About the project
The aim of the Europe-wide "open competition" of the international organization "archstorming" was to design a "permanent elementary school" in Senegal (West Africa) using local, sustainable and reusable building materials, also taking into account the resources and climatic conditions on site. The focus was on the investigation of simple, cost-effective construction methods - which require little technical effort and could also be built by the residents themselves - in order to promote the community and strengthen the self-confidence of the population.
The school is intended to promote learning in groups, create a learning atmosphere that will, for example, strengthen educational opportunities in the future and thus increase the possibility of participation in social school life and also offer the children a kind of shelter after school to get them "off the streets".
As an introduction to the seminar, we first analyzed how "school life and the pedagogical teaching concept" work in principle in everyday life in Africa. The special feature of the international awarding authority's task was also the subsequent intended realization - the best concept was actually to be implemented on site in a second step on the basis of the competition results and built with the local school or population (1:1).
We wanted to take on this challenge as a university. In a first step, the design was submitted as a competition entry and in a second step, the ideas were worked through in detail in two to three variants in order to be able to assess the design consequences of the construction. After all, one of the more than 440 entries made it into the "Forty Best" and was published.
Prof. Christine Remensperger
