Lale Janne EREN (Turkey/Germany) Sabrina FĂ„TH (Germany)
AYS-1406 African Architecture and Urban Planning
Care & Education Centre for young Women
Concept and irst ideas For our African design project which aims to connect traditional african architecture with contemporary architecture we would like to design a care and education centre for young women and their children. The design should include education posibilities for the mothers aswell as for the children (depending on their age). Women who are visiting this place did not have the posıbılıty to fınısh some education because of their pregnancy in young age. For in the african tradition the family takes care in cases like this, we want to offer a professional education and a place where they can also meet their families.
Our irst idea was to offer the following facilities: • • • • • • • •
Classrooms for mothers Kindergarden Multipurpose room Kitchen and Eating, toilets Dormitory / Permanent dormitory Of ice Silent room De ined outside facilities
We would like to connect the multipourpose room with the eating place and kitchen facilities so the women have a posibilty to spend time there when the relatives are coming for a visit.
Analyse of existing african structures After we have been collecting irst ideas of what we want to design we decided to have a closer look to african buildings. The main things we found out were that a lot of structures are based on the circle. In housing buildings there is often a small wall around so nobody except the family can come in. This inner circle is only meant for family members and the only entrance is mainly through the man‘s (chef) house. Some of the buildings can only be entered through other ones and different functions are lodged in different places. Normally there is no connection between all the building and there is a lot of free outside space, usually without roofs. Here we see a good point because only persons who belong to this household can go inside. The family life is completely separated from the public one. If there are visitors coming they have special places and they have to be invited to come into the house. When we started to analyse the existing forms we found out that most of the time circles are used because the are easy to build, although the principle can also be used with rectangular houses. But a big part of this architecture is the surrounding structure and the difference between in- and outside. To have a look to the usage of the building we have seen that the public life always takes place outside while the private life happen inside (like sleeping, storages). After analysing this we think that in this system two things can be problematic. We were wondering if there is not too much separation from outside and if it is really good to have only one entrance. But we also like the ideas to have a separate building for each function and a lot of outside space because the main life in Africa happens outside and just inside when it is really necessary. Despite this we think that it also can be good to have only one entrance because only people who are supposed to go to the area can come inside.
After this analyses we decided to think again about our speci ic project, it‘s functions and placing. With the experience of this analyse we want to design a place with following parts: • main entrance • courtyard • assembly bungalow • lawyer room • nurse room • of ices • kitchenhouse • psychologist • electricity/technical equipment • water tower • service entrance • parking • toilets • classrooms • kindergarden • multipurpose room • outside kitchen • eating place • permanent dormitory • temporary dormitory • silent room • outside facilities Additional to this functions we want to offer some contemporary technical features to make life in this facility even more comfortable. There should be a sun protection, air ventilation and circulation aswell as a rain protection and rainwater collection. To realise this we want to put similar or related functions next to each other and put them under one roof, so there are a few main areas divided into smaller places. This big roofs should work as raincollectors and sunprotection system and have the shape of umbrellas for that reason.
We plan to have ive big roofs with following allocation: • resting (dormitory, silent room) • education (classrooms, kindergarden) • free time (kitchen (needs outside connection), eating, multi-purpose) • supply (technical space, electricity, water, waste) • of icial (of ice, nurse, psychologist, lawyer)
At the moment we plan so place the dierent buildings like this:
The of ice and technical buildings should be placed in the entrance. Next to it will be placed dormitory and classroom buildings. To close the circle of buildings the last part will be multipurpose hall, Women in Umoja kitchen and eating places. We placed the buildings in a way so the noise and quiet-times considered.
After this point of our work we have seen a report about a women‘s village in Kenia. The concept of this village is quite similar to our place but of course with some additional functions because of the bigger size. But there is one point we want to add to our project. The women in Kenia are selling selfmade spruces to earn money for extending their project and to live. For what we learned in the lecture african people in this region do like to dress in a very good way and put emphasize on how they look like. Because of this we want to add a tailoring building to the project where the women and girls can also learn how to make clothes for themselves, but also create them for selling and earning money to extend this little business and the whole place. With this they would have the possibility to buy more equipment, for example more tailoring things or even toys for their kids depending on what is needed most.
Use of materials and different types of buildings:
For this reason we decided to put windows only in the „of icial“ buildings like the of ice and the We want to use typical local materials like bricks multipurpose hall. In this buildings people will be and wood for the house constructions, but use working and spending time also in the daytime, them in combination with modern materials for so windows are really necessary there. But in the the big umbrellas. They should be quite ef icient in dormitories there are no windows because the collecting rainwater. place is only used for sleeping. With this we follow the african tradition of house building and comThe different areas of the building complex are bine it with a more modern way of „form follows on wooden terraces. With this wooden parts the function“. natural air conditioning will be improved because We also want the place to be visited by tourists the colder air from the ground under the roof can and other interested persons who are buying the circulate through the buildings. This areas can also products of the shop which will be run by the inbe used as resting and meeting points because of habited women. For this reason there also have to the shadowing umbrellas and the stairs around be buildings with windows, so there can be exhibiit will be comfortable to sit and spend time there. tion places and a small shop which can be visited. The umbrellas offer shelter from to hot sun or rain. It is also possible to create some natural cooling The windows also show which buildings are more cellars for some buildings like the kitchen-building for private use (less windows) or which ones are under the wooden structure. open for public, visitors and all inhabitants (more windows). Like we have seen in other african building in the past, windows are not often used because daily life happens outside and not in the houses.
SILENT
DORMITORY DORMI
KINDER KINDERGARDEN
CLASS CLASSROOM OOM
LAW PS CHOPSYCHO LOGIST OGIST
NURSE OFFICE
KITCHEN KI CHEN
ATELIER TELIER
WORKSHOP / SHOP
MU TIMULTI PURPOSE
DINING ROOM OOM
Floor plans: All the building areas are arranged in a big circle so there is a natural yard created in the inside. At the entrance area are the two public circles with the shop/atelier and multipurpose and dining hall. The workshop place and the atelier are also open for visitors and guests. Also the dining room and the multipurpose hall are supposed to be open for the public and visitors. This is created after the model of private african places we analysed. Places which are more public are in the entrance area. According to this theory a little more behind the of icial part of the building complex with of ice, nurse, psychologist and lawyer is placed.
the dormitory for durable inhabitants or guests. This buildings have no windows because they are just used for sleeping and don‘t need daylight. Next to this building the kindergarden and the classroom is placed. The kindergarden has to be next to the sleeping rooms in case the smaller kids get tired. Another important connection from this places is the short way to the kitchen. When it‘s time for lunchbreak there is a short way for the kids but also for women who get extra education in the classroom to the kitchen and dining area. At the kitchen area there is a wide outside space under the roof so there‘s a possibility for a quite big crowd of people to have lunch or dinner outside.
In the backside of the complex are the buildings placed which are supposed to be more quiet. Here In case there will be some extensional buildings you can ind a silent room where small children or we left an quite big open space, so other buildings tired women can have a nap during daytimes and could be added to the circle.
RAINWATER COLLECTION
SUNLIGHT PROTECTION FULL-FUNCTION UMRELLA
AIR CIRCULATION
INDOOR SPACES AIR CIRCULATION STORAGE
CISTERN
Functional scheme: The umbrellas have three functions. They are a protection against strong sunlight and rain and they are also a big collector for rainwater. In the middle of the umbrellas are cisterns for the collected water. This water can be used for the toilets or to water plants outside.
air conditioning. The colder air from underneath the wooden structure can loat through the buildings which have openings to let out the warm air underneath the roofs.
The cisterns and air conditioning should make sure that our care centre needs not much addiThe place underneath the buildings and the woo- tional energy and resources. With this and the den structure can be used as a storage so there money which can be earned in the shop we hope is more place in the actual building. This spaces that more money can be spend for education and should be colder then the surroundings because of improving the establishment. the connection to the ground and the double protection through umbrellay and wooden terraces. The terraces also give the possibility for a natural