Making Education Possible

Article 25 is an architecture charity based in London whose mission is to improve health, livelihood and resilience to disasters. ‘Article 25’ of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to adequate and dignified shelter.

Burkina Faso has the second lowest standard of education in the world. Where schools are built, they are just standrad concrete boxes where the internal environment reaches 60 degrees C and demand for places is such that there are often 100 pupils to a class.

The walls of the new school buildings are constructed of Laterite stone which is hand-dug from the ground in blocks and hardened in the sun. The roofs are lightweight corrugated zinc-coated steel sheets, uncut from their standard 10m lengths, fixed to simple pre-fabricated steel trusses. The roofs overhang the walls so that they are never exposed to the sub-Saharan sun to keep the interiors cool. Between the bottom of the trusses are standard plywood sheets forming a ceiling. The void of the roof space is open and allows cross ventilation through a stack effect. The windows are locally fabricated steel louvres that provide cross ventilation within the classrooms and cut out glare. This strategy achieves internal temperatures that are only marginally above ambient.

The new school was built by local contractors with local labour to improve capacity for improved construction techniques that can be passed on to others. The school buildings have been very successful and cost-effective: further buildings are planned in the school and the construction methods have become a new benchmark for school buildings in the country.

2014 - 2015, with Article 25 for Giving Africa and AEAD.

My role was mentoring A25 architects, preparing tender documents in French and negotiating with local contractors.