CEM Kamanar is a secondary school for five hundred students in the town of Thionk Essyl in southern Senegal. This is a non-profit project, which was planned by dawoffice and managed by their charity fund – Foundawtion.
Photo
Claudia G. Mauriño
CEM Kamanar was built with the aim was to solve the overcrowding situation in the only secondary school existing in Thionck Essyl at that time.
Photo
Claudia G. Mauriño
Photo
Jara Varela
The design must guarantee climatic comfort and low-cost construction. This 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. It has been widely used by the local population in vernacular architecture. As clay is a material that works under compression, creating a covered space posed a challenge that was solved by using catenary vaults formed by compressed clay blocks that are manufactured on site. The catenary geometry has the exact curvature so that the vertical forces produced by gravity are transmitted as compression forces along the length of the vault.
Photo
Jara Varela
Dawoffice shared that “The choice of geometry is not purely formal, but a solution to get the most out of the local material, while allowing the local population to participate in the construction. The school is understood as a system that can be adapted over time; it is formed by modules that can be arranged within a grid, thus allowing the school to grow by building new modules as needed.”
The existing trees give value to the project, and therefore become organising elements between the different volumes, accompanying the playgrounds or squares of each school year.
Each of the modules that make up the school is called an awla. The space that covers each one of them is closed with two wooden lattices that allow lighting and air circulation from north to south. This ventilation summed to the porosity of the clay create the evaporative cooler effect so that there is no need to resort to mechanical air-conditioning systems. In addition, the vaults are covered with a metal sheet to prevent rain on the clay and to provide an air chamber sheltered from direct sunlight, so that the sun’s heat is dissipated before it radiates into the awla.
Photo
Noemí de la Peña
Editor
Ha Thu Pham
Photo
Claudia G. Mauriño
Photo
Noemí de la Peña
The school has a triple awla, where the biology classroom, the computer room, the library and the teachers’ room are located. The different awlas are located along the grid and can be single or double awlas. Within the school grounds, a multi-sports court occupies the area that was used as an earth quarry.
Photo
Claudia G. Mauriño
The school, a building with modern spatial values created from vernacular construction techniques and local materials, is a landmark for the population, which values the sensitivity towards their traditions.
The result is a building that uses basic but effective solutions, so that it is adapted to the climatic characteristics of the area and integrated into the landscape.
Photo
Claudia G. Mauriño
