Community Service Initiative (CSI) is a subject which requires us student to contribute or take part in events, to give back to the society. In our group of nine, we started off by looking at several places or ideas through the internet in which we can start our project. Through discussions, all of the members agreed to select Ractar Orphanage as our organization to help out.

​

During the first visit to Ractar Orphanage, few of our members took photos of the current site for further analysis. Also, they had the opportunity to talk to the person in charged, Ms Hajjah to rely the message of wanting to conduct our community service there at Ractar. They came to a conclusion to either to build a bicycle rack, or to come out with a design for the existing truck they were there. As fellow architecture students, bicycle rack became our first choice without doubt.

​

We met up to conduct a thorough site analysis, applying what we learnt through previous semesters, to understand further about the orphanage, and also the site’s potential and issues. Continuing on, we came out with a basic design for the bicycle rack. It was a rack able to cater for around four to five bicycle, designed according to the kids’ anthropometry at a suitable height enough to receive shade from neighbouring greeneries. Back and forth discussions with Ms Hajjah, we then continued to implement a little bookshelf at the back part of the rack for the purpose of letting the children keep their traditional games or outdoor equipment. It was then Ms Hajjah accepted our proposal and work can be started.

​

In terms of letting a project get accepted by the client, is when we realise the hardship to satisfy someone, later on when we come out to work, especially in the field of architecture. This also made me realise that we have to bear more responsibility when designing something, not only for the aesthetic, but also for the functional and safety part.

​

As soon as the proposal got accepted, we moved on to work on the construction process and detailing of each and every part of the structure. Everything felt construct-able and workable through design thoughts and through what we learnt in class.

​

Problems start to arise when we start our project. From length of timber beam or column, to details like length of screws, which drill bit to use, materials and so on, we messed it all up. Basically we had to rely on Chong Yih, our leader to lead us through the whole construction process, without him, we just slacked off, wandering around wasting time. This made the first two visit unproductive and not efficient.

​

However, things start to come together when we realise our mistakes. We start to take into consideration tiny details, we helped each other out, and take turns in drilling and screwing to make things more efficient. We even split into smaller groups. I was assigned to make concrete pad footings for the structure. Through learning and experiment, we even managed to use card boxes to build the framework for the pad footing.

​

It is then that we know that everything that we planned, learnt are all just table top work, we had little or no onsite experience. This also made us realise that, teamwork is an important factor in making things work better, or perhaps easier because we shoulder the responsibility together.   

​

The work process continued days after days, from tiny pad footings, to the base of the shelter, then to the structures, the columns. Things get better and we were more experienced than before. When we were building the roof of the structure, one of the construction worker came by and saw our construction. It was very kind of him to tell us our mistakes in drilling the wrong part of the polycarbonate. This again reminded us of how onsite experiences helped in construction, and how mistakes like this will affect the structure as a whole.

​