Project description
This school project in one of the world’s poorest countries aims to provide further education to the inhabitants of a rural area. Gando, with a population of 3000, has no secondary education facilities and lies on the southern plains of Burkina Faso, some 200km from the capital Ouagadougou. Diverse design aspects of the project consider the challenging weather conditions where summer temperatures peak at 40°C. The natural ventilation cooling effect is enhanced by routing air through underground tubes, planting vegetation, and the use of double-skin roofs and façades to achieve a 5°C thermal reduction. The enhanced indoor comfort and conditions are far more conducive to education.
Energy consumption during construction and operation is reduced to a minimum using only the sun and wind. The collection of scarce rainwater is integrated into the planting concept and is used to irrigate newly-planted trees that are intended to help consolidate previously exploited vegetation. Completed projects including an elementary school and library contributed to the evolving research and development process concerning design concepts, technologies and materials.
Comment of the Holcim Awards jury Africa Middle East
The jury commended this project because of its broad approach towards enmeshing discreet sustainable aspects of the program into a comprehensive whole. The
Secondary School Gando is constructed by the local community and builds not only a series of structures, but also a sense of identity and enhanced social cohesion. Its “urban design” has the potential to act as an anchor point in the village structure. The project, as one element of a long-term school development, makes use of “high-tech” ideas that are implemented with low-tech means. It intelligently leverages the site’s characteristics and locally-available materials.
The project itself generates positive impacts upon both the social environment by generating opportunities for education, creating jobs and training; and on the natural environment through reforestation. People learn building skills using clay and other readily available local materials, which strengthens the idea of a mutually-beneficial process since the skills learnt can be applied beyond the confines of the site. The experiences and techniques partially applied to earlier projects realized independently on the same site were integrated, and prove the potential and applicability of the project’s inherent ideas.
Description du projet et l'évaluation du jury en français (PDF, 19KB)