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The new cultural centre of Sedhiou manifests itself as a humble architecture with very simple connotation. The elements are stereo-metric and composed by following the logic that the space starts from the “void “ to create the “full”. The defining strategy of the design process is to combine the interior functions thin wooden canopy which shades the communal area. Volumes are simple and modular, the Agorà is generated from columns and beams made out of rough wood and covered by a layer of reeds. The blocks are designed as enclosures made out of bricks finished with plaster. The facades are marked out by a vertical layer of reeds that protects the interior space from the direct sun. They also help to blend the outside to inside making the transition not obvious. The distribution of the volumes is carefully arranged in order to perceive the functions as independent yet part of a common system. The bathrooms are designed through the use of a constructed wetland system to treat wastewater into an ecological area. The collective space for performances, conferences and activities, plays an important role within this scheme being the tallest, its presence is the real urban landmark where the people identify themselves. It is also meant as the “landing place” at the end of the East-West corridor. The spaces between the buildings feel open and welcoming to the public as you can walk freely through the site. This concept as well as the simple shapes creates a humble system, perfectly integrating within the existing context, and at the same time representing one the most important landmark of the town.
In Sedhiou, a very diverse area socially speaking, there must be a spiritually balanced Architecture, a physical point of reunion in which you can find harmony in cultural development, in an artistic and educational way for those who interact there. Instead of actually building something, our proposal is based on coming back to the ground, because some beliefs stand philosophically with a same origin and a similar end but through different paths: to begin from the ground and to rise to the sky; then, not to actually build something but to come back to life's base: the ground. An inclusive amphitheater for cultural, artistic, trading activities, or simply just interaction in a public refuge. The zone's population have to walk out for miles, looking for water and taking it to their homes, they must treat it in a proper way in order to improve the population's way of life and health. This symbol longs to the sky for water, like an African jar over their heads, it tries to bring it to the ground in order to live. The cover structure connects the ground with the sky, it's inspired in how Sedhiou's population work with fabric and then show it in their clothing, curtains and ceilings their colorful compositions depending on the event, the time and the activity. They can put different fabrics in the cover structure based on what they want to do in the building, fabric changes its colors through time giving a very unique ethereal atmosphere in every station inside the amphitheater and also coloring its surroundings. In rainy season, the cover structure filters the water to the "center" of the amphitheater, by purifying it in a well to save it during dry seasons. It can be built with cables distributed through wooden beam columns precisely ensembled with Japanese joints., the multiple columns touch the soil distributing the weigh. Between columns, murals made out of fabric they can modulate the space creating smaller open exhibition areas for different purposes.
This center aims to show the cultural richness of Sedhiou, Senegal, a city composed by different ethnic’s groups that contribute to the cultural heritage. The project acquires a symbolic value founded on the ethnical distinction, reaching this by the representation of the different volumes and its different conditions in a cultural complex that understand the value of coexistence and exchange within the same entity. The emplacement of the volumes looks to generate a bonding with the surrounding circulation axes, as a way of receiving and generating the spatial appropriation by the user. Formally the edifice is born from the conception of an architectonic hybrid, which will answer to the architectural program and at the same time being a rainwater collector/storage unit. The project its rule by the aesthetic and environment conditions, which determines the appearance, materiality, height and function of the buildings. It also integrates in its formal composition material and constructive viability, according to the resources available in the community, besides the sustainability, comfortability and self- sufficiency elements that enrich the building and its purpose. The project looks for intimacy and placement of the user in flexible spaces with adequate dimensions which promote the social and cultural exchange among its users, as well as engage in an aesthetic dialogue with the habitants of Sedhiou and their surrounds. The area occupied by the buildings represents the 14% of the site surface, which leave a large public space for various community or cultural activities, in addition to the improvement of the pedestrian paths that pass through the site, favoring an approach between the city and the project. The project in its in purpose not only seeks to be a local icon of cultural and recreational recognition, but also a building which in its flexibility allows the use and assumption of the resources that the building provides, both tangible and intangible.
Our proposal aims to provide an iconic landscaped garden as a place to attract local habits and as a green roof to provide shade and collect rain water. The roof's slight concaved openings are inspired by vernacular Senegal dwelling with its rainwater collecting roof. Rainwater goes down to the basement, stored in water tanks. The roof has a metaphorical aspect of protection and preservation beneath which are the main functional spaces to avoid intense heat. The underground spaces create an immersive experience of layered reddish laterite stone and spiritual skylights through the roof. An exclusive local Kapok tree is planted in the center of performance area, goes all the way above the roof for shade. It becomes another iconic aspect of the project. Education, exhibition and performance spaces are connected to a public lobby. Entrances connect to the lobby from ground level, creating cuts on the roof garden. Both education and performance area are circular space beneficial for story-telling culture and Kora performance. Exhibition space is rectangular for efficiency. One skylight in each space for sunlight, ventilation and rainwater collection. Main entrance starts from east side of the culture center and on the opposite side ends with one accessible ramp around the circular education space. The structure consists of wood columns and beams for interior, soil for elevated roof garden, and bamboo for roof overhang. The roof is covered by straws and supported by wooden beams and boards. Wall, floor and ceiling of the interior spaces are all underground reddish laterite stone as well as clay bricks in someplaces. Bamboos are used for roof periphery supporting. Some are buried under the roof becoming ventilation pipes. Thin bamboos are used for railing around the roof openings for protection. Rainwater is collected in basement gutters and stored in water tanks for cooling. The water tanks are placed under each space and connected by sloped pipes to a water purifier. Finally, the clean water goes into a well on the site. The whole system aims to provide local people clean water to help improving their health condition. The excavation of soil would become foundation of the elevated roof garden to achieve balance of cut and fill. Ventilation of the underground space can be solved by both bamboo side ventilation pipes and roof openings to create passive cooling.
The project for the new cultural center of Sedhiou is set as an element of mediation in the relationship between urban space and inside’s public spaces. This topic classifies it as a spatial container rather than a regular building. The natural aspect of the place (even in the urban path) let the design to follow an horizontal development rather than a vertical forms of the project. The main idea is that the cultural center will become a dynamic space that will bring people from outside (city) to inside (exhibition ramp, outside access, inside space, outside water space). The central core has a covered space made for cultural activities and services (three small blocks) and offices (free open space, flexible). At the end of the cultural path, started from the outiside, there is the sacred space of water. This place is surrounded by three high walls and open to the sky with no roof; it is designed to collect water from rain in the rainy seasons and to be helping for preventing heating in dry season. This space is the intimate space of the cultural center. The cultural center is thinked surrounded by high walls built in rammed earth set in vertical formwork. The language of elevation (both inside and outside) is designed by the material of the walls and the process of its production. Main color is the color of the rammed earth material. The space of the new cultural center is a full flexible space. The roof, corrugated sheet mounted on heb metal profiles, is thinked as a mobile system that can be moved to create three different configurations. Even the windows/doors (wood and glass) are mounted on guide/rail set on the floor to be movable and flexible.
