restrictions imposed by the host government such as no freedom of movement, paid work, crops growing or land acquisition inevitably prevent any development or autonomy of the displaced communities. The Refugee Studies Centre questioned “the legality of LTE (Long Term Encampment) on the grounds that it denies refugees’ basic human rights in an arbitrary and discriminatory way, and is therefore non consistent with international human rights law” (2009:5). Therefore, it is easy to understand that there is a major difference between “regular” orphans and “refugees” orphans because there are additional challenges to

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face such as legal status and the lack of interest by legal groups. Indeed, the literature concerning unaccompanied children is poor and laws almost inexistent. The UNHCR denounced that: ”Although procedures for status determination exist in many countries, they do not normally take into account the special situation of unaccompanied children. All field Office should be aware of this and should sensitize government to it.” (1994:43)

However, few legislations started to address the problem and the “triangle of rights” has been defined by the International community to assure a maximal protection to children, and is made of three points reinforcing each other: The Best Interest rule, Non-discrimination and Participation. The best interest rule includes and interesting point for this study: Child interest must be of primary consideration and for unaccompanied minors many factors have to be considered, “including the desirability of continuity of culture and language (art. 20), the preservation of family and nationality (art. 8) and the Child’s own desires, which must be considered according to the Child’ s age and maturity (art. 12). The objective is to allow the child to grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding’ (Preamble). (UNHCR, 1994:6) Additionally, thanks to the CRC, every child can freely enrol to school until 15years old, which allows the orphans to go to school in Thai classrooms (Convention on the Rights of Child, 1990, Art.28). Although the UNHCR is preaching universal education for refugee children, and, very cleverly suggested additional “peace education” classes to the refugee standard of education (UNHCR 1994:49), there are no environmental awareness campaign proposed by the commission, even at the “non-formal” level, it appears that agencies working with refugee children do not take into account the impact of conflicts and displacements on natural surroundings. The UNHCR goes until stating: “On a global scale, the impacts of refugees on the environment is not significant” (UNHCR, 2001:1). Deplorably, some different studies have shown evidences of environmental degradation in

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refugees settlement, notably an in-depth study of Jacobsen already affirming in 1994 that “three types of environmental problems are most closely associated with refugees: land degradation, water contamination, and deforestation (1994:4) and the main reason is that “Refugees receive assistance mainly in camps, where; because they live apart from the host community, they are not incorporated into local resources control institutions (1994:3)

To my experience, I argue that it is definitely not the refugee camps all made of wood, bamboo and leaves, neither the refugees who are not even allowed to arrest supplementary food in the forest that makes the greatest impact on the environment. However, I firmly believe that long term settlement must have repercussions on the natural surrounding, at the same title that a new village or city would: Over 150000 refugees obviously need structural organisation, buildings construction that will alter the environment and its biodiversity.Therefore, creating a sustainable and environmental friendly children’s home could be an answer to the issues, by providing a safe, familial and loving house to unaccompanied children but also minimise the impact of the refugees on their new environment and give a chance to raise awareness of natural and cultural conservation to the poorest children.

3) CHAPTER THREE Methodology

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Introduction:This study is complying with the EfS field as it is covering development and poverty reduction with environmental and educational researches. Indeed, the holistic thinking particular to EfS allows us to take all factors into account and realise strong links between problems, needs and solutions for humans, and nature. Indubitably, armed conflicts and growing poverty are increasing the need for orphanages but the developing global paradigm of urgent environmental conservation also allows an even better help by providing natural, low cost and educational answers.

A) Paradigm of the study: Although another researcher asking the same questions going to Noh Bo children’s home would probably have a very similar experience to mine, I can’t assume the responsibility of claiming the total objectivity of the case study, neither the entire research, nor I could prevent the use of personal pronouns, therefore the positivist paradigm had to be rejected. My licence in International Development and NGOs management led me to extended researches about indigenous children and cultural tradition conservation courses, notably in Latin America. Therefore, the interpretivist paradigm that claimed that different views interpret differently the reality, and it is possible to penetrate this lens after long and deep research, would be suitable, as I henceforth definitely have been impregnated with indigenous influences in my current perspective. The extreme respect for nature and tradition, the crucial fight to preserve the oldest communities on the planet or the deep feeling that the cultures that could survive thousand of years on earth without destroying its natural balance must be the wisest to learn from, are few examples of my convictions that I am trying to temper in order to not idealise or “romanticise” indigenous views.However, as I am convinced that my views are not totally internally constructed but are also definitely influenced by social forces and that it is

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important to seek the transformation of the global dominant paradigm, the research could not fit totally in an interpretivist tradition. Furthermore, my strong desire for radical actions, such as an extremely green architecture and lifestyle combined with self-sustainability to enhance the orphanage’s freedom from the monopoly of the current global paradigm, inevitably borrows some element of the critical theory. For this purpose, this dissertation has the objective to prove that there are alternatives to harmful development, and it can starts with the informal education of the future generations in children’s homes. The roots of capitalist hegemonic control are said to be in Truman’s speech of 1949, employing for the first time the term “underdeveloped” and calling on the “rich nations” to raise the poor’s standard of living”(Illich, 1992). Consequently, the world leaders promoted globally this current World paradigm that rich means capital accumulation, and it is the only way to happiness. The problem stands that all over the world, many people considered other form of wealth and today gave up the idea to fit into the developed countries’ standard of happiness. Latouche denounced this “incongruity of the “standard of living” in the Third World” and the “absurdity of international comparison of indices when lifestyle are very different and in fact non comparable.”(1993:190). Rahman further explains that in one of its first reports in 1948, the World Bank correlated the problem of global poverty with countries’ gross national products. Thus for the first time in history, entire nations and countries came to be considered (and then consider themselves) as poor on the grounds that their overall income is insignificant in comparison with those who dominate the World economy (1992:161).Indeed, it is essential to insist that in my view and in this research, Development will not have the meaning of modernisation, only achievable through economic progress, but will be seen as: “The analogy from the Development of living organisms, implies moving to the fulfilment of a potential” (Alen and Thomas, 2000:25).

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At an environmental level, there are also alternative views such as the Indigenous that see themselves as one with Mother Earth and for whom it is a profanity to freely destroy the nature. This stands in contrast to the current paradigm promoted worldwide by “developed” countries that enjoy privilege, comfort, and modernisation at the detriment of the planet. In 2006, the World Watch institute had proclaimed: “It is clear that the current western development model is not sustainable. We therefore face a choice: rethink almost everything, or risk a downward spiral of political competition and economic collapse”(2006, Preface). Consequently, to fight against the actual world order that pushes to an incessant capitalism, every alternative movement should enhance their efforts to promote local thinking to the mass, because consuming local products is better for the planet, as there are less transportation needs, and thus less harm to our environment. Local thinking should also prevent people from buying hegemonic capitalist brands and would slow down the problem of overconsumption mainly responsible for environmental degradation. Mainteny further developed this view by establishing the concept of “in-needness” and stated the summarised conclusion of the BBC documentary “Prisoners of the Sun” that reflects perfectly the current situation: “The Prison of the Sun created diversity. Every inmate’s instinctive impulse to grow created diversity. Then, when one creature discovered alien energy (fossil fuels) and overwhelmed all the others, growth itself began to threaten diversity. (…) Even the most powerful of the other animals have limits. But we don’t, and that’s why we’re a threat to everything else. There is a solution, and it’s simple and obvious. We have to impose limits of our own. We have to cut back on energy/choose to slow down. “ (1998:4) The New Economics theory is an interesting post developmentalist alternative to the current global economic system that is based on three principles: Enabling (means that by enhancing localism and valorising local governances, it is possible to break the power of the market domination of the richest nations), Conserving and Multi Level One World system. The

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latter means that alternative movements can really start fighting the hegemonic neoliberalism, in coordinating their different tactics without the need for power. It is link to an extremely relevant current question posed by Negri and Hardt: “How can the action of a multitude become political?” (2000:399).The other two sides of the New Economics theory, Enabling and Conserving, are typical features to a successful development, as the first promotes more local thinking and conservation promotes both the cultural conservation (of which the importance has been shown earlier) and the systematic re-use of waste to limit their production. It also challenges the perspective of the man made to have full control over Nature. Henceforth, New Economics reject the dominant paradigm and adopt the Gaian theory. The Gaian theory developed by Lovelock explains that the Planet Earth is the result of a fragile balance, where every specie and plant has a role in sustainability. Lovelock explains “biodiversity is an important part of planetary self regulation”(2002:8). Consequently, the destruction of the environment is a dangerous bet On this rather critical perspective, the choice of an ecological

sustainable children’s home for study advances some solutions matching the research paradigm as it uses exclusively local, natural and unharmful materials for the environment, but also because it promotes informally children’s education to respect their natural environment in the same time as providing a safe shelter from war and an independence from unreliable external fundings.Moreover, it is important to add a deep green influence to this research framework, that insists on the view that human life is inter related with the ecosystem of the planet. The beginning of the deep green theory is attributed to the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, who expressed his “ecosophy”: “we need types of societies and communities in which one delights in the value-creative aspects of equilibrium rather than the

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glorification of value-neutral growth; in which being together with other living beings is more important than exploiting them or killing them” (1989:24)

Finally, according to my personal experience and context, development, world order and ecology are inextricable from each other. The UNICEF is giving a good example directly linking the MDG Number 7 “Ensure environmental sustainability” to children protections, as:

“-Armed conflict, leads to population displacement and potential overuse of environment resources.

-Environmental disasters increase household vulnerability and increase the potential for child labour, as well as for sexual exploitation and child marriage” (2006:53)

Indeed, as development, sustainability and education are part of the same antidote, they can’t be isolated from one another and have to be study as a whole, although this may also be the reflect of indigenous influences that also interlink everything. Architects such as Pearson also support this crucial holistic perspective referring to architecture as “a remembrance of the ancients, an integration of ancestral archetypes and an understanding of the primeval forces of earth, air, fire and water to create a harmony in our built environment between people, land and cosmos” (Ibid).

B) Methods:

The observations of the research are qualified as direct and “non-disguised” observation, or also considered as “obtrusive” method as the participants knew they were being observed. However, as the research focuses mainly on a building architecture, the awareness of the participant

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about the presence of the researcher does not have a crucial impact on the overall study.

TriangulationTo ensure a greater validity of the research, it is important to have different sources and mean to collect data, therefore, triangulation is necessary and will be used. Effectively, the different methods to collect data are fieldwork written observations, visual methods (pictures and videotaped recording), simple interviews, in depth interviews and academic researches including qualitative (such as reports or documentaries), and quantitative reports of data (such as Toliss survey on children‘s favourite building materials). Indeed, it is often the case when the research follows methodology such as ethnography.

Samples:The participants have been selected according to their role, Ole Jorgen

Edna, as he is the creator and director of the children’s home, but as well the main carer of the children.The four children with whom I had the chance to have informal conversational interviews were chosen because of their age (they were the oldest, 9, 10, 12 and 14 years old) and the length of their stay (Since the beginning of the project, nearly four years ago). Finally, local members of the community (Karen refugees living in neighbouring camps) have been chosen quite randomly for the interviews.

Fieldwork methods

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Field works are composed of observations, interviews, and visual methods such as pictures and videotaped recordings.

The most common method of observations will be used: in natural surrounding and unstructured giving an ethnographic account of the research.

Besides, this study is using unstructured methods of interviews such as the in-depth interview. Indeed, the videotaped interview made of the director of the children’s home is based on open-ended questions in order to have a more holistic perspective of the participant. The interview has been done outside the children’s home, in the natural environment.

However, informal conversational interviews have been done inside the orphanage, during the afternoon with the children and mainly at night times when the children were sleeping with Ole Jorgen Edna, so we had much more time and calm to go through deeper questions, solutions and explanations.

Although English isn’t my first language, neither for Ole Jorgen Edna, we both speak fluent English, so there were no problems of communication or language barriers. The other interviews have been informal conversational interviews, with the children but also with Ole Jorgen Edna and local community members. There again, as the refugees are Karen people from Myanmar they do not speak Thai and therefore are using English as a mean of communication in their host country, just like the unaccompanied children who speak an even better English due to the fact that they live with Ole Jorden Edna. The warm welcome that has been given to me at the orphanage helped to rapidly develop a great friendship with the children and the director of the orphanage, which assured me a good integration in the group of study. It is a necessary feature of the participant observation, just like not having preconceived assumptions about the group before collecting data of the fieldwork. Although I had the profound conviction that green architecture was obviously something good for the environment, I arrived in Thailand

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without knowing anything other than I was going to try to visit an orphanage unique to the World.

The participant observation methods allowed me to take account of the holistic content of my research and also to realise that refugee children had thousands of worries other than environment, such as schooling or legal status for example. This collect of data through informal interviews helped me to support the argument that there is an inherent link between developmental and environmental studies.

However, a main weakness of this study has been my lack of courage to insist about the importance of sustainability for the children. Indeed, due to their distressful situation, children mainly talk about the armed conflict that ravaged their life and I didn’t find the strength to insist on asking their opinion about preserving their natural surrounding when they are discussing about the fact that nothing is done even to preserve their parents life.Therefore, the study has to rely on secondary sources to support the argument that children are likely to positively respond to the preservation of nature and favour natural construction materials.The detailed interview questions are presented in the Appendix Number 4.

Organisation of the findingsAfter a first introductive part, the summary of findings will be divided in two major parts. On a first hand will be presented the data concerning the green architecture of the children’s home. On a second hand, the following last part will expose the findings essentially concerning sustainability.

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Each part will be then itself divided in two sections; the first section exposing the “Operational” data collected, which means the data judged as functioning and positively answering to the needs identified. The second section, however, will detail the “Inoperative” data recorded, things that are not satisfying the participants and have to be changed.

Reliability, validity and trustworthiness:I believe that the reliability of the research is quite strong, although it

is almost never the case in qualitative studies, because the researcher’s history affects the way the researcher appreciates the facts and selects data over others according to his personal view. However, as the research is also based on hard sciences (with scientific facts seen as empirical such as wood constructions are better for the environment than concrete ones or that the use of local resources avoid the need of imported materials transportation, thus reducing the amount of toxic gas rejected into the atmosphere) it is plausible that other researchers would have drawn similar findings.

Additionally, as the research is predominantly based upon an ethnographic methodology, the internal validity, which is the ability to match the fieldwork observations with the theoretical ideas developed, is strengthened. The external validity is usually disputed in qualitative studies and especially case studies, as it is normally context based. However, the particularity of this case study based research is that it seeks to establish a model to be applied in different environmental and social contexts. Thus, it is emphasizing the external validity of the findings, and encourages the utilisation of the basic model finally produced.

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Finally, the criterion of trustworthiness, based on credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, will be treated with a maximum care to ensure a good qualitative study.

Researching EthicallyThis study obtained the approval of the British Educational Research Association guidelines that assure good ethical practices for the field researches, and produced in the Annexe 6.Additionally, as the project involves direct interaction with children, the researcher has to possess a valid CRB check, which is also presented in Appendix 5.The primary sources are personal experiences, field notes and written observations, travel diary, videotaped recordings, in depth and informal interviews and discussion and photos.The secondary sources are reviews, reports, journals, documentaries (including movies) and serious websites. It is also important to states that I never paid for information, and all the explanations were given to me freely and without constraints.Ole Jorgen Edna offered me a free stay in a bedroom and food everyday at the orphanage during my research and never asked me for anything. Finally, this research is strictly following the UNICEF principles and guidelines for ethical reporting on children given in Appendix 7.

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C) Methodology:

Overall, the research is primarily qualitative, as it is interested in children’s feeling about their environment, and supported by specific case study and life experiences. The quasi absence of statistics and numerical data also show the study is qualitatively oriented.

In this way, the study hopes to help to fill the gap in the academic landscape, as there is a lack of reviews, documentations, general information about unaccompanied children and orphans, their life conditions, and the solutions to help them.UNICEF are calling on qualitative studies for a better assessment on invisible children ‘s conditions (2006:61) Indeed, an argument backed up by the UNICEF is that strong research is essential to effective programming: “An assessment of capacities, vulnerabilities and needs is the first step in formulating appropriate responses targeted at reaching excluded and invisible children. However, reliable data on excluded and invisible children are usually in short supply; often because of significant practical difficulties for data collection. Studies that are based on the direct experience of individuals are particularly valuable. Lessons learned-often from the experiences of other countries- can be integrated with accurate local knowledge, including root causes of exclusion and of protection violations that make children less visible, to produce the most effective response.” (2006:61) Effectively, the methodology used in this research is undoubtedly mainly qualitative, and conform to the criteria of the constructivist/naturalist paradigm enounced by Guba and Lincoln in 1985 and explained by Miles and Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simbeni later by:” The naturalistic paradigm assumes multiple constructed realities. The naturalistic inquiry involves tacit knowledge, natural setting, emergent methods, negociated meaning making, real-world interpretation (…) Naturalistic strategies and methodologies emphasize the lived experience and meaning making. (2010:423)

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Consequently, methods here match the research paradigm as they “focus on natural settings and external validity”, or also “use historical narrative”, “still photographs” and “life histories”Furthermore, the research also includes some elements of the action research because it involves the researcher in the process of educational change by enriching the academic landscape currently short in case studies about unaccompanied refugee children and hopefully also by proving that a sustainable children’s home is a model possible to reproduce. The research will also borrow some methods from the grounded theory such as the case study research of the Noh Bo orphanage in Thailand, trying to develop a general theory-from the observations and data collected on the fieldwork. Similarly, it will borrow some elements of the ethnographic methodology such as the integration of the researcher in the group researched and the study of the rules of the community without any preconceptions will also be used. Indeed, ethnography also uses methods such as fieldworks and participant observations.

C) Case study:

There are famously three main types of case study given by Yin, the exploratory, the descriptive and the explanatory. Explorative case study, where “fieldwork and data collection are undertaken prior to the final definition of study questions and hypothesis” (2003:6) isn’t the suitable form of case study for this study. Descriptive case studies inversely require descriptive theories before the beginning of the research and explanatory case study may be used to do causal investigations. To this classification, there are three more specific categories of case study mainly developed by

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Stake: Intrinsic, Instrumental and Collective. Collective case studies involve much research of different cases and Intrinsic case studies focus on a specific problem of an individual case. It is the third category of Stake’s classification, “Instrumental” that describes perfectly the present study as it tends to “accomplish something other than understand this particular case” (1995:3) and so is open to generalisations.There are numerous advantages to case studies, such as their strength in reality, or in recognizing the “embeddedness” of social truth but there are also three main weakness identified by Cohen, Mansion and Morrison:

“-results may not be generalised-Cased study is not open to cross checking and subjective-It is also prone to problems of observer bias, despite attempts made to address reflexivity” (2007:256)

Therefore, the research will try to overcome or at least attenuate these three points by first citing John Gerring argument that “by way of provocation, I shall insist there is no such thing as a case study, tout court. To conduct a case study implies that one also conducted cross-case analysis, or at least thought about a broader set of cases. Otherwise, it is impossible for an author to answer the defining question of all case study research: “what is this a case of?” “ (2007:13). Furthermore, the research attempts to describe the research paradigm and the researcher worldview as detailed as possible for the reader to identify the bias occurring during the researches and discard it to ensure a better objectivity. Finally, the weakness of the non-generalisation of traditional case study will be also challenged, as this paper aims to encourage the development of similar complex and thus formulate a basic model that can be considered as a type of generalisation. The main critic that case study cannot produce a generalization from a contextual case is challenged by Robson (2002:182) who argues that in fact, the extreme and the unique case can provide a valuable “test bed”. Extremes include the situation in which “if it can work here it will work anywhere”, or the choice of “an ideal set of circumstances in which to try out

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a new approach or project, maybe to gain a fuller insight into how it operates before taking it to a wider audience.” (Cohen Mansion and Morrison, 2007:255)Cohen, Mansion and Morrison also notify that Robson (2002:183) remarks that case studies opt for analytic rather than statistical generalisation, that is they develop a theory which can help researchers to understand other similar cases, phenomena or situations.” (2007:253).

4) CHAPTER FOUR Case study Findings

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“Entrance of the children’s home”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Launched in 2006, the children’s home is quite recent and has been set up by an architecture firm regularly working in the humanitarian field, helping the poorest people to shelter. The enterprise’s goal and vision are clarified on the official website: “Through personal involvement in our projects, we establish a framework for mutual exchange of knowledge and skills. By introducing basic, but crucial principles like bracing, moisture prevention and material economization, our project work as examples to be used by local workers in their future projects. Because all the people involved in our project are actively participating in both the design and the building process, everyone develops a sense of ownership and pride towards the project. This socially sustainable approach ties in with global challenges on a much bigger scale”(http://www.tyintegnestue.no).

A) Context setting and focus on children

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TYIN tegnestue is a Norwegian NGO ran by five architects building strategic sustainable construction projects to help and support people in difficult situations.They chose five years ago to help refugees in Thailand and built an orphanage in Noh Bo. The architects and the children’s home director decided to build separated unit for the children and little rooms were designed. As the shape reminded them of a butterfly, they decided to call the project “Soe Ker Tie”.The children’s house project total cost was 68000 NOK (Norway Kroner), which is roughly the equivalent of 7000 GB pounds.

Extract of fieldwork diary: “I left Bangkok about 11pm on a bus to Mae Sot. The driver is too brutal to allow any sleep in the bus and I finally arrive at Mae Sot at 7am. No one speaks English at all. I manage to get a moto taxi to reach the “Green Guest House” (Thought the name was appropriate for the research!), I felt asleep until 1pm after my shower, as a fact I didn’t had more than four hours of consecutive sleep in the last 4 days because of the intense travelling and tough jet lag. I woke up and went to look for food and fortunately could easily find an Internet café. Luck smiled at me again when I discovered that Ole left me an email with his phone number. I texted him and he replied straight away with directions to reach Noh Bo orphanage, and also that I could sleep at the orphanage for free as a guest. I went back to the Green Guest house and someone told me it was a car line (sort of collective taxis) behind the guesthouse. I packed my things again, paid the lady for the day and took the her paper with the Thai writing of “Noh Bo” and with Ole instructions I managed to grab the carline for Ta Song Yang (about two hours and half on really bad road) and then another one to Mae Plot. Ole told me to wait for him at Mae Plot; he would come and get me with his car until the Noh Bo orphanage. Sitting in the car taxi, I have a chat with a Karen man. He spoke great English and told me he couldn’t speak Thai either as he was a Karen from Burma living in refugee camps since over 15 years. He

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looked about 30 years old; I thought that was a long time. He said that the Buddhist army of Burma (as choking as it can be, I didn’t even realise that Buddhist and army could even be compatible words) was comparable to Hitler and killing and persecuting his people since about 50 years now. I then turn around and look at few other people in the car. Some had missing legs, some no fingers, a man had an eye missing, and all of them (even children) had numbers tattooed on the arm. A cold shiver dropped my along my spine and, indeed, the spectrum of the European holocaust went straight back at me. The man asked me where I was from and said he knew a bit about France, Nice, Jean Reno and the Count de Monte-Cristo. It was surreal to hear an indigenous Burmese from refugee camps able to sum up more things about your own culture than you do. Especially that most of the people here are already a “second generation” of refugees: born inside the refugee camps with no rights to come out, study, work or buy some land.

Ole told me to phone him when I reach Ta Song Yang because there wasn’t any signal further and he kept on texting me to know where I was and if I was doing fine. He sent me a last text at twenty to six telling me he would be at 6pm at Mae Plot to pick me up. Fifteen minutes later the driver stops and tells me I am in Mae Plot.There is nothing: Mae Plot is a military checkpoint. Just a little wood house and for some reason two solar panels and a barrier, with four armed militaries. Right in the middle of the jungle, they looked at me like an alien and asked me several time if I was lost or wanted to make a phone call. I waited patiently and finally saw a pick up truck coming toward me. The car stopped and I see a tanned young man coming toward me with a little girl. He introduced himself; he looked so young with big blue eyes and generous smile. The little girl grabbed my hand and bring me in the truck, she speaks better English than all the people I met so far! She knows I came to visit the orphanage. Ole gave me a quick tour of the place, introduce me to the old couple helping him with the children and then we sat on the table with few

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children that wanted to wait for me to eat, and we shared the food all together in the kitchen of the orphanage. It felt like home.”

Following my personal observation, the children’s home is a perfect place for a child, as there are all the basic needs provided, as well as peace, harmony, calm and love. Indeed, the children’s home didn’t feel any different from other big families. Most of the children are happy to finally reach a safe place and they all seem to go along with each other, as I recorded only one argument between two little girls in my entire stay! It seems to me that being refugee children gave them a great sense (maybe too early) of responsibility. The children are very disciplined and help with household chores. I was surprised by the great organisation amongst the children themselves, as for example each of them is washing their plates after the meal, or how the oldest children help the youngest to get dressed or to brush their teeth. Finally, the informal interviews with the oldest children generated six main findings:

- Children at the orphanage have a better level of English than the others

- Children at the orphanage have notion about bamboo weaving and how traditional buildings are made

- Children at the orphanage prefers the bamboo buildings to the concrete buildings

- Children at the orphanage have some notion about crops growing and help in the field everyday.

- Children enjoyed the presence of the animals and caring for them, and at the time of the interviews, children were very excited about the creation of fish tanks inside the garden

- Children at the orphanage first care about their school and are also very stressed by their coming exams!

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B) Eco orphanages and green architecture

First of all, it is important to retrace the director’s background, as he described it to me: Ole started his experience when he came four years ago with a Christian NGOs that helped refugees in camps. He had a little house close to the camps he was volunteer, and after few months of charitable work, a priest asked him if he could take care of a couple of kids in the house he was renting because they didn’t have anywhere to place the unaccompanied children. He accepted and about year later, Ole had more than 25 children in his house. Some Norwegian friends of his creating an architectural NGO came to visit him and decided to create a project to build the eco orphanage. Designing individual houses for the children based on traditional local architecture, the experts came with a small budget to build the children’s home with local materials and workers. In five months, the buildings were finished and have been the successful living unit of 24 other unaccompanied Karen children for four years.The orphanage plan are given by the architectural firm on their website, and anyone can consult them. Thus, the initial plans of the orphanage designed by the NGO are also presented in this research in the Appendix N°2.

Operational Data Collected :

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The Children’s Home Fulfils a Huge NeedThe observations of the contextual situation, and the data collected during in depth interviews and informal conversational interviews led me to realize the need for such buildings: Ole Jorgen Edna confessed that he couldn’t cope with all the unaccompanied children anymore and it is the reason why they built another children’s home at about 15 miles from his first one.

Architecture and Low CostsAs the NGOs stated, the total costs of the buildings was about 700 hundreds pounds and Ole told me that there was little maintenance to be done. Additionally, the main material is bamboo here, which can be found easily and locally and therefore easy to replace if degraded. Each wall is made individually with a traditional indigenous technique used all over the region, which consist in waved piece of bamboos. Suitable for the local weather, these walls are usually strong and afford good ventilation in warm climates. Additionally, Ole also built another building for the children to play music and rehearse:

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“Musical building”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

However, this building is made with another technique, with stronger walls (for a greater insulation) made out of clay and dirt: this technique is

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also commonly called “Adobe”.

“Adobe bricks”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

The mix of Clay, dirt (or sand) and water is put into woodframes and dries under the sun for a couple of weeks, and then can be used for building construction.

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The use of old tyres for foundations is another great idea as it resists mould, rotting and is a recycled material.

“Tyres foundation”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Green architecture is a holistic practice and the recycling part can’t be neglected. Also, the TYIN architects have been using interesting solutions: “by raising the buildings from the ground, on four foundations cast in old tyres, problems with moisture and rot in the construction are prevented.” (TYIN, 2009:9) and raises the hope that indeed, everything is transformable, reusable and wastes can be limited.

Easy to copy

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Ole is himself building another orphanage few miles from the first one, and in the recorded interview and informal conversation, Ole told that he could also remake the bamboo walls, as he participated in the construction and learned traditional technique. Similarly, the other building technique with adobe is also a rather easy one that he managed to master quite rapidly.

Traditional building revivalThe fact that Ole now knows how to use the traditional bamboo weaving technique and that he re-used them to build another children’s home assure a revival of the traditional techniques and knowledge as it re-familiarise children with natural building rather than concrete ones.

“Bamboo weaving”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Additionally, the bamboo architecture reproducing traditional constructions also has positive repercussions for the unaccompanied children’s well-being

that stay surrounded by a familiar environment he is used to which attenuate the cruel traumatism they are passing through.

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“Traditional Lights”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Use of local resources to limit importation and other harmful materials:

I asked Ole if the TYNE statement on their website was true:”All the materials used in these projects are collected close to the site or purchased from local markets. It is crucial to identify and use local resources to ensure that the project will have a long-term ripple-effects that can lead to a positive development. A project based on locally available materials and knowledge enables people to continue the effort on their own terms without creating a dependency to outside fundings and resources.” (http://www.tyintegnestue.no)

and the director confirmed that, indeed, all the materials used to build the orphanage has been provided locally. After the construction, Ole Jorgen Edna decided to follow the local thinking and kept on using local materials to build more annexes to the children’s home, such as a football field:

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“Outside games”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

High possibility of developmentOle confided in me that he was actually working on a new project with a friend of his from Norway. They decided to build another building to create a craft centre for fair trade. Indeed, they are planning to open a building where other refugees (and volunteer from around the world) could come and teach things for the children. Ole told me he knew a couple of elderly women in camps that agreed to teach children how to fabric traditional bamboo baskets or weaving for example. Ole clarified that he was going to create a website where the things produced in the centre could be sold as fair trade products and generate supplementary founds for the children and the people teaching them crafts, thus also providing extra outcomes for the community.

Inoperative data collected :

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The design of the butterfly houses of the children’s home is not very practical for several reasons:

Roof

“Inside the Soe Ker Tie House”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

First, with three floors, the highest beds are too high and too close to the roof, which is a problem for the children. Indeed, traditionally, the roof is made with a traditional dry leaf technique, however, for higher natural light enhancing and for durability reasons (traditional roof tops has to be changed every five to eight month), the architects decided to use a wavy plastic piece instead, but it became far too warm for the children sleeping in the top bed. Additionally, when it is raining, the noise of the raindrops on the roof scares children. Ole told me he was going to put some leaves on the top too stop the heat and the noise while searching a better solution.

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WallsSecond, the bamboo has been cut thinner than the traditional model of

construction for aesthetic reasons. Ole was disappointed with that because the bigger traditional cut is stronger and therefore is more durable. After few couple of month, the bamboo started to break where it was cut too thin. Moreover, the workers didn’t treat the bamboo with enough pesticides and some places are also being eaten by bugs. The quick disintegration of the buildings is one of the failures of its design, however, its simplicity makes it easy to fix and therefore counter balance the negative effect.

InsulationThird, the traditional walls are suitable for the local weather, but their

level of insulation is really poor. Therefore, when Ole Jorgen Edna decided to build a “musical building” to create a space for the children to learn, rehearse and play music, he decided to use another technique instead of the bamboo weaved walls to reach a better insulation. He decided to use another environmental friendly technique: Adobe bricks. He tested several times and finally ended up with the right mix of clay and sand to make good bricks. Ole simply mixes the soil with water and moulds it into little wood frames. After few weeks, it dries and the bricks are ready. Ole built the entire room and the insulation is much better than the bamboo walls. However, he said he has a big problem with the bugs, as they seem to be attracted by the construction and scorpions and spiders are frequently nesting in the corners. However, it is the technique the more suitable for him and he will replace the disintegrating foundation bamboo walls with it. Hence the choice to include adobe construction for a better insulation and durability is shown his plan to

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ameliorate the butterfly houses. (plans of the improved Soe Ker Tie houses are shown in the Appendix 3)

C) Self sustainability

Operational data collected :

Crops and food productionAnother interview with a Karen refugee at the neighbouring camp explained to me that the military destroyed everything back in Burma and the farming methods were getting lost. With no rights to grow crops in Thailand, the traditional farming skills are not being learn by the new generation and for example elders started to forget the use of certain local plants such as Lucinda to fertilise the land, but these techniques are only known by elders know that don’t know how to write and therefore can only be transmitted orally.Therefore, having crops growing around the orphanage is a blessing as the old Karen couple helping Ole Jorgen Edna with the children also show them how to grow food. Ole told me that the reason he can grow crops is that he isn’t a refugee himself and it is a friendly Thai neighbour that let him cultivate the land he is not using. Thus, even if the crops are only lent, they are a great source of food for the children, the crops around the orphanage comprise of cucumbers, rice, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers.

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Finally, the orphanage also has some animals, about twenty chickens, five pigs and two cows that Ole Jorgen Edna was able to buy thanks to generous donations from Norway.

“Animals”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Local thinking:As developed previously, the architects that built the butterfly or Soe Ker Tie houses for the children focused on the use of local materials: “The bamboo weaving technique used is the same used in local houses and crafts, most of the bamboo being harvested within a few kilometres of the site.”(TYIN, 2009:9). The orphanage director confirmed that all the materials have been found locally as he was participating in the construction process.

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Additionally, the people that have been employed to help the construction were local Thai workers (unfortunately, the architects couldn’t develop the project with Karen refugee workers as they are not officially entitled to work.)Furthermore, the need for help in the children’s house is also fulfilled by people from the surrounding community: an old Karen couple, also refugees, are helping Ole Jorgen Edna to take care of the children. Additionally, the director’s project for a craft centre is also another way to engage the local refugee community.

Water matters:

“ Main Water Tank”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

WRITTEN RETRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEOTAPED RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH OLE JORGEN EDNA ABOUT THE WATER TANK:

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How is the water provided?This may be the easiest! We just fill up water in that tank, we close it, and then we open at the bottom so the water poor itself out: so we don’t need to use any pump or anything to take the water out. But we have to fill it out first!It doesn’t take so long here, especially on a rain season… and as you can see it is big enough to contain a lot of water that can stay for months. The green algae at the bottom is to purify and clean the water. This is for he main building. Each individual butterfly house also has big water tank attached to

it. “Butterfly Houses Water Tank”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Energy provision:

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“Gas Tank”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

WRITTEN RETRANSCRIPTION OF A RECORDED VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEW WITH OLE JORGEN EDNA ABOUT THE GAS TANK:

“So can you explain how this gas tank works?Ok, basically there is the outer tank and the inner tank. You fill it with the rubbishes from chicken, pigs, compost... at the bottom just to start the production of the gas, yes? And then you seal it with water around so the gas doesn’t come out. As there are more gas coming, it raises and go to the pipe directly link with the kitchen stove. But so far it has been a mix of propane gas and carbon dioxide and it doesn’t work very well if you want to fire it.In theory it should work well but if the pH is too high or too low it won’t works properly. So you have to test it. If the pH is right, between 7.5 and 8.5, then it will only produce methane.

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What about the electricity Ole?Unfortunately Agathe, I didn’t have time to figure this out yet, for now I am using the local sector and pay to the government for it!”

Waste disposal

Children are being explained the need to collect waste, the director and carers showed them compost: there are special bins around the orphanage for the children to put their ‘natural’ rubbishes: fruits, paper, wood, ect… in order to create compost to fertilise the kitchen garden.

“Compost”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Children know that the compost then is going to the field in order to “help the plant grow”. Another fieldwork observation was to notice that children

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here never throw anything on the floor and are conscious about the cleanliness of their environment.

“Cleaning time”, Agathe Cauchy, 12/12/10, Tak, Thailand

Inoperative data collected :

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Limited dependence…Although there are the main elements to proclaim a quasi self-sustainability in Noh Bo, it is still difficult to raise 24 children without financial support. The craft centre that Ole is currently creating is a beginning of the answer to enhance the monetary self-sustainability of the centre.Indeed, it is great to have food, water and energy provided but there are many things that children need particularly difficult to obtain without monetary support. Ole further explained that school clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, pen and notebooks along with toys have to be bought. Therefore, Ole Jorgen Edna found a solution to obtain the necessary funds to fulfil children’s basic needs. Through a system of sponsorship, he is able to gather the money necessary. Indeed, he confessed that he asked several friends and family members in Norway to sponsor one child each and send a small amount of money each month. Ole Jorgen Edna explained that several of his best friends and family were sending about ten euros each per month and he was lucky enough to have a lot of friends supporting his cause for the moment and he could easily manage all the children well being.

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CHAPTER FIVEAnalysis

Introduction: It is difficult to organise the findings of such a descriptive study

because everything is tightly linked, as for example growing crops is not only good for self sustainability, but as well for greener way of life and also to enhance traditional skills amongst children.It is commonly recognised that organising the analysis of qualitative data in a research is a difficult task to achieve. The coding of the data and collected information led to sort the data into three major categories. Consequently, this research proposes to organise the analysis of the data according to the famous model of Thesis Antithesis Synthesis. Indeed, the data qualified as “positive” because it helps to define and explain what is an eco orphanage, are gathered together in a first part. It will allow the detailed analysis of the interest for such constructions and answer the first question proposed by the research. Secondly, the data qualified as “negative” such as architectural deficiency or limited self-sustainability will be explained and analysed, as well as the inherent weakness of the contextual situation of the case study.Finally, the last part of this chapter will analyse the data that proposes solutions to the problems encountered. It will hopefully successfully close the study by answering the last part of the research question: is it possible to provide a model to extend the construction of sustainable children’s home?

A) THESIS:The data generated allowed me to answer my first question quite

precisely as this research can now explain what exactly is an eco orphanage. An eco orphanage is a natural building, considering the optimal use of the surrounding resources without harming the environment, limiting wastes and easily reconfigurable.

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First, the building is ecologically friendly because it is made of natural materials that are easily absorbed and degraded by nature in a case of cessation of use. Then, the walls made of locally harvested bamboo with a traditional weaving technique made the building easily reconfigurable. The local use of the resources means no importation, which limits the transportation and therefore limits the carbon footprint of the construction.The natural local resources efficiency is maximum thanks to the water tanks that cut the need to pay for water and use it in a more natural way, which doesn’t cost the earth. Similarly, the handmade production of methane gas implies that the children’s home doesn’t need to get involve with gas companies involving massive production, so harmful practices for environment and like other massive firm, abnormal profits at the dependence of their customers.

Moreover, the use of the surrounding environment to produce food for the children is a final step towards sustainability because it cuts the need to import food that have been previously industrially produced and process on big scale which are harmful practices for the planet. It also cut food importation to the orphanage, therefore cutting CO2 emissions from transportation. Finally, it also enhances monetary independence.

Additionally, independently from political and economical matters, the importance of the traditional building structure is crucial for the children, first because as the literature review outlined, it has been proved that children are reacting and feeling better in a natural environment but as well because it is primordial for orphan children to avoid the separation with their culture: “Every Child who belongs to an “ethnic, religious or linguistic” minority or indigenous group has the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her culture, to profess or practice his or her own religion or use his or her own language” (Art. 30, UNHCR, 1994:9)

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Therefore, a children’s home respecting the children’s natural environment has to be intensively promoted. The data gathered on the fieldworks such as observations of the willingness of children to help farming, their knowledge of bamboo weaving, or even the interview revealing the traditional craft centre project shows that this type of orphanage emphasizes cultural preservation. It was also a strong point made by the NGOs architects from the beginning: “the orientation of sleeping units created a variety of outdoor spaces similar to those found in Karen villages” (TYIN, 2009:7)

The fact that the architects and director of the project met Ole Jorgen Edna before creating the project has a significant role in the success of the project, and it is an important point to remember in the construction of a similar project. Indeed, for a holistic organisation, the very first step is to acknowledge the building environment and identify the needs and solutions, which mean LEARNING from the place before. This point reinforces the argument that the current exchanges North/South are in the wrong way: today education imposed to Children all over the World is conforming to Western model of teaching. Developing an eco orphanage is a great way to non-formally teach traditional indigenous sustainable techniques to the unaccompanied children thus preserving the skills and knowledge of their culture. The fact that the buildings are educating their occupants complies with the last point of the GGGC criteria defining a “High-Performance Green Building” presented in annexe 1, hence closes this initial section of analysis answering the first part of the leading research question by showing what an eco orphanage is and how Noh Bo children’s home is a great example.

B) ANTITHESIS:To start with, there are deficiencies in the initial design of the butterfly

houses. Indeed, numerous things need to be modified, and the data collected

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allowed to found out that a main mistake of the architects was to modify the traditional method of buildings for a better look: the thinner bamboo does not last more than several couple of months. Thus, the adobe technique maybe better adapted, and also much easier to reproduce in different context, as the bamboo is a specific wood from the region. The same applies to the roof tops.Furthermore, the data gathered such as interviews and the architectural plans in annex 2 showed as well that the design has been uselessly complicated. Indeed, a more simple structure would allow more space for the children and will make an easier model to reproduce. That is what is proposed by the children’s home director, who gave me his own architectural plan to ameliorate the structure, data that are also presented in Annex 3.

Another difficulty that the gathering of observation put together is the fact that the “design” house of Soe Ker Tie is not that exceptional or original in the region. Almost every house located in the Thai jungle at the border is built with wood and traditional “biodegradable” architectures such as bamboo weaving and leaves roof tops, because these materials are the cheapest in the poorest region of the country. These data raise the need to adjoin a subsidiary philosophic question to the research: what is the difference or link between poverty and sustainability? It seemed and felt quite irrelevant to study and research about Carbon footprints in a jungle populated with war refugees.

First of all because refugees are more concerned with their actual situation and future, as their refugee status doesn’t let them have the full means for their development. Like all displaced population, their uncertain future is more of a concern. I felt rude or out of place to ask more about the natural environment than how they lost their legs or if they have any hopes for the future. Solving the problems between humans maybe a prior dilemma before trying to solve environmental questions. Likewise, Ole Jorgen Edna told me that before any other matters, his first concern was to try to obtain

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official papers for the children, because without Thai papers children are not able to go to Thai schools after 15 years old, neither work or buy land. To buy illegal passports for each child is far too expensive and time is ticking. Another prior concern to Ole is the security of the children, especially since one month as one little girl has been kidnapped by her uncle that insisted to marry her to a Thai man. Since she disappeared, Ole Jorgen Edna confessed that he though several times about giving up the entire project.

Besides, sustainability sounded irrelevant in a place where most of the houses are similar to the eco orphanage as bamboo is the local primary source of construction materials. The first analysis of data shows that traditional techniques are better for the environment, and it is obvious that their carbon footprint is much lower than the average British citizen and therefore it supports the argument that it is more important to learn from them more than them from us. This primarily involves a switch in the current North/South relations.

Furthermore, it is arguable that the children’s home will still take time to be one hundred percent self-sustainable and to be a perfect model. Thus, it could be negative to develop an exemplary model based on an unachieved model. The fact that the orphanage is still dependent for its electricity or external foreign funding, even minimally could be see as a partial failure to sustainability.

Finally, the collection of data revealed that the context is an extremely important part of the research and therefore massively complicates the creation of a basic model of eco orphanage. The need for children’s homes may not be the same in different parts of the world, neither the climate nor the materials. It is obvious that children’s homes made out of bamboo wouldn’t be suitable in Norway for example, or that the cultural tradition preservation wouldn’t have to be such a dilemma if it was not concerning displaced people, or that the construction of such orphanage in the U.S. would first require legal permission such as the accordance to LEED rating system by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for green

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building construction and legal charity status amongst many other documents. This inherent contextual problem of the case study makes the answer to the second part of the core question research more difficult to answer. Thus, the research aim may not be reached and the creation of a core strategy and advices will have to replace a technical exemplary model of an eco orphanage.

C) SYNTHESIS:

Thus, to develop a similar project, this research proposes to: First attentively study and learn from the place where the children’s

home is due to be built. The importance of holism has been demonstrated and any project will be more successful if the community is involved.

Secondly, it is equally important to identify the local resources and study the traditional ways of buildings as they usually are the best adapted to their environment.

If the place doesn’t have particular architectural tradition, then the use of natural materials easily disposable, such as mud bricks or adobe, and with the less carbon footprint is advised as it is better for the earth and for the children wellness.

Then, involving local workers and actively participating at the construction is also a vital point.

The utilisation of any recycled material is a bonus, and the less transportation possible is necessary.

It is better to opt for more simple building, but easy to fix or reconfigurate as the first essay may not always be successful.

It is essential to teach to the children some notions of building construction, especially if it involves architecture with traditional architectural background.

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Creating a space to grow food is equally important as it creates an auto-sufficiency making the children’s home less reliable on external funding, as well as giving some informal education about kitchen gardening and environmental awareness, if not cultural conservation.

Involving children in any building initiative, such as digging a fish pond or decorating the garden, and planting nice flowers is equally important to enhance a familial feeling of belonging and an informal education for sustainability to children.

Having some animals is also a good support to teach about ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as reinforcing self-sufficiency and having a positive impact on children.

Installing a water tank to collect rain water is also crucial to enhance independence from external supplies. The water tank has to be filled out first, then closed and the pipes installed at its base are thus able to deliver water at the tap without pumping systems.

Similarly, a gas tank is easily feasible by digging a hole and installing an inner tank and an outer tank filled up with water to hermetically seal the manure of the inner tank. By decomposing, the methane is created and fill up the tank linked by a pipe to the kitchen, thus supplying good burning fuel for cooking.

The use of solar panel or wind power is advised to provide electricity, although they require supplementary funding.

Providing alternative means of transportation to the children is also a great initiative, such as using donations to buy bikes.

Finally, the development of an organisation annexe to the children’s home seems to be another key to successful initiatives. Indeed, social enterprises are globally more successful than NGOs as they do not rely on uncertain external funding and people’s generosity. Indeed, the creation of a craft centre to teach supplementary skills to children, the sale of unneeded vegetables, milk, or even the creation of a “musical” building to perform

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concerts and spectacles are different way to sum up the little money necessary to meet the rest of the basic needs. Indeed, supplementary research led me to find a successful example of orphanages linked with social enterprises such as weaving centres, baking houses, or internet cafés that create jobs for the local community, bring extra funding for the children’s home but also help children to develop useful skills for their future survival.The revival of traditional knowledge for buildings construction is not a regression but a secure way to rehabilitate sustainability between humans and nature

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CHAPTER SIXConclusion

Growing up in today’s world is not easy; it is even harder without parents, support

or a home. Additionally, as every other child, the threatening future brings upon them the

huge responsibility of natural and cultural conservation. The fastening degradation and

over use of natural resources is a worldwide threat to humanity and environmental

conservation should be every initiative’s top priority. As the literature review stated, green

architecture is the beginning of an answer to the current fight for a less damaging lifestyle.

Although there are many other problems to face and things to change, the building industry

has one of the worst impact on the planet due to production of toxic materials,

transportation, CO2 emissions and wastes. Henceforth, it also has been verified that our

construct environment shapes our mind, wellness and influences our way of thinking. Thus,

a greener architecture, along with human negative impact, could also enhance respect for

nature and motivate its preservation, creating a positive cyclic feedback that could lead to a

much needed switch of the global paradigm.

Sensibilizing children is important therefore there is already a great development of

eco friendly architectures for children, mainly promoted and funded by the Government,

such as green schools projects across England. Despite an improvement, there are still

monumental efforts to be made, especially in the poorest parts of the world and equally in

reaching the most excluded children. Victims of wars, displacement, and unaccompanied

children need extra support and green architecture can also significantly contributes to

their wellbeing.

It is in this perspective that the research sought to establish the characteristics of eco

friendly children’s home and draw some guidelines as references for future similar

initiatives.

If this paper successfully exposed the features of sustainable children’s home, it also

highlighted practical problems and raised arguments. Even if most of the architectural

problems could finally be overcome, it still gives to think about the investment required for

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this type of building. Indeed, it requires a huge amount of personal work, time and success

isn’t guaranteed, therefore it can suggest that it maybe better and easier to simply wait for

external international funding and build a standard children’s home.

Additionally, it also can face critics of the evaluative techniques, mainly on how to measure

the efficiency of ‘informal education” to teach sustainability to unaccompanied children.

This paper still enriches the academic scene of qualitative study of children’s home and the

informal education about sustainability that is received by this particular group of

unaccompanied children.

Finally, following the perspective that the North/South relations are unsatisfactory, and

that the North should first help its own children to save our planet as they are largely

responsible for its degradation, a logical argument could have been that due to the

researcher background (from the North) the topic of the thesis should have been oriented

toward solution to establish sustainability to educates the “developed” countries before all.

Despite this acceptable critic, it can be argued that ultimately, this research had the

primary objective to settle a model valid in any place of the world, and finally also shows

the importance of learning from the place before by adopting traditional techniques, thus

rightly claiming that the South retains the solution to help itself. This research probably didn’t perfectly achieved the creation of an exact model, but the architectural plans provided by the architects and the ameliorations proposed by Ole Jorgen Edna can provide a good start to any orphanage building initiative. It hopes that it also showed the need for more freedom in future constructions and advises of how to make it work. At least, this paper successfully showed that every initiative to help is viable and hopes to encourage more people to develop similar projects.Overall, the specificity of the context of the case study makes the drawing of an eco standard model difficult, despite having the positive aspect of enriching the qualitative academic research much needed according to the UNESCO.

Nevertheless, the research’s holism positively enhanced the equal importance of self-reliance for greener living but also on a Non Profit organisation perspective, where it is considered as highly successful to have

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a limited reliance on uncertain external funding. Besides, the children’s home is reaching sustainability as well because it is a viable unit without depending on the global monetary system.

This in depth study of eco friendly children’s home finally also gives reflexions about supplementary solutions such as the recycling of old tyres as raw building materials. This is a current tested solution to answer the problems of housing and waste disposals! The use of tyres as foundation is an example of a small element from the case study that can be expanded and reproduced on bigger scale and currently tested to help in the poorest slums in the world.This emergent technique develops alongside the similar concept of earthship, a recent admirable type of eco architecture founded on “biotecture”: creating houses accessible to low budgets and quasi self sufficient, made of recycled or natural materials. It is clarified by the official earthship website giving the following definition: “An Earthship is a radically sustainable home made of recycled material” (www.earthship.org, 2011). Ironically, the future maybe in our wastes and these powerful ideas deserve more research and promotion to enhance green initiatives such as sustainable children’s home throughout the World.

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APPENDIX ITHE GGGC LIST OF CRITERIA FOR “HIGH-PERFORMANCE GREEN BUILDINGS:

- A project created via cooperation among building owners, facility managers, users, designers and construction professionals through a collaborative team approach.

- A project that engages the local and regional communities in all stage of the process, including design, construction, and occupancy.

- A project that conceptualize a number of systems that, when integrated, can bring efficiencies to mechanical operation and human performance.

- A project that considers the true costs of a building’s impact on the local and regional environment.

- A project that considers the life-cycle costs of a product system. There are costs associated with its manufacture, operation, maintenance and disposal.

- A building that uses resources efficiently and maximizes use of local building materials

- A project that minimizes demolition and construction wastes and uses products that minimize waste in their production or disposal.

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- A building that is energy and resource efficient.- A building that can be easily reconfigured and reused.- A building with healthy indoor environment.- A project that uses appropriate technologies, including natural and low

tech products and systems, before applying complex or resource intensive solutions.

- A building that includes an environmentally sound operations and maintenance regimen.

- A project that educates building occupants and users to the philosophies, strategies and controls included in the design, construction and maintenance of the project.

Source: Governor’s Green Governement Council (1999), “Guidelines for creating High-Performance Green Buildings”, Pennslylvania GGGC in Sustainable Construction : green building design and delivery, Charles J. Kibert, 2008, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey

APPENDIX IIPLAN OF THE SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS SOE KER TIE HOUSE (OR BUTTERFLY HOUSES)

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Source: TYIN (2009) “Presentation”, 2009, access at www.tyintegnestue.no

APPENDIX III:PLANS OF THE FUTURE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING WITH IMPROVEMENT

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The brown sections will be added to the Soe Ker Tie house, and will be made of Adobe.

Source: Designs made by Ole Jorgen Edna, director of the Noh Bo Children’s Home, Tak, Thailand (Published with his authorization).

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APPENDIX IV:RETRANSCRIPTION OF THE FIRST VIDEOTAPED RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH OLE JORGEN EDNA:

First of all, I need to know if you agree to answer my questions Yes, I agree to answer your questions

How do you buy the clothes for the kids? They have to have school uniforms, how does it work?It is different for different schools and high school have different uniforms for different days: Monday and Tuesday is yellow shirt day for example because all the children like yellow!

Can they still go into the school if they don’t have the requested uniform? I guess they can but they will probably be punished, around here most of the day is yellow or white shirt, it is ok.They also have one day for “freestyle” and are allowed to wear what they want.

Do you understand how the buildings are build? Yes

And could you reproduce it yourself? I couldn’t do it all alone! But yes, I know how it all works.

What are the few things that are not currently working? Yes, few things need changes. I want to change the roof and make the butterfly houses a little bit bigger and more simple: for example two floors instead of three…

Do you think this model could be reproduce in other places in the world or do you think it is typical from here?It could be reproduced, it is a concept that has some good idea, but still I don’t think I would do it the same way: I would do it more easily, sticking more to the traditional way of building. They had some good idea about how to use bamboo but most of it didn’t work. It looks nice in the first few couple of months but then it kinds of breaks out so I would rather find something that last for longer, without the need to change it.

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Like for example the size of the bamboo cut too small? Yes the size of the bamboo and some materials they used, like for the windows as you saw.

You started to speak Karen 4 years ago with the children, now you can speak it but do you teach them English or Norwegian? Not too much Norwegian, only if they ask. They know how to say “Hello”, “how are you”…They learn English at school as well but it is difficult because the English teachers do not speak very good English themselves, so they teach only grammar, more than how to speak. It depends of the school they go to, if they go to Thai schools, even my kids doesn’t speak English very well. It is a bit different in Karen school settled in refugee camps because they emphasize English a little bit more and often have foreigner teachers.

Do the children know how the building is build and understand the techniques?Yes, most of them know bamboo weaving, and I try to explain to them how everything works in the orphanage. The oldest children are taking care of many things already in the orphanage.

You mean they help you to run the home? Yes, of course, the oldest one care for the youngest, they have their own cleaning rota organisation and they care a lot, we repair things together and they help me when I need!For example now we are building some natural fish tanks, so we all worked digging the holes, looking for stone to lie at the bottom, and the youngest children painted the stones in different colours.

Do you explain to the children sustainability? Well, it depends what do you mean by sustainability, I am not a teacher, but I explain to them why do we have compost for example, or how to plant vegetables, or how to take care of the animals and they know it is better for us than to go in town to buy the food.

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APPENDIX V:APPROVAL OF THE BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION :

Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences

Education Department Research Ethics Committee

The proposal for research submitted by

Agathe Cauchy

has been given ethical approval.

Date: 18 February 2011Signed:

Stephen LermanProfessor of EducationChairEducation Department Research Ethics Committee

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APPENDIX VI:RESEARCHER CRB CHECK

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APPENDIX VIIPRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE ETHICAL REPORTING ON CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 18 YEARS OLD

The Convention on the Rights of the Child; Child Rights and the Media: Guidelines for Journalists, International Federation of Journalists; Media and Children in Need of

Special Protection, (internal document), UNICEF’s Division of Communication; Second International Consultation on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, United Nations Secretary-

General. (UNICEF working document – December 2001)

Children and young people have all the rights of adults. In addition, they have the right to be protected from harm. Reporting on children and young people carries this added dimension and restriction, especially in the current era when it is near-impossible to limit a story’s reach. This document is meant to support the best intentions of ethical reporters – serving the public’s interest for truth without compromising the rights of children.

I. Principles

1. The dignity and rights of every child are to be respected in every circumstance.

2. In interviewing and reporting on children, special attention is to be paid to each child’s right to privacy and confidentiality, to have their opinions heard, to participate in decisions affecting them and to be protected from harm and retribution, including the potential of harm and retribution.

3. The best interests of each child are to be protected over any other consideration, including over advocacy for children’s issues and the promotion of child rights.

4. When trying to determine the best interests of a child, the child’s right to have their views taken into account are to be given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity.

5. Those closest to the child’s situation and best able to assess it are to be consulted about the political, social and cultural ramifications of any reportage.

II. Guidelines for interviewing children

1. Do no harm to any child; avoid questions, attitudes or comments that are insensitive to cultural values, that place a child in danger or expose a child to humiliation, or that reactivate a child’s pain and grief from traumatic events.

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2. Do not ask children to tell a story or take an action that is not part of their own history.

3. Ensure that the child or guardian knows they are talking with a reporter and understands what that means.

4. Secure a signed release by the child and his or her guardian for all interviews, videotaping and, when possible, for documentary photographs. This release must be obtained in circumstances that ensure that the child is not coerced in any way and that she or he understands the implications of both the release and of being part of a story that might be disseminated locally and globally. This is usually only ensured if the release is in the child’s language and if the decision is made in consultation with an adult the child trusts.

5. Pay attention to where and how the child is interviewed. Try to make certain that children are comfortable and able to tell their story without outside pressure, including from the interviewer. In film, video and radio interviews, consider what the choice of visual or audio background might imply about the child and her or his life and story. Ensure that the child would not be endangered or adversely affected by showing their home, community or general whereabouts.

III. Guidelines for reporting on children

1. Do not stigmatize any child; avoid categorisations or descriptions that expose a child to negative reprisals - including additional physical or psychological harm, or to lifelong abuse, discrimination or rejection by their local communities.

2. Provide an accurate context for the child’s story or image.

3. Change the name and obscure the visual identity of any child who is: a. A current or former child combatant, whether or not they are

accused of violence or atrocities,b. A victim of sexual abuse or exploitation, c. a perpetrator of physical or sexual abuse, d. HIV positive, living with AIDS or has died from AIDS, unless the

child, a parent or a guardian gives fully informed consent, e. Charged or convicted of a crime.

4. Confirm the accuracy of what the child has to say, either with other children or an adult, preferably with both.

5. Do not publish a story or image in instances where either may put children at risk even when identities are changed, obscured or not used.

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6. When in doubt about whether a child is at risk, report on the general situation for children rather than on an individual child, no matter how newsworthy the story.

IV. Note on when to use a child’s identity

In certain cases, using a child’s identity – their name and/or recognizable image – is in the child’s best interests. However, when the child’s identity is used, they must still be protected against harm and supported through any stigmatization or reprisals.

Some examples of these special cases are:

1. When a child initiates contact with the reporter, wanting to exercise their right to freedom of expression and their right to have their opinion heard.

2. When a child is part of a sustained programme of activism or social mobilization and wants to be so identified.

3. When a child is engaged in a psychosocial programme and claiming their name and identity is part of their healthy development.

V. Use of UNICEF materials

All of UNICEF materials are protected by copyright, including text, photographs, images and videotapes. Permission to reproduce any UNICEF material must be requested from the originating UNICEF office, and will be only be granted on the condition that the principles and guidelines in this document are adhered to.

END

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