bricks + cartwheels in the media!

If anyone wants a good read check out bricks + cartwheels in the media!!

Click here to read the article Student Life: Building a future for Kenyan School Girls on the Sydney University Life at Sydney webpage.

Click here to read the article Sydney students aid Kenyan School Project on the university of sydney Faculty of Architecture website.

bricks + cartwheels Launch Party

bricks + cartwheels hosted their first fundraiser at the Marlborough Hotel, Newtown last Thursday 29th November. It was a fabulous night! Over 300 people attended and we raised $6500 with every cent going to building the Secondary School for Girls!

It was an opportunity for everyone to get together, have a few drinks, a dance and of course there were lots of conversations all night about bricks + cartwheels in Kenya!

The raffle was a big highlight with so many great prizes how could it not be! A select few were lucky to take home a very fashionable bricks + cartwheels bag stuffed full of goodies.

Thankyou to everyone that came and showed their support. We appreciate your generosity.

women's centre, rufisque, senegal exhibition

An exhibition of the award winning building by Finnish architects Hollmen, Reuter and Sandman is currently on display at the Wilkinson building, level 2, the hearth, Sydney University.









This exhibition illustrates how participatory design, based on an understanding of the local and the incorporation of traditional materials can give rise to significant architecture. With the right balance of design and community consciousness, bricks + cartwheels aspires to reach the level achieved by these inspirational women.







Click here to view this project in more detail.



Also on display in the hearth is an innovative photographic exploration throughout some of Johannesburg’s most infamous shack settlements: Alexandra, Diepsloot & Marshalltown. A project which was an initiative of the global studio carried out in July 2007, it allowed locals to document their own lives thereby giving a fresh perspective of people and their rich cultural heritage . Through pictures these are their stories… click here

Amber and Harriet create new website at c's place

The technical whiz kids from bricks + cartwheels are currently working on updating the website. Glass of Thistle Hill Shiraz in hand, they are doing a great job of posting our latest endeavours.

The updated website will be up and running by the 13th of October, so be sure to check it out!

School handmade in Bangladesh

One of the founding members of bricks + cartwheels stumbled across this school and came back to the rest of us saying, "I want to marry this school!"

This school has won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 10th award cycle for its innovative use of locally made resources, and the way the project has built on the capacity of the local community. The project has created jobs and training through “learning by doing” which helps the local craftsmen to improve the standards and condition of rural housing in general.

We love this building and commend the architects for their elegant and beautiful solution to a community focused building.

For more information on this inspirational project, click here.

mud bricks in mudgee

The bricks + cartwheels team recently spent a whole weekend in Mudgee learning the art of mud brick making. bricks + cartwheels has recently been exploring the potential of using stabilised soil block as a construction technique for the Secondary School for Girls, Kenya.

The weekend at Mudgee was the perfect opportunity to test the construction methods of building mud bricks from scratch. Gerry, from Rosby Vineyard, was an amazing teacher and bricks + cartwheels learned the ins and outs of building mud bricks. bricks + cartwheels did it all, from digging out the sludge from the dam to mixing and packing the mud hard into the moulds with our hands!


It was great to learn exactly what materials, equipment, time and labour is needed to build the mud bricks. The weekend ended up being very successful for everyone involved. We had a great time making and learning all about mud bricks and most importantly Gerry and Kay from the Rosby Vineyard ended up with 102 mud bricks to build their new studio!

Check out the Rosby website here. They make a damn fine red!

sydney african film festival 2007, 19th-21st October

bricks + cartwheels will be sure to attend this not for profit event that celebrates African film and culture! By all reports it should be a colourful exciting showcase of highly acclaimed short films never before seen in Australia.

All money raised on the night will go to Hands of Help, a charitable organisation working to alleviate poverty and basic health care in developing countries and indigenous Australia. To find out more about the inspiring work of Hands of Help click here

The festival will be held at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington and Anita's Theatre, Thirroul.

For more information and for screening times visit here

global studio

One of the stellar bricks + cartwheels founders, Georgia Bowen, has recently returned from The Global Studio in Johannesburg. Georgia speaks of the amazing opportunity the studio provides to explore participatory approaches to design and planning that can improve people's lives and alleviate poverty. Georgia is inspiring the bricks + cartwheels team with her experiences.

Click here to read about Georgia and Global Studio in an article from The University of Sydney.

film review - out of africa

bricks + cartwheels watched Sydney Pollack's 1985 film "Out of Africa" recently; some of us for the first time, some of us for the first in a long time. But it was a discovery all the same, of a beautiful place filled with colour, and love, and life. Based on a true story, it tells the tale of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), a Danish woman who moves to Kenya in 1913 and the many years she spends there after that. Her journey is shared with Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford), a hunter who challenges her mind as well as her emotions. Whilst she believes in the freedom to learn, with her love for adventure set alongside the rhythm of Africa, she learns about freedom.

This film captures the idyllic nature of a country that is wild and beautifully poetic. It truly is captivating. If you do get the chance to see it, we hope it touches you as much as it did us.

on solid ground - sydney design festival

Last week bricks + cartwheels took a field trip to the Powerhouse Museum to see 'On Solid Ground: Quake-Safe Adobe and Earth Building Today' as part of the Sydney Design Festival. Quake Safe is a low cost building construction system for application in the developing world. We visited a scale model of a mud brick prototype building, constructed in the courtyard of the Powerhouse. Go and have a look!

Click here for more information.

monument - giving a damn

So, it is last month's issue- but we stumbled across it in the Powerhouse gift shop. Monument dedicate an issue to address architects’ response to social and environmental sustainability. The issue covers Arup's emergency housing in Sri Lanka, social housing projects in Europe by Peter Cook and David Chipperfield, Iredale Pedersen Hook's aboriginal community housing in Western Australia and profiles the work of Architecture for Humanity.

bricks + cartwheels think it is a must read!

Click here for more information.

vanity fair - the africa issue

This month Vanity Fair is all about Africa. Guest edited by Bono, the issue includes articles detailing Jeffery Sachs vision to eradicate global poverty; Africa's access to anti-retroviral drugs; Brad Pitt interviews Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton shares his experiences with Nelson Mandela.

An interesting look at Africa through a pop culture medium - have a look at the website.

Click here for more information.

designer drinks

bricks + cartwheels had their first fundraiser last Tuesday evening at the University of Sydney. We hosted designer drinks at the faculty of architecture. It was a great night, with a slide show, a few drinks and lots of good discussions with everybody about our current project in Kenya. It was so nice to see that so many of our university class mates and teachers are interested and excited about the project.