Asa studio by SpazioFMG per l'Architettura

together

visions from contemporary african architecture

asa studio tomĂ&#x20AC; berlanda, nerea amoros belorduy

4 asa studio 6 Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 28 Early Childhood Development & Family centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014

Index

ASA studio TomĂ Berlanda e Nerea Amoros Elorduy

Over the past two years ASA studio (short for active social architecture) studio has been working in Kigali, Rwanda, pursuing a long term educational, building, and research programme aimed at bringing together experts from different fields to work, to investigate and share knowledge of the traditional and current built environment in East Africa. With the completion of the first Early Childhood Development Centre in Nyabihondo (2012), of six preprimary schools and one maternity ward for UNICEF Rwanda (2013 and 2014), and the current ongoing construction of 9 Early Childhood Development and Family Centres for UNICEF Rwanda, and 8 Early Childhood Care Development Centres for Plan Rwanda, ASA has proven its ability to build capacity and transmit knowledge to workers and partners on building sites at a very large scale. At the same time the co-founders of ASA and most of its design fellows have been and are actively engaged in developing the young Department of Architecture within the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), now part of the University of Rwanda, where they have created opportunities for the first ever Rwandan students in architecture,

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to bring forward cutting edge investigations and research, assembling a unique repertoire of knowledge. Rwanda, as is the case for other countries, which are generally considered to be at the periphery of the world, rarely makes the headlines in architectural discourse. Yet it is an extremely interesting laboratory to understand the fundamental and ever controversial relationship between human beings and land. A small landlocked country, with its 11.5 million inhabitants occupying the 26â&#x20AC;&#x2122;400 sq.km surface, it is Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most densely populated. The 85% of the population lives in rural areas, where it is evenly distributed in the thousand hills for which the country is known, and only 8% live in Kigali. As architects and planners are tasked with finding solutions for the immense needs anticipated due to population growth and development in both Rwanda and Africa as a whole, ASA believes that design needs to be informed by a deep knowledge of the existing settlement patterns as well as the economic, social and political factors influencing them. Currently an overwhelming quantity of design work is informed only by a western

knowledge base, with a cursory investigation of the context and projects that reflects this. The resources useful for designers in understanding African contexts are rare and difficult to access, but without them, any solutions will be part of an imported cultural bias. In order to address this, the two projects on display aim to collate ASA's experience, which pivots around the educational component of design, stemming from an understanding of the profound ecosystemic relationship between human beings and their surroundings, both in terms of physical ontological relation with the ground, and in wider environmental terms. The material displayed describes and analyze the process of research, design and implementation of Early Childhood Development facilities in Rwanda as a collective and interdisciplinary project addressing the interface between the ecosystem and socioeconomic environment at both community level and national level. It appears clear that Early Childhood Development centres are building types for which there is a great need in Rwanda (the new five year Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy calls for building at least one in each

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of the 416 sectors), and relatively little experience. ASA posits that these interventions will have a wide social effect, challenging the interrelationship between production, education and meeting spaces, between social needs and spatial organization, and between environmental preservation and accommodation of new needs and related infrastructure. Architecture, at any scale, even in the remote community settings of Rwanda, impacts its environment, fostering changes in the immediate vicinity and in a wider range of scales and fields. Therefore even small architectural interventions such as ECDs, act in the formation of the roots of society, to influence and strengthen it, and appear as the paradigm of participatory design and an interdisciplinary approach to reach the best solution. Despite the small scale of the projects, and the even smaller "scale" of the majority of their users, it is ASA's belief that, as part of the holistic approach to architectural interventions, strengthening mother-child and child-child relationship, i.e. the basic units of the Rwandan social organization, will form the catalyst of social change.

Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014

The Early Childhood Care Development (ECCD) centre in the Bugesera district of Rwanda was the first built work by ASA studio. Commissioned by Plan Rwanda it was the result of a 2 year long research project focused on understanding the impact of space in early childhood development, and the larger role that architecture can play within communities.

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Work with this NGO started at the beginning of 2011, when their first community-based centres were established in Gatsibo district. After a wide survey and analysis of their infrastructures and modes of operations, the design team, led by Nerea Amoros Elorduy, proposed an innovative model that would learn from, the process and customes rooted in Rwandan society. Community workshops

were held as part of an extensive research of techniques, local materials, traditions and culture related to the care of Rwandan children and the mother-child relation, together with a comparative reading of international approaches towards ECCD implementation, were the first steps to create standards for a Rwandan-made ECCD. In the second half of 2011, the development of a first design came with the consideration of the building as an added educator and not just a container for program.. More than one year after the initial conversations, a specific site and community were selected, allowing for the start of a participatory design process in Nyabyondo, Bugesera district . The idea of the project was to serve as community space and not be limited to a few limited hours in the morning for ECD purposes. Instead it would allow for parenting education, after school homework, community meetings, women's cooperatives, and other social activities giving ownership of the space to its various stakeholders, making it more sustainable and more efficient. The centre as the added educator has been the leitmotif during the whole design and construction, therefore the building, its finishes and all the elements composing it, engage child holistic development through three main topics: Physical

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Growth, Cognitive Growth, Language Development, and Socioemotional Development. The building, indeed a prototype, was conceived to encourage the engagement of the community as a whole, and to deliver an innovative approach towards ECD in the country. One big square room, 9 meters per side, is placed above a small platform, which mediates its relationship with the uneven ground. Oriented so as to give the back to the prevailing wind and rain, it allows for the continuation of its interior space under a generous front porch, 7 meters deep. The pitched tiled roof hovers 4.5m high above the floor, allowing for sufficient light and cross ventilation of the spaces. The success of the first scheme led to the decision by Plan Rwanda, to replicate the design seven times across the same district. The seven variations on the original prototype, which are now nearing completion, are inserted in different conditions. From flat terrains, to very sloped sites, they engage with their surroundings, as means to address the interface between the natural and socioeconomic environment at community level, and ultimately, being interventions that pursue a wide social effect, become ecosystems. Their intrinsic nature is the result of both a plastic interplay between the built volumes, but also of the overall response to the surroundings.

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Nyabyondo

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Nyabyondo

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Nyabyondo

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Biharagu

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Biharagu

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Biharagu

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Early Care & Childhood Development Centres for Plan Rwanda 2011 - 2014 Gihembe

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014

‘’Urugo Mbonezamikurire’’ Working for and with UNICEF Rwanda has offered, among many other things, the opportunity to develop and further refine ideas on how to build ECD centres, and to test this at national level in 9 different districts, among very remote rural communities. It has been a unique opportunity to gather access to the diverse realities of the country, and particularly to test

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the replicability and adaptability of the design to varying topographic constraints, scarce and limited material resources, and with a wide range of expertise provided by the implementing partners. Lessons learnt from the first scheme built for Plan Rwanda have been very important, and included addressing and refining construction techniques, the precision in the

graphic documentation for the building crews, ranging from the initial laying out of the foundations across the sites, to the specific three dimensional details of the material assembly. There has been an effort in developing visual means of communicating to layman and relatively unskilled community labour, in an attempt at compiling a self-construction handbook that will hopefully influence later policies at national level. The conceptual approach to the design of the ECD&F model facility developed for UNICEF Rwanda rests on two pillars: - It highlights the role of a central space as catalyst for community gathering, in a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional "urugo" settlement pattern; - It conceives a modular structure, where components can adapt to different terrains and situations, but originate always similar facilities, organized around the central space. Two main typologies have been developed and tested throughout the ongoing construction in 9 different sites across the country: a circular plan and a S-shaped plan. Ideally the outcome of different aggregation of the modules, they are the result of the adaptation to different topographies and plots. All have required adjustments and changes during the construction process, in an effort to source locally available

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materials and transport them to difficult and remote site locations, together with the challenge of reacting to different climatic and geological conditions, such as soil types and heavy rainfall. In both types, the five different basic elements, stimulation classrooms, multipurpose hall, open demonstration kitchen, admin block and WASH facilities are small reinforced masonry structures, built with locally produced fired bricks, assembled with flemish bonds and vertical reinforcement bars, to improve stability and avoid the use of concrete, an expensive, imported material for Rwanda. The brick pattern and the multiple openings of varying size, placed at different heights contribute to the sensorial stimulation and the learning of small children, while providing natural lighting and cross ventilation. They are integrated by a continuous porch covered in ceramic tiles, which allows for a variety of covered outdoor spaces, for both learning and communal activities. The whole compound is fenced, and includes a dedicated area for playgrounds and kitchen gardens, and has a underground tank for rainwater harvesting. Ultimately it is ASA studio's hope that these designs will prove the ability of architecture to add value to programs, showcasing how architecture of quality should not simply be a privilege, but rather serve society.

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamagabe

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamagabe

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamagabe

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamasheke

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamasheke

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Early Childhood Development & Family Centres for Unicef Rwanda 2013 - 2014 Nyamasheke

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ASA studio Early Care & Childhood Development Centres

Early Childhood Development & Family centres

Project: Nerea Amoros Elorduy and Tomà Berlanda (ASA studio) Design team: ASA studio led by Nerea Amoros Elorduy with Francesco Stassi, Jacques Murama Site supervision team: Nerea Amoros Elorduy with Francesco Stassi, Tomà Berlanda Structural engineering: Nyundo Kayihura Technical equipment: Great Lakes Energy Typology: Early Childhood Development Centre Client: Plan Rwanda Contractor: Betex Site engineers: Eulade, Felicien, Elie Ndayizeye Locations: Biharagu; Kampeka; Nyabyondo; Tunda; Gihembe; Ngeruka; Nemba; Nkanga, Bugesera district, Rwanda Built Area: 290 square metres Timeframe: 2011-12 (Project); 2012 (Construction first prototype); 2013 (Project revision) 2013-2014 (Construction)

Project: Nerea Amoros Elorduy and Tomà Berlanda (ASA studio) Design team: ASA studio: Nerea Amoros Elorduy and Tomà Berlanda with Michelle Stadelman, Francesco Stassi, Jacques Murama Site supervision team: Nerea Amoros Elorduy and Tomà Berlanda with Michelle Stadelman, Francesco Stassi, Alice Tasca Structural engineering: Nyundo Kayihura Typology: Early Childhood Development & Family Centre Client: UNICEF Rwanda Donors: DFID Implementing Partners: Imbuto Foundation, Plan Rwanda Site engineers: Napoleon Mbarushimana, Elie Ndayizeye, David Nsabimana, David Nsengiyumva, Jean de Dieu Kamari, Maurice Munyandamutsa, Louis Kambarage Contractors: Betex, Local sectors Locations: Cymbazi, Rwamagana district; Sangaza, Ngoma district; Rugali, Nyamasheke district; Myove, Gicumbi district; Rugarura, Nyamagabe district; Mageragere, Nyamagabe district; Gikomero, Gasabo district; Minazi, Gakenke district; Bigogwe, Nyabihu district, Rwanda Built Area: 490 square metres Timeframe: 2013 (Project); 20132014 (Construction)

Credits