14 July 2010
Architects at Capita Architecture’s Cardiff
studio, working with the Acacia Partnership Trust charity, have
been giving their free time to design ancillary accommodation for a
new primary school in the market town of Gorom Gorom in Burkina
Faso, West Africa.
Burkina Faso is one of the three poorest
countries in the world and has the lowest level of literacy of any
nation.
Senior Associate Director Richard Woods and
his team have been working with the charity, in collaboration with
a Burkinabe church denomination experienced in running schools. The
school will have an open admissions policy and has been developed
to a conventional design: two parallel blocks of three classrooms
with rendered cement block walls and a profiled metal roof.
The ancillary accommodation - teachers’
housing, ‘break-out’ structures, stores, kitchen, composting
latrines and associated external works - is being designed by
Richard and his fellow volunteers who are working closely with an
organisation called Development Workshop (DW).
Run by UK architect John Norton, DW have over
30 years’ experience of building sustainable unfired mud-brick
structures comprising vaulted and domed structures, finished with
earth renders. Their buildings are easy to construct, make elegant
structures and are easy to maintain. Local people are trained in
these woodless construction techniques, and small local businesses
are facilitated through DW’s support. As an example, the teachers’
houses in Gorom Gorom will use quarry-tiled floors made by local
women’s collectives.
Capita Architecture has funded travel costs
for Richard and his team, with the aim that they will be able to
visit the site during the construction of the school and ancillary
accommodation in the autumn to give on-hand design advice and to
learn from first-hand experience about the woodless construction
techniques. InterfaceFLOR, the sustainable carpet tile specialists,
has also provided invaluable support for the construction of domed,
break-out learning spaces.