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The aim of the model home is to address important issues in current housing. We have to improve hygiene and sanitation, malaria prevention, food storage, water management, light, ventilation along with providing a more convenient and hygienic solution for cooking. Site of our research for the model home is in Bissary, a village north of the river with approximately 500 inhabitants and structured in a way typical for the region. The land is divided in concessions which are mostly fenced. Each concession belongs to a particular family. The whole concession should be considered as a house, rather than its main volume alone.Every concession has a different shape, size and requirements. We decided that our proposal should be a strategy rather than a finished design. In this way we could compose every situation, using some fixed components. Based on extensive talks with Senegalese men and women, we analyzed the various functions on a concession, split up where needed and joined some functions in another manner. We then developed a basic unit as heart of every concession, containing 4 rooms, a kitchen, a women’s mirador connected to it, a shower and a toilet. The kitchen is a separated room, well ventilated and connected with a food storage on top of it, enabling crops to dry. This creates a more hygienic situation and eliminates the need for women to go outside and cook on the ground. At the head of the unit there is a space for showering that could be equipped with a simple bag to heat water with the sun. In recent years there has been a lot of development in the field of ecological dry toilets. We are convinced that it should be possible to include such a toilet in the volume alongside with the shower. It improves hygiene and eliminates the need to go out, which is a problem at night for children and their mothers. By working with a basic unit we want to make sure that the main issues are addressed on each concession. On every concession the composition of the various components can be made, carefully dealing with their relation and the resulting open spaces. Apart from the basic unit additional volumes and functions can be added depending on the requirements and the social organization. After designing the composition on the concession it is decided which part of it will be covered by a roof. Starting at the basic unit the roof can be extended over other functions at will. The walls are constructed with rammed earth, 40 and 60 cm thick. This construction is simple to make, provides a good internal climate and helps keep heat out. Like traditional houses the unit is elevated 45 cm to protect from water in the rain season. The roof is supported by the walls but not spatially connected with them. The resulting space prevents the home from heating and improves ventilation. Holes, positioned in the lower part of the outer walls, let the air in which is then transported away under the roof using a simple venturi principle. On top of the walls there is a mosquito-net ceiling supported by a bamboo frame. By covering the holes in the walls too, malaria safety improves. Rainwater is collected by the roof and stored in an underground space filled with casamance shells. This system of infiltration allows to simply realize large-capacity underground water storage, safe from mosquitos. Bamboo used to be an important traditional building material, but its availability is reduced over recent decades due to climate change and over-harvesting. Backed by the UN, the Senegalese government is strongly supporting its re-introduction, both as a mean of regenerating nature as well as a source of building material. We consider such initiatives vital. Helped by a friendly consult with dutch professor André Jorissen, a specialist in bamboo structures, we developed a bamboo roof construction that is simple to produce and extendable to cover other parts of the concession.
Project by:
Mohn Bouman Architects_René Bouman
Atelier AA_Elena Arcidiacono, Cecilia Alemagna
