WINNING PROJECTS

1st prize

Team: LIAFINAND from Poland

project by: Natalia Serafin, Paulina Gorecka, Anita Wisniewska.

The idea

Vertical palm wood boards are rhythmically following the path which leads from the village along the river’s coast and thereby form the structure unfolding from its natural meandering shape.
Trying to create a body penetrating into the area’s landscape, we decided to make a light form of palm tree boards. Scattered from the side of the village, they find their rhythm running along the bank of the river, forming a solid meandering shape. Through the layout of paths we want to guide the people from the village to the pavilion. The chapel is an inseparable part of the path. Standing "razor blades" gives the interior intimacy, creating a halo effect which is characteristic for sacred buildings. But the piles, however, do not constitute a barrier. Going towards the entrance we can see the interior and at any time we can enter it. Praying in the chapel we still remain outside, but protected from the rain and the burning sun.
The Casamance River, which runs along the village of Tanaf, plays a significant role in the lives of its residents. It is an important part of the economy of this region, meeting place, and its vastness dominates the flat landscape of Senegal. During 3 months of rainy season, the river is flooding and nature is reborn, changing the nature of the environment. Locating a function on the river seemed to us to be an obvious choice dictated by nature and the culture of that place. Thanks to this solution, the chapel will become a landmark for the local population, gathering place and personal prayer. The platform on which the object stands, gently grows from the ground, put the chapel the meter above the ground level. Elevation will ensure full-year availability of the facility, even during the rainy season. The form thus reflects the changes that occur in the environment during the year.
We are trying to create a universal sacred sphere. Open, accessible space for contemplation. By simple treatments we create a lump, which observed from different perspectives, exerts a different impression on the recipient, thus encouraging to enter and explore it at any time. The boards, together with the approach to the sacred zone, harmonize with each other in such way as to create a dominating appearance from the outside. The slit in a compact series of razor blades creates an entrance, introduces more light to the interior while allowing you to see what is happening both inside and outside the object. The pavilion with its verticality refers to the local nature and methods of construction.

OFFICIAL INTERVIEW TO WINNING TEAM

Can you introduce your team in a personal and professional way?
We are 1st year students of architecture on three different Technical Universities in Poland. Our adventure with architecture started few years ago in drawing school. There was when we met each other, become friends and started seriously planning our future. The Friendship, common interests and similar attitude to architecture pushed us to participation in Kaira Looro competition. It was a huge challenge because of the distance between us (hundreds of kilometers). We have totally different characters what, in spite of appearance, provide about force of our team- owing to that fact we complement each other. Each university teaches different attitude, so our cooperation is a good occasion to share knowledge and experience. Our career has just started. We try our best to gain from studies, live as much as possible, simultaneously participate in extracurricular activities such as workshops and competitions like Kaira Looro.

What was your feeling when you knew you were the winners of the competition?
It was an extraordinary feeling, something that will last forever in our memories. When we decided to participate in Kaira Looro Competition we wanted to gain an experience and put ourselves on try. After the competition committee announcement all of us couldn’t be more shocked about the verdict. We really won. For us, three students it seemed too good to be true. Imagine working with the world’s top architect on an internship! At first we were scared and asking ourselves questions „are we not to young to go there?”. Very soon we realized, that we need to overcome our fear and take this tremendous chance, as it might never happen again. Now we know for sure, that everything is achievable.

Can you briefly explain the concept of your project and which is the relationship between it and the environment?
The main concept of the project was to locate it by the river Casamance, because we knew it plays a significant role in the lives of Tanaf residents- it influences the faming and also is a place where everyone meet during each day. It is situated on the very edge of the village, so it’s also easy to localize and get to. The architecture of the chapel is a path and a building at the same time. The aim of that kind of measure is to guide people from all sides, the village and from banks of the river, to the pavilion. It’s like lighthouse. We offered to the visitors a functional and universal space to invite them in. Traditional walls are substituted by wooden boards what gives, besides safety, the fully openness. The building plays a role of a frame for the river. It's getting more blurry forming a transparent structure blending into the landmark. We use only palm tree to create it so the material is natural, organic and it may be reused.

In your concept what was the path to interpreting the spirituality of Senegal and specifically that of Tanaf? Did the knowledge of culture of the place influence the project?
We tried to find a common language for all religions. This language turned out to be the light and the water, which we decided to use as stimuli for peace and contemplation. The river flowing through the village, depending on the weather conditions, becomes the background for the transparent building. Residents have the opportunity to see their well known place from a completely different perspective. We can not imagine a non-contextual design, so the basis for starting work on the project was a thorough research on the location of our intervention. Luckily, the organizers provided participants with a lot of material, including important information concerning: the climate, atmosphere in the village or pictures showing how colourful and imaginative is the community of Tanaf. The pictures show how creative the citizens are, as they organize their place to live by building of literally everything that falls into their hands. So we decided to treat this topic in that way - to provide the village with new-quality space that would intrigue with its form, but would not be strange. We build from what is available and known, however, in an unparalleled form.

The competition was focused on a very complex issue in a delicate and disadvantaged area in which the population suffers many problems related to malnutrition, poverty and sanitation. How did these factors influence your project?
As architects we are not able to solve such problems affecting Senegal as conflicts, hunger or poverty, but we can give people a place to find, at least for some time, peace and forget about everyday problems. We set ourselves the goal to design a universal and functional facility in order to meet local people needs and if necessary modify its function. Thanks to the use of routine elements and its light construction the facility can be easily moved or expanded. The facility ensures basic protection against inclement weather conditions. The block is simple, modest and made from local materials, that is why the building is not intimidating to enter. The building is easy to find because it is located at the edge of the village, by the river. What is more, its open and accessible form should encourage inhabitants to visit this place. If necessary, undeveloped area around the building offers an opportunity to build required infrastructure. The chapel remains neutral and allows followers of all religions to pray.

According to you, which is the relationship between spirituality and worship?
In our team each of us has different sense of spirituality, that’s why it is hard to imagine what divides occur in such a place like Tanaf village, where live 4.000 people believing in 4 religions. We are aware that every prayer’s or experience appears in another way. There’s a border between spirituality and worship which is individual for every person, unbridgeable for others. That undefined moment when everyone experiences something by them own. That’s the reason we decided to make space at once universal and contextual – because the context is the crucial element of the project. And spirituality just like architecture in their most basic form are born in their natural environment – in the delight of ever changing landscape and atmosphere – universal and specific at once.

How did the material choice affect your design?
Restrictions in use of materials to a certain degree encouraged us to take on this task; it became a challenge. We were counting on easy-to-get palm tree. High resistance of palm wood and good properties of palm leaves allowed us to make every element of the structure (columns, boards, landing and rooftop) from only this one type of material. In turn, resistance to salinity gave as a possibility to locate it by the river what is the main concept of this project.

What do you think is the responsibility of architects in dealing with complex issues such as emergencies or architectures in developing countries?
In our opinion architects should reinvest their knowledge to implement new quality to the place of the intervention while respecting the local culture. There is no place for the designers’ vaulting ambition. Primarily, architecture should raise the standards of living in rural and impoverished communities. Innovative sustainable solutions may solve many problems related to e.g. hard climate, transportation and energy, lack of materials or specialized workers. The new infrastructure should ensure safety and humanitarian help for the people who live in chronic worry and fear of their future. The architect mission is also to educate the society within building techniques or fabrication methods so they could build together and cooperate. Going back to small scale, our project is as contextual as possible, and extremely simple to build, mainly to emphasize local traditions and possibilities, our goal is to celebrate the local building culture.

The aim of the competition was also to improve the research on the topics of sustainable architecture with natural and recycled materials. How do you feel that contemporary architecture is approaching these topics?
Recently, we have been able to see common increase in interests on sustainable architecture in the architectural field. This is shown by projects of the leading studios, many newly opened faculties and courses at universities, law restrictions and if only by the last winners of Pritzker Prize. There is no doubt that this topic is a very timely one. However, we can sometimes be under the impression that this is superficial only. „Sustainable” more and more often is related only to the use of advanced technologies and nothing more, but it is a very broad term. We are surely happy that, after many years of ignoring this debate, it has finally came back and causes many changes in building practice. We should not just forget about many important factors like effectiveness , accessibility or long-term environmental impacts as a protection for future generations. Thankfully, there are programs like Balouo Salo or Global Village which improve that we can build for society and environment.

If the project will be realized, how do you think it will be experienced by the community?
We believe that the chapel will become an integrated part of Tanaf’s landscape and community. First step of the important experience we predict during the realization of the project. By implementing construction that is well known in the local traditional building, we believe that the community will deeply involve in process of building. We want to give people something to work on together as the feeling of creating something by them own so they can involve in it emotionally. Second step is the exploitation. By building something deeply integrated and in the sense of local architecture, we believe that the community will integrate with the project quickly. We wanted to avert the effect of rejection, by building something massive, expressive so it would become a symbol of it own. We also believe that this empty space will cause the union of people of different religions as they share the place for worship and assembly of the valley.

You know that the proceeds of the project have been devoted to a humanitarian project called Balouo Salo in the Tanaf valley, to help 80,000 people. Your fee to the competition was a donation to this project. Knowing this, how it has affected the approach to the competition and to the project?
This information encouraged us even more to involve in this project. Architecture for humanity and pro-bono actions are ideologies that we admire and we want to take part in. Kaira Looro is not just a simple competition to create something nice or spectacular- it is about improving quality of live in the way we can do it on our level with all the effort and knowledge we have. As for the attitude to designing it also influenced us extensively. In our project we implemented every solution to cut the costs, starting at local materials and ending at effort of not involving qualified personnel during possible realization. We proposed flexible shape that can be optimized for current needs and conditions.

Your prize is an internship in Kengo Kuma & Associates, one of the most prestigious architecture studios in the world. Can you express your feelings about it?
It is hard to express our excitement and fear in one way. We are very grateful for all the opportunities we got and we are also a little bit afraid of what is going to happen. It is a great honor to work with such a respected architect. We studied Kengo Kengo & Associates’s designs long before we took part in this competition so we couldn’t imagine a better prize!

The aim of the competition is also to give professional opportunities to young architects, and we wish your team the best achievements for your career. How do you think you will be in 10 years? According to you, how much will this award affect your future?
Thank you very much it is something incredible for us. We are now on the level of defining ourselves, dreaming big, capturing every inspiration that crosses our way. We try to analyze every idea (sometimes even crazy and unrealistic) that comes to our mind , as it was at the beginning with Kaira Looro, and try to implement it into reality so we can develop and drawl on experiences. So it is hard to define us or even predict in 10 years. The prize is also amazing. We are 20/21 years old! We just started our path of carrier and we will do an internship at one of the best architecture studio in the world? We can’t imagine how it will affect our future, but we can only assume that it will be something extraordinary, that we are definitely ready for!