NEW PROJECT FOR CONSIDERATION
MAE SOT
THAILAND

A brand new school for over 300 deeply underprivileged Burmese migrant children from the ostracised Karen state who, often along with their families, have fled turmoil and civil war in their home country. The situation for the children in Mae Sot is not easy with children lacking rights, services and limited safe education.

This new project will serve as a bright safe and contempory school for thousands of kids to learn and play for decades to come.

I would like to suggest ICF support this very worthwhile project. We will be working once again with Building Trust International (BTI) for architectural services. Along with our trusted engineers and teams on the ground in Mae Sot, with whom I have a great working relationship that has spanned over 8 years.

This would be a collaborative project with Accuro, with a total budget of 90k EUR with the idea that we at ICF would provide 45K should the team be onboard.

Olympic Partnership:
The Paris Olympic Committee has chosen us as a benefactor of materials used in the Olympics. The materials are of a much higher quality than those available locally, and their use will not only reduce deforestation in the area but also support long-term environmental sustainability by promoting responsible sourcing practices.

This not only helps us a great deal, but will be such a lovely partnership and step forward for further eco-friendly projects.

For the kids from such difficult backgrounds to know that their roof and classrooms etc were sheltering their favourite athletes on the other side of the world is very special.

This arrangement will incur no additional costs for us, as these expenses were already accounted for when construction companies submitted their bids for the Olympic contracts.

Embracing circularity is essential in the architectural and construction sector which accounts for more than a third of global resource consumption.

One might think 'why send timber to Thailand when they have their own trees,' but in fact sustainable forestry is very rare in South East Asia and the timber industry is one of the biggest causes of deforestation in the region.

Twin that with the fact that much of the lower grade timber sold is untreated for external conditions means that it degrades very quickly. Utilising and up-cycling sustainably forested timber from the Olympics allows us to create low impact screens and walls in our mobile classroom projects.

The tensile fabric we plan to use is typically shredded and recycled, a process that is carbon-intensive. However, by repurposing it for roofing materials, we can reduce this impact. These materials have been shown to outperform common zinc roofing, providing better thermal comfort and reducing rainwater runoff inside, which minimises disruption to classrooms.

To summarise, I believe that this project is a perfect fit for ICF which matches our intentions in helping some of the world's most vulnerable children. A beautiful safe space for thousands of children to learn and play for decades to come.

The project, as with all of our projects, will be fully self-sustaining with teachers salaries being paid by the local Karen charities.

If I get the go ahead we can complete this building

PROPOSED PLANS AND OLYMPIC MATERIALS:

WITH MANY THANKS AS ALWAYS