School Sabou Burkina Faso
The Sabou school building echoes the village’s dense layout, with its different family houses gathered around an inner yard
Local building traditions in Burkino Faso and their strong formal identity were the inspiration of the Sabou’s school architectural language. Its built expression combines the lightness of roof waves with heavy walls. The plan of the building echoes the village’s dense layout, with its different family houses gathered around an inner yard where animals pasture.
The roof is shaped like a folded piece of paper, gliding over the red soiled ground and giving shadow to a variety of rooms. A network of steel trusses supports the thin corrugated iron sheets, while solar panels feed the fans, insuring a good ventilation in the different rooms.
At the heart of the project one finds the circular courtyard which recalls of universal infrastructures of gathering. In its center, three trees surround the essential water pump.
The school in Burkina Faso was designed for 120 kids aged from 2 to 6 years in the village of Sabou. It contains four classrooms, an office, sanitary spaces, a large multi-functional outdoor room with a kitchen and an a courtyard.
The outer wall is painted with the inspiration of traditional patterns and symbols in Burkina Faso traditional architecture.
