MTHUNZI CENTRE RENOVATION #Strategic plan #Retrofit #Expansion #Children hosting centre

MTHUNZI CENTRE RENOVATION

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Team: Where: Year: Area: Type: Client: #Strategic plan #Retrofit #Expansion #Children hosting centre School of Sustainability, MCA, ArCò, LAP Lusaka, Zambia 2018 400.000 mq Workshop Amani

The workshop for the renovation of the hosting community for children Mthunzi Centre in Lusaka is an initiative of NGO Amani, which is its manager. The idea aims to improve the strategic organisational setup of the community in a social-economic sustainable development perspective and at the same time to enlarge and renovate the existing structures. The strategic plan is founded on 5 pillars / resources: people, soil, water, energy, waste. In the strategies the resources interwine and foster each others, showing how in a sustainable community each element is useful to another one. The centre is located on a 40 hectares wide area, whose just a little part is inhabited and only 3 hectares is cultivated, while the remaining part is unused. The key element of the project is to recovery the productivity of the land, using the rainy season and the slight slope of the soil. Since the energy supply isn’t continous, the agricultural system has to be omptimized in a passive way: a system of tanks stocks the rainwater and spread it through a network of channels branching on all the cultivable soil, using just the gravity to irrigate wide plots. In order to engage the resident community and to spread the know-how a School of Agriculture, a Market and a Seed Bank are installed. The growing community, hosting every year more kids and more volunteers, needs also new structures for the accomodation. Part of the intervention is to renovate the extisting building, installing a new roof which improves the shading and the harvest of water. The new buildings are the new Guest House for the volunteers and a settlement for the Moba, the boys who grew up in the community and when become adult leave the centre but keep on living in the community, working and giving a contribution to the development. The new buildings are made of locally sourced rammed earth, bamboo and waste material, respecting the principles of vernacular architecture of thermal mass and natural ventilation.

RESOURCE

STRATEGY FLOW

PEOPLE Young Community Traditional Know How

SOIL Uncultivated Fertil Land Orography

WATER Rainy Season

ENERGY High Solar Radiation Wind Speed

WASTE Garbage Waste management system

> RESOURCES

GOAL

THRIVEABILITY

INNOVATION

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

PRODUCTIVE LAND

WATER AVAILABILITY

ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY

BETTER MANAGEMENT

> GOAL

STRATEGY

BOOSTING ECONOMY

IMPROVE COMMUNITY

IMPROVE EDUCATION

IRRIGATION

FERTILIZATION

MORPHOOGICAL ZONIG

HARVESTING WATER

SAVING WATER

WATER DISTRIBUTION

MINIMISE ENERGY REQUIREMENT PRODUCE OFF GRID ENERGY

REDUCE

REUSE

UPCYCLE

> STRATEGY

ACTION

SEED BANK

MARKET

SCHOOL OF AGRICOLTURE ASSISTANCE AND EXCHANGE CENTER NEW EXPANSION OUTDOOR COMFORT SPACES

TERRACING SYSTEM

AGROFORESTATION

CROP ROTATION

FLOOD PLAIN

FIREBREAK STRIP

TANK SYSTEM

COMMUNITY COLLECTION

PLUMBING DESIGN

DRIP FALLING SYSTEM

SOLAR PANEL

SOLAR THERMAL PANEL

WIND TUNNEL

BIOMASS

SOLAR COOKING BUILDING PASSIVE STRATEGIES

RESOUCES AWARENESS

COMPOST

PLASTIC PIPE SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS

> ACTIONS

FUNCTIONAL AXIS

> STRATEGY

THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPS ON AN AXIS THAT CROSSES THE AREA AND CONNECTS THE MAIN POLARITIES.

BIOMASS SOLAR COOKING SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS PLASTIC PIPE > ACTIONS COMMUNITY COLLECTION PLUMBING DESIGN RESOUCES AWARENESS COMPOST > ACTIONS SOLAR PANEL SOLAR THERMAL PANEL COMPOST PLASTIC PIPE SOLAR THERMAL PANEL WIND TUNNEL

BUILDING PASSIVE STRATEGIES DRIP FALLING SYSTEM PLASTIC PIPEWIND TUNNEL SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS BIOMASS

RESOUCES AWARENESS > ACTIONS SOLAR PANEL SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS BIOMASS SOLAR COOKING> ACTIONS SOLAR COOKING BUILDING PASSIVE STRATEGIES

COMPOST SOLAR THERMAL PANEL BUILDING PASSIVE

PLASTIC PIPEWIND TUNNEL> ACTIONSSTRATEGIES RESOUCES AWARENESS

SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS BIOMASS RESOUCES AWARENESS COMPOST

SOLAR COOKING COMPOST PLASTIC PIPE > ACTIONS BUILDING PASSIVE STRATEGIES SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED PLASTIC PIPE SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS MATERIALS RESOUCES AWARENESS > ACTIONS COMPOST PLASTIC PIPE > ACTIONS SECOND LIFE FOR RECICLED MATERIALS

> ACTIONS

WATER NETWORK

THE WATER SUPPLY IS SOLVED THROUGH A WATER COLLECTION SYSTEM AND PUMP-FREE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM BY MEANS OF GRAVITY.

AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM

THE SOIL PRODUCTIVITY IS POWERED BY THE TERRACED CONFIGURATION, COMBINED WITH THE WATER COLLECTION.

A

section A-A

All buildings have a large overhang of at least 1.2m to ensure that during the times of the day when the sun is most intense, from 9am until 3 pm, the facade of the building is mostly shaded and crucially, the window openings are fully shaded to prevent direct solar radiation penetrating to the interior

Natural Space Conditioning

The thermally massive dense clay construction of the compressed earth brick or rammed earth walls will help to provide a comfortable internal environment. They regulate the extreme high PLAN _ 1:200 temperatures of Zambia by storing heat and releasing at night, delaying the temperature rise.

prevailing wind

Additionally, clay is one of the nature’s greatest hygroscopic materials, meaning it absorbs excess moisture when a space is too humid and it releases moisture to the environment when the surrounding area is too dry. This makes it a perfect materials to counteract the high humidity levels of the wet season.

Rainwater Collection System

For each building, the most innovative feature relates to the and stored. For the dormitory space, the same column system as for the retrofit solution and the guesthouse are specified. The square hollow section supports the lightweight roof system via welded connections whilst also providing an opening through which the rainwater that falls onto the roof is diverted.

For the service building typology, applied for the kitchen and toilet units, the water moves in a circular motion, passing between 3 separate butterly roof elements that are at different levels, before passing into the tank positioned below the lowest point of the lowest roof. Here the water is stored and piped to the areas within the service space where

metal structure

recycled oil drum bamboo

rammed earth