African project
SOS Children’s Village
suddenly open themselves creating
squares of different sizes where
children play and daily community
activities can take place. Urko
Sanchez Architects also wanted
to include as much vegetation as
possible, even though Djibouti is
extremely arid, they realised it was
possible to integrate the vegetation
in the open spaces which will grow
with the proper cares giving extra
shades in the future.
The construction was done using
locally available materials as well
as Cemcrete products from South
Africa, emulating the traditional
architecture of narrow streets and
lattices which allow for natural
ventilation. A singular addition
was made to the conventional
architecture: ventilation chimneys
that allow for hot air inside the
houses to go up through them,
creating a constant airflow inside
the houses all day long. These
“wind chimneys” were an
experiment which happened to
work quite well. AD
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