Another important step – handover of the site of the new dental teaching facility / student hub to the contractor

The work stream to build the new clinical dental teaching facility and student hub on the Blantyre campus of Kamuzu University of Health Sciences took a further step forward on Friday 11th April 2025, when the site was handed over to the building contractor, Mango Tree Construction Company. The agenda for the event was as follows:

The delegates assembled initially in the ICT Board Room:

Dr Peter Chimimba, Malawi Lead for The MalDent project, provided the background and context to the building:

In his presentation, Peter stressed how critical the new facility is to the ongoing viability of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and the added value it will bring to the university and the local community.

It was very appropriate that three of the BDS academic staff were present to witness the handover of the site:

The Deputy Vice Chancellor was represented by the University Librarian, Mr Diston Chiweza, who made remarks on her behalf:

The contracts were then officially exchanged and the site handed over:

Following the formalities in the Board Room, the delegates left to visit the site of the new facility…

… with various discussions along the way …

… until the site was finally reached:

A final photograph was taken at the demonstration wall that had been constructed to the specification produced by Leon Grobbelaar from John McAslan + Partners during his visit in 2024.

Peter Chimimba, Mwapatsa Mipando and I had been very excited last year to see this demonstration wall as, like today’s site handover, it had represented a tangible step forward. It is perhaps reminiscent of the famous quote by the architect Louis Kahn (1901 – 1974):

Even a brick wants to be something more than it is

The following aerial view with a superimposed perimeter of the site (blue line) gives some idea of the scale of the new facility:

Finally, to really bring things to life, a white line has been drawn to demarcate the boundary before physical barriers are erected.

At last, it feels as though the building is becoming a reality!

Acknowledgement

Thanks are due to Gift Kayuni of Kamuzu University of Health Sciences for the photographs used in this post