Projects - Schulbausteine für Gando e.V.

The Whole Development Concept

The building of the school is part of a whole development concept which also includes the construction of a water collection unit, teachers' housing, and latrines.

All projects initiated and carried out by the association should be a model of helping people to help themselves. In contrast to other development projects, the village community in question was included in the process from the beginning. The school has been built before the rest. This, as a place of learning, will be the basis for the whole development.

The Technique

The most important aspect of the construction is the use of clay as a building material. Since this material is known as the »material of the poor« and other more expensive and often wrongly used materials are imported and used instead, we are trying to improve its reputation by refinement or by simply using more suitable construction methods

The School

The basic principle was to adapt traditionally temporary building with clay by modifying the material and by using new construction principles. The result is a long-term and climatically valuable building method. A further aim was to produce aesthetic, attractive, modern architecture. Based on the principle of placing the rooms on pedestals and covering them with a far-projecting roof to protect the clay walls, the rooms were planned as simple rectangular modules. The buttresses, which serve to brace the walls, stage a play of light and shadow which communicates plasticity as well as structure. At the same time they are cooling elements which both provide shade and reduce the acoustic interference between the classrooms.

The School

The Teachers' Houses

The Extension to the School

The Library for the Extension to the School (in development)