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# 01-537
school of architecture
/ Lubumbashi
(Democratic Republic of Congo)
/ 2008
/ in progress
Just as the structure of North African cities is based
on the labyrinth, almost all of the culture of central
Africa is based on matrix-like groupings of round or oval
forms – huts, palaces, enclosures, granaries, and so
on – which may also be found in Europe in prehistoric
Sardinian nuraghes. The colonial powers always opposed
these building models, preferring instead squared-off
orthogonal structures set along roads, which were
easier to survey and register. In the same manner, craft
trades have been nearly eliminated in favour of bland
tourist mass production. There still remains, in certain
parts of the planet, know-how and creativity untouched
by cultural destruction. As recent ethnographic studies
have shown, the popular imagination is holding its own
by recreating a parallel world in which the spirit of the
ancestors dwells. The school of architecture project is in
line with this style of secular urban planning. Within an
enclosure consisting of various service areas and whose
shape is that of ‘Michelangelo’s oval’ based on a double
square, a group of ten to twelve circular teaching rooms
that are arranged around the larger ‘hut’ of the main
auditorium. The construction is composed of high walls
of corrugated sheets, assembled like Mediterranean roof
tiles, topped with thatch and lined with a white cotton
canopy to ensure thermal protection and create an inter-
stitial space for natural ventilation. The tall shape provides
lighting thanks to large slits whose shape and orientation
capture the sun’s rays throughout the day. The tables are
made of wood and the floor is sand. The governor Moïse
Katumbi Chapwe is seeking to involve local craftspeople
in the project.