African project
Home Kisito – Burkina Faso
afternoon sun, reduce the height to a scale more in line with the children and
provide an abundance of mango fruits.
The interior of the building is kept cool thanks to the compressed earth walls,
vaulted ceilings and flooring. The coloured “insect screens” on the façades allow
the vestibule to be configured as a protected, permanently ventilated internal
passageway, permitting cross ventilation and emitting warm rising air. This effect
is accentuated with the openings at the opposing ends of this corridor (northsouth) and at the level of the terraces (east-west), as well as in the vertical plane,
with the interruption of BTC in the central vaults being replaced by an insect
screen on a metal frame.
The excavation and concrete elements were awarded to a company which agreed
to reduce profit margins, taking the social nature of the project into account.
The walls were built by young trainees and the ceilings by a highly experienced
crew. The stonework and metallic structure was entrusted to teams who had
already worked on previous projects, such as the group of women who rendered
the interior stone facing by hand with clay plastering. And lastly, the architects
adapted the local technique to make chairs and loungers weaving with coloured
plastic mesh to make the “mosquito nets” of the façade and corridor, working with
an association of blind and partially sighted people.
Photographs: Giovanni Quattrocolo and Albert Faus
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