Ken De Cooman; Nicolas Coeckelberghs; Wes Degreef; Laurens Bekemans
Carving into the red earth, a team works together to make work. When completed, this team in coloured T-shirts smiles at finishing the shared task. Modified earth, human labour and thought build a library in Muyinga, Burundi, Africa. It is an inclusive school for children with hearing disability. Beginning with deep research into its climate of intense sun and heavy rains, as well as studying culture and building techniques, a construction method with local involvement was developed. Compressed earth-block masonry and baked clay roof tiles respond to a simple structural system. Volume and simple cross ventilation gives comfort.
At an upper level, a hand-crafted sisal-rope hammock acts as an independent and inventive suspended world for the children. This is the type of thinking and making that is central to BC architects & studies’ method of architectural research: find the need; research a way of achieving which involves participation; encourage people to feel empowered by planning; imagining something new and making it real. Under the title The Act of Building, these action-based researchers present four projects using five methods to convey their strategies of investigation, the use of tools and the construction technique.
YF+SMcN