Gando, Burkina Faso - Amazon S3

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Gando, Burkina Faso

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Gando Primary School


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Gando Primary School – Gando, Burkina Faso • Architecture and Polyphony 34

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teachers’ housing

new school building

sports field

well

vegetable garden

sanitary facilities

existing school

traditional house

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This school in the south of Burkina Faso is the result of one man’s mission to improve conditions in his village. Not only did he design the school andraise the funds to build it; he also secured government support to train peoplein building with local materials, and drew on a strong tradition of communitysolidarity to engage all of the villagers in the construction of this school for theirchildren.The school successfully combines the modern architectural languagelearned by the architect in his studies abroad with traditional techniques andmaterials to create a building that is both elegant and appropriate to its context.The main building material is local earth blocks, while a light metal roofstructure was devised that was easy to execute, requiring only simple tools.Comfort is ensured by low-cost passive cooling techniques – cross-ventilation,orientation and an overhanging roof.The community has been empowered byits involvement with the project, learning skills that can now be applied elsewhere as well as gaining a school that has attracted children from outside the village and provided an example for other such projects in the surrounding area.



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This project has received an Award for its elegant architectonic clarity,achieved with the most humble of means and materials, and for itstransformative value. Located in a remote settlement of Burkina Faso,the school is the result of a vision that was first articulated by the architectand then embraced by his community.The first person from his villagewith access to higher education, while studying architecture in Berlin the architect became determined to design and build the school.Securing funding for materials from supporters in Germany, hemobilized the men, women and children of the village to erect thebuilding.The result is a structure of grace, warmth and sophistication,in sympathy with the local climate and culture.The practical and thepoetic are fused.The primary school in Gando inspires pride andinstils hope in its community, laying the foundations for theadvancement of a people.

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Gando, with a population of 3,000,lies on the southern plains ofBurkina Faso, some 200 kilometresfrom Ouagadougou, the capital. Setin an expanse of scrubby savannahwith patches of agricultural land, it is a typical village of the region,comprising about forty round compounds that contain numerousone-room structures, built of sun-dried mud blocks – banco – andarranged around a central area.The compound structures aretypically covered with flat mud roofsor pitched tin roofs, while some arethatched, as is the case with thegranaries, which are always raisedabove ground to escape damp andpests. The main entrances to thecompounds are marked by arbours – zandi – or large trees, known as‘palaver trees’, where the menof the village gather to talk.

In 1990, as part of governmentaldevelopment measures, Gandowas provided with a primary school –a modest building of concrete blocksroofed with corrugated metalsheeting. In spite of the program-matic success of the initiative, thebuilding’s low quality, combined with lack of government fundingfor its maintenance, soon broughtit to an advanced state of disrepair,threatening its survival.

Diébédo Francis Kéré was the firstperson from Gando to study abroad.He was convinced that educationwas the cornerstone of his people’sadvancement. As an architecturestudent in Berlin, he took uponhimself the cause of ensuring thathis village would not be deprived of a school, determining that a new school should be designedin sympathy with the local climate,resources and materials.

Local financing was out of thequestion: neither the communityas a whole nor any of its residentshad the necessary means. Therefore,while in Germany, Kéré and a groupof friends set up a fund-raisingassociation, Schulbausteine fürGando (Bricks for the GandoSchool). The idea of building aschool in the middle of Africa metwith a positive response. Havingsecured finance through theassociation, Kéré obtained, inBurkina Faso, the support ofLOCOMAT, a government agencyengaged in the promotion of localbuilding materials, to train brick-makers in the technique of workingwith compressed stabilized earth.Construction began in October 2000,carried out largely by the village’smen, women and children. Afterthe school was completed in July2001, construction of buildings forresident teachers began alongsimilar principles.

In order to achieve sustainability, theproject was based on the principlesof designing for climatic comfortwith low-cost construction, makingthe most of local materials and thepotential of the local community,and adapting technology from theindustrialized world in a simple way.Underlying the project was a strongdidactic component: it was designedas an exemplar that would raiseawareness in the local communityof the merits of traditional materials,updated with simple techniques thatwould need few new skills.

The school building includes threevolumes, each containing a class-room measuring 7 x 9 metres. Theclassrooms are arranged in a linearfashion and separated by coveredoutdoor areas that can be usedfor teaching and play. The structurecomprises traditional load-bearingwalls made from stabilized andcompressed earth blocks. Concretebeams run across the width ofthe structure, and steel bars lyingacross these support a ceiling alsoof compressed earth blocks. Thewhole is protected by a single roof,comprising a space frame of steeltrusses covered by corrugated metal sheeting.

Climatic considerations largelydetermined the building’s form andmaterials, but its spaces also havesymbolic significance: the schoolis raised from the ground like thetraditional granaries, while the covered areas between the class-rooms evoke the traditional zandi.The walls are articulated withpilasters for further structuralsoundness and to provide solarprotection from the east and thewest. Shutters running the lengthof the walls provide ample naturallight and ventilation. Climaticcomfort is also ensured by the overhanging roof, which shadesthe façades, by the raising of thecorrugated metal roof on a steeltruss, allowing cooling air to flowfreely between the roof and theceiling, and through the use ofearth blocks for the walls, whichabsorb heat, moderating roomtemperature. Details such as thelocation and scale of blackboardsand desks and the rounded edgesof the pillars show concern forthe safety of children.

Earth for the blocks came from the village itself and was cast inhand presses on site by villagerstrained through LOCOMAT.Stabilized compressed earth wasalso used for the hexagonal pavingtiles. In the classrooms, the floorsare of rammed earth stabilizedwith cement. Use of industrialmaterials was kept to a minimum:the foundations are of stone andpoured concrete, and reinforcedconcrete was used only for thebeams that support the ceilings.



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Structural use of wood was rejectedbecause there is no local tradition of building in wood and hence littleexpertise in carpentry, and becausenative hardwood is scarce and vulnerable to termites. Steel wastherefore used for shutters and doors,utilizing a technology with whichlocal craftsmen are familiar. Thisexigency also suggested the useof steel for the roof, while the roofform was dictated by other practicalconsiderations: it was not possibleto transport large elements to thesite from afar, nor economicallyviable to use such lifting machineryas cranes. Instead, the architectdevised a process whereby commonconstruction steel bars were cut topredetermined lengths, bent in themiddle to form an inverted V, andwelded in long modules that couldeasily be lifted to the top of thebuilding and tied to the transversebeams. Steel bars running length-ways were welded to these modulesin order to tie them together, andcorrugated metal sheeting laid on top. All that was necessary wasto teach people how to use a hand-saw and a small welding machine.

The six houses for teachers andtheir families are disposed in a widearc that marks the southern limitsof the school site. Barrel vaultsof stabilized earth brick were usedfor roofs, introducing a new typologyto the region, but one that makes use of local resources and is climaticallyefficient. The choice of siting and the curvilinear site plan work wellin the ensemble and evoke thecontour of the compounds nearby.

Ancillary services have been builtbetween the school and the teachers’houses, including a toilet block,made in concrete and provided bythe Danish Agency for Develop-ment Assistance (DANIDA), anda kitchen, which served as thetraining prototype for the vaultsused in the housing complex. Water was originally carried froma source 7 kilometres away, but anew well, partially sponsored byDANIDA, has simplified their taskenormously.A vegetable gardenhas been set out and trees and shrubsplanted alongside the school.

The final form of the new schoolcreates a striking but appropriatepresence within the landscape. The combination of a modern architectural language withtraditional materials, and of thickbrick walls with a floating, almostethereal, trussed roof, has produceda building that is comfortable to useand sustainable, but also elegant inform.Apart from the training stafffrom LOCOMAT and the black-smiths, all the people involvedin the construction and projectmanagement, including thearchitect, were native to the village.This group of 150 people, mostlyyoung men but also women andchildren, proved to be capable ofexecuting structures that were ofrelative complexity and alien to theirbuilding methods, such as the metaltrusses of the school building orthe barrel vaults in the teachers’houses. The skills learned herecan be applied to further initiativesin the village, and might also helpsecure a future in the constructiontrade elsewhere.

The way the community organizeditself has set an example for twoneighbouring villages, which havebuilt their own schools as a coopera-tive effort. The local authorities havealso recognized the project’s worth:not only have they provided and paidfor the teaching staff, but they havealso endeavoured to employ theyoung people trained here in thetown’s public projects, using thesame techniques. The school wasoriginally intended to serve onlythe children of Gando, but use bychildren from neighbouring villagesis increasing and, while the schoolcurrently houses 150 pupils, it ispossible that additional class-rooms will be added in the future.Communal spirit is shown in theacceptance of these children, whoreside with various families through-out Gando. Teachers also find thatchildren are more attentive at theGando school than they are in otherschools. Last, but not least, theproject has had a positive effecton the community’s confidence andearned respect from its neighbours.


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Gando Primary SchoolGando, Burkina Faso

ClientThe community of Gando Village, Burkina Faso.

SponsorSchulbausteine für Gando e.V. – Bricks for the Gando School, Germany.

ArchitectDiébédo Francis Kéré, Burkina Faso.

Site CoordinationWénéyda Kéré, Burkina Faso.

CraftsmenSanfo Saidou (‘Baba’) and Oussmane Moné,master masons; Minoungou Saidou, welder (all from Burkina Faso).

ConsultantIssa Moné, technical officer, LOCOMAT, Burkina Faso, training in brick production.

Commission 1998Design 1999–2000Construction October 2000–July 2001Occupation October 2001

Site area 30,000m2

Built area 526m2

Cost CFA Francs 22,750,000(US$29,830)

Diébédo Francis Kéré (b. 1965, Burkina Faso) is a member of a family that has representedvillage traditions for several centuries. Afterreceiving training and working as a carpenterin his country’s capital, Ouagadougou, he wona scholarship from the German governmentin 1985 and studied in Germany to become adevelopment technician. He then studiedarchitecture under the tutorship of ProfessorPeter Herrle, and graduated from Berlin TechnicalUniversity in May 2004. During his studies, heestablished in Germany Schulbausteine fürGando, a not-for-profit association, to raisefunds for the Gando Primary School. He haswritten numerous articles in German on archi-tecture and development issues in Africa. Gando Primary School is his first built project.He is now teaching as an assistant at BerlinTechnical University and continues to presenthis experience at international seminarsand conferences.

WebsiteSchulbausteine für Gando e.Vwww.fuergando.de

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1 roof2 suspended banco ceiling3 concrete beams4 load-bearing banco walls5 banco pilasters6 steel frames and shutters7 stone and concrete ramp8 concrete foundation9 banco shuttering10 clay and stone infill11 rammed earth floor12 stone edging13 banco floor tiles14 drain section

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plan

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elevationelevation

response to climate

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Gando, Burkina Faso - Amazon S3