African School - BLOB ADVENTURE

Project develops around a main path that serves the different functions typical of an african school in Malawi. In particular the area could be divided in three big quadrants each of which hosts educational, housing, agricultural and livestock activities.
The first one, the nearest to the entrance, is dedicated to the educational activities and is characterized from a big volume that contains the education support services (meeting room, teachers room, director room, infirmary, storage and multifunctional room) and a series of smaller volumes that hosts classes, library, computer and science rooms. In the second quadrants we find an area totally dedicated to agriculture and livestock activities with a vegetable garden and shelter for animals. The third one is devoted to the housing function, with refectory and dormitory for children in the western part and houses for teachers in the east.
Intention of the project was also to highlight the common spaces, trying to create sharing and multifunctional areas in the connection points between the various buildings. These spaces are created among the classrooms, facing the multidisciplinary building in the main square and in the areas enclosed by the perimeter of the teachers’ houses. Moreover, the stone path plays a fundamental role because it connects all the buildings and draws at the same time a strong sign for the whole concept.
Another important goal is the relationship between architecture and landscape which intents have the lower environmental impact and improve the welfare of the users. All the material chosen are local and fight the deforestation typical of construction activities in Malawi: the main path is realized in ground and stone, while the building are realized with a mix of ground and concrete blocks according to the pisè technique (for walls), wood, reeds and straw (for roof), and metal (for doors, windows, pillars and the second coverage). The second coverage represents the first step of the water recycling system: thought it the water is gathered into huge holding tanks.
Morevore, to integrate project with nature, buildings are characterized by a based realized in
stone and concrete and enriched by the presence of trees and plants that with its shape designs a playground for children on the landscape.