an expedition to the sunda islands

Hey everyone! As you all know, we are now under the Department of Architecture as a Community Built Project. All architecture students will be subsidized for major costs such as airfare, food and accommodation. We also have students from Engineering and PFM joining us as well.

Our main focus for this project is the kitchen of an orphanage in Waingapu, Sumba Island. We are tearing down the old one they have there which is dark and far too large, and we will be designing and reconstructing the free-standing kitchen from scratch, so it will be a really incredible learning experience.

We hope you can join us! :) If interested, please email your particulars to Chu Hwai at chuhwai@gmail.com before April 4. We are accepting 5 more yr 1, yr 2 or yr 3 architecture students.

Clarification 1:
Many people expressed their concerns about the cost (i.e. $500-700).

Just to clarify that this amount is stated as before any-fund raising events which will be conducted to cover our expenditure during the project. On top of that, first time YEP participants will get extra subsidy from the National Youth Council (NYC) and YEP. For previous YEPs that I've involved in, the cost per person was brought down to below $400.

So to say that the more successful our fund-raising is, the lower the cost would be.

The reason why we stated the amount to be $500-700 is because all these subsidies will come to you in the form of reimbursement after the trip. :)

Clarification 2
Project nature and construction (what are we going to do)

We are still in the midst of liaising with the Sumba side on what we can do for them. Currently we do not have plan to do major construction works there such as constructing house or hut, but rather basic renovation works such as repainting wall, minor construction of chimneys etc in the kitchen, repairing the floor tiles and conducting education etc.

We are opening this project to ALL SDE students so that we can work in a team of diverse disciplines and skills. Currently we have mostly architecture students applying to project, but we also hope that students from other departments can join us in our endeavor too!

Clarification 3
Sumba? and how is that place like? I've never heard of it before.

Many YEP projects are in countries like Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam etc of which you're more familiar with. Just to let you know, Sumba is in Indonesia, 1.5 hour away from Bali.

You can refer to the map on the poster to locate Sumba. It's near to Timor and Australia, but not too far from Bali. Architecture students might have learned about Sumbanese house in their history classes. Sumba is not much of a difference to other small towns and villages in Indonesia/Malaysia, but the people there are mostly free-thinkers, believe in animism or Christian. The inner part of Sumba is relatively poor, with indigenous people and things you've never seen before LOL. but don't worry, I have been there to tell you that it is safe :) and there is a group of Singapore medical volunteers who visit the inner villages annually to give medical relief and support, of whom we might work with during the project as well.

To get to Sumba, we will fly from Singapore to Bali, and then we will have to transfer to the smaller propellers (those with turning blades on both wings!) to get to Sumba. For this reason, our R&R (relax and recreation) after the 2 weeks construction in Sumba might be set in Bali! :)

Should you have any question, feel free to ask me @ 9459 4740 or chuhwai@gmail.com
this is your team leader, chu hwai from architecture year 4.

some pictures from Sumba which I took last time.