NEW LECTURE ROOM BLOCK AT THE ALIOUNE DIOP UNIVERSITY
In Senegal, shade and water are everything. This project, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the World Bank, aims to respond to this context as a perfect machine, beautiful in its efficiency and without an engine.
In Senegal, shade and water are everything. This project, a close relative of another in Gaston Berger, San Luis, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the World Bank, aims to respond to this context as a perfect machine, beautiful in its efficiency and without an engine.
We developed the project from its cross-section, providing the building with a large double roof and a great lattice on the south façade, an L-shaped shield laying on its back, which avoids direct solar radiation but is permeable to air. This shield creates a Venturi effect generating a constant air flow between the building envelope and the lecture rooms, reducing the interior temperature by 10-15 ºC degrees, a change from the outside 40-45 ºC.
The building is simple in its construction, appropriate to the possibilities of the place: concrete blocks built on site covered with mortar and steel latticework; repetitive, with only one type of window; long, creating a visual reference and hand-crafted – the manufacturing of the 20,000 blocks of the lattice gave employment to more than a hundred workers of Bambey for 6 months.
To solve the lack of sewage and rainwater networks problem, we incorporated infiltration rafts with vegetation that collect rainwater, as a natural meander that is integrated into the landscape, favouring the natural development conditions of native vegetation. A purification system by means of activated sludge allows the purification of waste waters, which, once purified, are discharged to the same rafts.
