Competition proposal for a primary school in Marassoum, Senegal. The project takes in the elegance of the local context imbibed through the use of local materials, textures and light. The project tries to bring cheap, natural and easily available materials and implements them in elegant form with minimal expression. The project also uses a variety of good construction details to serve as an example for the local population to learn from.

The tropical climate gives the context a bright blue sky and life is lived under the shade. The canteen and kitchen are at the end of this axis forming a closed safe niche. The entry is marked by a cozy half door and low roof. The facade is articulated with perforated brick walls and colored expression with natural earth lime plaster. The eccentric roof outline is made visible in the facade creating a landmark street corner in marassoum.

The garden landscaping creates a narrative of the casamance’ river. These gardens are meant to be planted with seeds of culturally important small plants, herbs and spices. A water channel sinuously wraps around the courtyard collecting water from gutters delivering water to a water bowl which overflows into water storage for reuse. The material palate of earth plaster, wood and bamboo with a cool oxide flooring brings out the earthly character of the light from the clerestory and straw reed panels. A set of colored lime plasters from local bright colors are used to articulate the facade and the landscape.

The orchard and corral are housed next to the kitchen housed under a cutout in the roof. A waste to resource cyclical approach is established with dry compost and manure from animals feeding the orchard and garden and recycling greywater for gardening.