Professor Beth Krietemeyer (TA: Tianche Liu)
Individual Work
Spring 2022
Individual Work
Spring 2022
The enclosure is both climate-responsive and structural. Koudougou, Burkina Faso lies within the Bsh Köppen-Geiger climate zone, characterized by arid and hot environments. The design of the school makes use of local materials: eucalyptus wood and laterite bricks, the use of which responds to the hot and dry climate conditions. The secondary facade of eucalyptus wood wraps around the nine modules, creating both a shading screen and an occupiable social space around the exterior of the building.
The circular orientation of the nine-module classrooms creates a central courtyard that is protected from the wind and dust, and also creates a social amphitheater space for larger school gatherings. Seating in the intermediate area between the wood screen and the brick of the classrooms promotes its occupation, especially because it’s covered by an overhang and screened by the eucalyptus wood. The wood screen is made from a series of wood poles, and separations in the wood screen allow access to the classrooms from the outside. Benches along the inside of the courtyard have compartments where containers of water can be placed, such that the hot outside air cools down as it meets the cooler water, bringing in cooler air into the classrooms.
Between each classroom, wind towers allow hot air to escape, and at the same time lower the temperature inside the classrooms by bringing in fresh, cooler air. The operable window screens along the walls of each classroom close to block direct sunlight and fold open to allow for greater ventilation. The perforated plaster vaults across the ceiling of each classroom, providing visual interest and another method of bringing in diffuse light and of ventilating out hot air, to improve both light quality and mitigate heat gain.
The laterite bricks are high in thermal mass, which accounts for the high diurnal temperature shifts. Also, the entire school is raised on a concrete sidewalk, which also has high thermal mass, creating a thick separation from the hot ground and the building to mitigate heat gain from the ground.
Lycée Schorge is filled with climate-responsive strategies. The materials used in the project are local materials, including eucalyptus wood and laterite, which means that there’s less embodied energy in those materials than in materials that may be transported from elsewhere. The eucalyptus wood is used as a shading system against the heat of the direct sun; it mitigates against the intensity of the year-round sun. Moreover, the large overhang over the entire building complex also blocks the sun. Because of this, natural light is diffused before entering the classrooms through the screened windows and doors and through the ceiling where the plaster perforates and vaults.
Through the same plaster system, fresh air is introduced into the classrooms to create passive ventilation. Additionally, window and door screens allow for the free flow of air. On top of that, openings below the courtyard seating allow for bins of water to be stored to cool the incoming wind flow. The main passive ventilation features are the wind towers between each classroom which allow hot air stuck in the classrooms to circulate up and out, allowing a constant supply of fresh and cooler air through air pressure differences.
