Improving life in slums from the inside | Oliver Von Malm | TEDxFHKufstein

"You always have to start somewhere!" is Oliver's motto. And he started early as a student of architecture trying to shape the world.
Back in 2011, he visited Kenya and saw the great need for educational facilities in the poverty-stricken country. He wanted to build a school in a slum so children could receive the education they need. But he soon realized that this project is much bigger than building just one school. He came up with a new method of how the locals can build their own concrete structures in a location where this material is not easy to obtain. The combination of high-tech tools and low-tech manufacturing methods, as well as low-cost materials, facilitates the construction process.

In 2016, Oliver von Malm had finished his master thesis in architecture, and "Start Somewhere" has become a non-profit organization with a lot of dedicated members. Oliver's master thesis is about the construction of a new school building that shall be built by the slum residents themselves.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

When I was a student of architecture,

I had the chance

to work in some of the largest
architecture offices around the world.

I was part of the design team

working on buildings
like this one in Saudi Arabia.

I spent five months working in Beijing
on this particular building.

I had the chance to work with some
of the best architects in their field.

And it was a great time.

I learned a lot of skills.

I learned how to deal
with these large-scale projects.

But then, there was a point where I felt,

"Well, it kind of still doesn't feel
like this is what I want to do

by the end of the day."

So at some point, I decided
I'm going to leave from Beijing,

and I'm going to go travel.

This is where I arrived.

So I was backpacking
through Kenya and Tanzania.

And in the end, I was stranded in Nairobi

because I was out of cash.

I couldn't really do much.

So I was sitting there
in the hostel, and I asked,

"What can you do in Nairobi
if you don't have any cash?"

And the hostel lady proposed
I could go on a slum tour.

I could go and visit Kibera slum,

which is one of the largest
slums in the world.

And basically, the deal was,

a guy from the slum would come,
pick me up, show me around,

get five euros for that.

So I agreed.

And I went with this man
we see in that picture.

And these were my first
impressions I had of Kibera.

So, many things I had on my mind
were absolutely true.

There was rubbish everywhere,

there was obvious poverty,

there was sick people.

The smell was overwhelming.

And that was quite a strong thing,

experiencing that the first time.

But I got along quite well with my guide.

We were the same age.

And we ended up talking a lot.

So I decided to just come back
by myself the next day.

And looking at it a bit closer,

I found there is also
a lot of good things in that area.

There is smiling, there's happiness,
there's music playing,

there's people dancing, celebrating.

And I could feel there's life,
yeah, in that place.

And well,

what my teacher - ah, sorry -

my guide was actually a teacher.

He had started a school for children
who couldn't afford going to public school

because it's not free in Kenya.

So he was teaching there
without getting any salary

and even trying to provide food
for the kids in the schools

from his own money,

which he made from side jobs,
like a tour guide.

And I got invited to teach a bit
in these schools.

I was teaching a bit of mathematics,
geometry, of course,

and we made a volleyball net.

And we got to know each other quite well.

And I was really impressed
that these people who had nothing

really wanted to do something
to change the future of their kids.

So I had to leave, but I told them,

"Well, maybe, there is some way
I can help you once I'm back home."

So I took my flight,

and I was sitting there
on a stopover in Amsterdam.

And I was asking myself,

"Are you really going to do it?

Because, if you do it,
it might mean a lifelong commitment."

And what I said was,

"Sure, of course, you're going to do it."

And it didn't feel bad at all.

This is from my notebook
which I had on the travels.

I right away made a first to-do list,

a few organizational things.

And most important, probably,

I somehow had to collect that cash.

And the very most important point,
number five, don't panic.

Well, so I had to become a bit innovative
for point four, collecting that cash.

I was still a student,
and most people I knew were students.

And the only thing students
always have money for is beer.

So I organized these parties
where I was selling drinks,

and with that profit,

I was able to start
supporting these two schools.

So I started sending over
the first donations,

and I was able to get
some minimum salary for the teachers

and to provide a bit of help
for the food for the kids.

And what I got back was like joy.

That was just incredibly motivating.

You know, these kids get super excited
about new school books, you know.

I mean, I wasn't that excited
about a new school book, yeah.

But they know
it's like a privilege, yeah.

And when you see that,
it really keeps you going.

It's a very motivating thing, yeah.

So you get much more out of it personally.

And so I continued,
and now I have the help of friends,

I'm partnering with other NGOs,

and now we managed to raise -

there are two schools
we have been supporting,

from an initial number of 80 kids

to more than 600 kids today,

within the last six years.

So today, we still care about getting them
breakfast and lunch in school.

We can build additional classrooms,

bit by bit expand the school.

And we can even provide
a bit of medical care.

This is one of the schools.

And it seems like people like it.

And it's good at that point.

The only thing is

now it is way too small.

And if you look closer,
there's other things.

Well, first of all of them,

there you see two classes
combined in one room,

which is not ideal for teaching.

Up there you see the inner courtyard,

which for a lot of kids
is just not enough to play.

The toilets are unhygienic
and insufficient.

And most problematic is the heat.

So we got like up to 50 degrees Celsius
in these classrooms.

And yeah -

so the teachers asked me,

"Oliver, aren't you an architect, right?

Can you help us build a second story
or a new school building for us?"

And I was really happy
that they asked me that

because I felt, for the first time
after four years,

I could really help
with what I've learned,

with my profession.

And I took this question

to be my architectural master thesis.

And I designed a new
school building for them,

on the same plot, two stories high,

with a bit of a bigger courtyard.

And I wanted it

to be an inspirational place for the kids

because it's from primary
to upper primary.

It's very important years for children
to be at an inspirational environment.

And I said,

"Only because it has to be cheap,

it doesn't have to be
only practical or ugly,"

you know.

And maybe, through my thinking,

I can make it as cheap as a normal school

just by -

by using my technology, my thoughts.

And I'm going to tell you how.

I was looking at the way
they were currently building in Kibera.

So basically, what they do
is they put up a wooden scaffolding,

and then they use some wet mud,

and with the bare hands,
they put it inside that scaffolding,

and after that,

they would apply a layer, like one inch,
of plaster on the outside,

which results in a wall
like the one you see underneath.

It's basically a good concept

because it comes from
the vernacular way of building there.

So it's a solid thick wall
using the local material,

but it's not really what people want.

They want it to be a very straight wall.

It looks like a poor man's house to them.

And also, it collapses every now and then

after the rainfalls.

There's two, twice per year,
heavy rainfalls in Kenya.

And then they have to fix it.

Like that yellow wall we saw before,

it just collapsed,

and we had to completely rebuild it.

And yeah, so I thought,

still, I want to stick to that method
as close as possible.

So I thought, why not reverse the method?

Build the plaster first
and then fill it with earth afterwards.

So I had the idea of making
these prefabricated concrete bricks,

like that size, hollow elements,
that can be filled with earth.

And of course, it had to be as practical,

as free to design in the slum
for the people, as they always are.

So if you think of Kibera,

you can easily imagine
a slum is not like Manhattan,

it's not a rectangular grid.

So you need to be completely flexible
in angles and plan.

So these elements can do that.

They can be arranged in a modular way.

You can freely expand,
shorten, make openings.

And you don't need any mortar.

You can just click it together.

Clearly, I didn't want
to only assume it's a good idea

or that people like it maybe.

So there you see me discussing,
for example, with Mr. Oloo.

He has more than 40 years experience
in construction in Kibera.

And he helped me a lot, actually,

to say, "Okay, well,

this is a good size
for our people to carry it.

For the elements,
we have this kind of concrete,

this kind of concrete mixture."

And yeah, we both came to the conclusion
that this really can work there

and people will be happy
to have that technology.

Another thing I did,

I had to make sure the material is right

because sand around the world
is not the same everywhere,

especially when it comes
to very thin-shell construction.

So I traveled to Nairobi only
on the so-called "Nairobi sand mission."

It was my only objective,
to get that reliable source of sand.

And I managed to find it
and bring back ten kilograms,

which, as you might be able to imagine,

was not that easy to explain
to the guys at the airport:

what's that bag
I'm bringing there on the plane

with this powder inside?

But yeah, I managed to convince them
that it's only sand.

And they were like, "Okay, sand.
No problem, you can go."

Yeah.

Yeah, and I brought this back
to the lab in Innsbruck,

where we're currently doing the research
on optimizing the contents of these bags,

say which material is possible.

And we also search on
optimizing the best way

to produce these elements.

What's the most efficient way?

What's the way that
cancels out most mistakes

to maintain always the same quality.

Yeah.

And now, you think,

"Well, for just making
one school building,

this is a lot of effort, right?"

But here, we see the building site.

And this is a very, very small
fraction of that slum.

So I said,

"If I build a school,

and then afterwards, there's a school.

And then what?

It's not as much as I could do."

So, I rather wanted to develop a method

that can be applied
by the people from Kibera themselves

in order to also make other buildings.

So once that school is done,

there will still be
a manufacturing workshop

for these elements,

and people from Kibera will run it

in order to even make
single-family houses.

Single-family houses.

You see that on the right-hand,
an illustration of how it could look,

a house that can be built
below a thousand euros

by people themselves.

It's pretty much

what a comparable house
with a local construction method,

which is already done in Kibera,

would cost today.

But it's way more fireproof,

it's much more long-lasting,

and it looks more straight,

which is important
for people's self-esteem.

What you see on the other hand,
on the left side, is a tablet.

And that tablet I want to use
as a tool in Kibera

because I programmed a software

that allows people
to design with these elements,

just using the finger
drawing the plan of the building.

And then they can adjust it
and make some openings there,

just intuitively.

And that software
automatically calculates

how many elements are needed.

It would make you a plan,

which would rather look
like an Excel sheet

than an architectural drawing.

It enables you to make less mistakes,

to know in advance
how much that building will cost.

And people, most important,
can do it themselves.

Because that's what they always have done,

because slums are always built

by the people.

And this is why I said,

"We better keep it that way."

I'm not going to change the way.

I'm just going to change the tools.

This is an estimation by UN-Habitat

about the world slum population in 2025,

which is only eight years from now.

When we add up these numbers,

we get to a total of 1.7 billion people

living in slums only eight years from now.

And this is quite a huge number.

And if I look at this number,

I think it cannot be solved

from top-down approach.

You know, we cannot make a master plan.

We cannot hire construction
companies from outside

in order to change how slums look.

It's not going to happen -
there's corruption.

We must rather enable the people

because the people are there.

The people want to do something,

then the people anyway
always build something.

So that's why I say
it's much more about empowerment

and giving them the better tools.

Still, 1.7 million is a lot, right?

So you feel like, what can I do?

And this is what it looks like
right now in front of the school.

And what we are going to do,

is build this school as a first prototype
of that construction method,

and from there,
we will try to carry it on.

So my vision is that at some point,

more and more people will learn
how to build with that technique.

I will help initially
to design some houses,

at some point, they will do it themselves.

It will be a tool for other NGOs as well

to be able to build their own schools.

They want to donate in a more cheap way.

And, well -

every big vision has to start somewhere.

And this is where we start.

Thank you.

(Applause)