Building Emmoa

Nka Foundation had announced 'The 4th Earth Architecture Competition' to involve architects and students in the construction of a part of school in Abetenim Arts Village, Ghana. This school will be used by students with age from 12 to 18 years old and consists in the following building types for a population of 600 students. Total costs of constructing the design entry must not exceed $8.000 (USD). The design advances demands on the following of the local traditions and consist of a basic module that did not depend on the orientation, once defined; it was possible to hypothesize different aggregative solutions that play on rotations and reflections of the same modular element. The classroom was designed to be easily realized, with materials in the non-specialized workplace and with low costs. The classroom module is composed of two shorter walls built by Rammed Earth method, which is an ancient method where a mixture of damp earth and a stabilizing agent is compressed into formwork. One of the long walls, instead, consists of a mesh of bricks that allows the passage of light and a the opposite, which overlooks a common corridor, has two large doors and a central part is composed by some curtains that allow the total opening of the classroom to the external environment. On the structure in earth and brick rests a wooden curb that supports a system of horizontal shielding formed by wooden slats that allows the passage of air and light in a diffused manner. Inside some fabric sheets that act as a false ceiling. At the top of the structure is the double-pitched roof, made of corrugated sheet metal, which rests on wooden beams. At the meeting of the two pitches, there is finally the gutter for the collection and discharge of rainwater. The basic idea is to generate durable and scalable mud house types by drawing on the accumulated knowledge concerning ways of building in tropical climate.