ESCUELA SECUNDARIA CEM KAMANAR

CEM Kamanar is a secondary school for five hundred students in the city of Thionck Essyl, in southern Senegal. It is the first project to come out of Foundawtion, the foundation created by the studio to meet architectural needs in economically disadvantaged areas.

The programme of needs is conditioned by the principles of a design that guarantees climatic comfort and low-cost construction, which is achieved by making the most of local materials and the potential of the local community. The most abundant material in the region is clay, which is why it became the main building material for the project. Clay is a material that works under compression, so creating a covered space with this material posed a challenge that was solved by opting for the geometry of catenary vaults, formed by compressed clay blocks that are manufactured on site.

The school is understood as a system that can be adapted over time; it consists of modules, called Awlas, that can be arranged within a grid, thus allowing the school to grow by building new Awlas as needed.

The trees give value to the project, and therefore become organising elements of the project, accompanying the playgrounds and plazas for each school year.

The school has a central building, where the biology classroom, the computer room, the library and the teachers' room are located. The different Awlas, single or double, are located along the grid. On the same school grounds, there are a volleyball and a football pitch.

The space that covers each of the Awlas is enclosed by two wooden lattices that allow lighting and air circulation from north to south. Thanks to this ventilation and the porosity of the clay, the cooling evaporator effect is achieved so that there is no need to resort to mechanical air-conditioning systems. The vaults are covered by a corrugated metal sheet to prevent direct rain from falling on the clay and to provide a shaded air chamber.