Children's House
Project Partner : Arwa Ahmad
Kaira Looro Internatinal Competition 2022
Tucked near the trees, the Children’s House in Baghére Village, provides a space to address malnutrition through the respective culture and religion of the population. The Children’s House foster's health and wellness of the mind, body, and soul through the curation of space. Although healing is predominantly understood to be an internal process, it’s important to acknowledge and consider the external factors that affect and influence the journey. With this understanding, the Children’s House is thoughtfully situated amongst the trees to incorporate the natural environment to aid in the process of healing. By addressing the mind, body, and soul, the architecture considers the importance of a holistic approach to overall wellness with the direct association of the environment.
The Children’s House strives to reduce the anxiety of overwhelming doctor visits by providing a safe and joyful environment. The goal of the design is to remove any anxieties children may have regarding health facility visits. This is accomplished by creating a playful and welcoming atmosphere through elements such as a playground, invitinging outdoor spaces, large windows that bring nature inside, and interactive classrooms for indoor learning. Challenging the view and perspective of how health and wellness centers are portrayed, The Children’s House utilizes the many ways in which architecture sets the scene and shapes the atmosphere of a space. To heal the mind, the open classroom and outdoor small-scale farm, located at the North end of the building, aim to provide an interactive and engaging environment to host various activities that address nutrition and agriculture. The small-scale farm will serve as a classroom lab to emphasize the nutritional benefits of the seeds that are planted.
To heal the body, the programmatic areas of sleep, health, and play are connected through their relationship with the immediate context. The sleeping and healing corridors are directly oriented to face the trees. The windows are designed to allow ample light in and allow the exterior space to spill through. The main courtyard that separates the two structures, bridges the facility and the outdoors; visitors interact with a harmonious outdoor space as they simply move from one structure to the next. By having constant engagement with nature and the outdoors, visitors are able to temporarily dissociate from their burdens and seek refuge in the beauty of the natural environment that surrounds them. To heal the soul, the meditation space located on the South end provides a quiet space to contemplate and pray. Within the meditation space is a water vessel for wudu, the ritual of washing before conducting prayer. This safe haven is tucked away from the joyful noise of the playground. Parents, visitors, and health professionals are encouraged to take a break and clear their mind.
Usage of Materials
Blurring the lines between interior and exterior spaces, the choice of material- rammed earth, clay brick, and bamboo- were chosen to harmonize the built and natural environment. The perforated clay brick walls, which wrap around the meditation space and North courtyard, creates an in-between zone. It offers a separation of program and allows light and nature to become an essential part of the architecture. The two structures that house the main programmatic elements of the Children’s House are constructed from rammed earth. Rammed earth allows us to utilize local materials and incorporate nature into the most prominent constructive element of the structure. The roof and interior walls are assembled from bamboo. For the interior walls, a modular design was fabricated to allow the bamboo partitions to be mobile and adaptable. The goal is to allow the inhabitants to have an influence on the space in which they reside.
Construction Process
The Children’s House was designed to allow for flexibility and the interpretation of space by the inhabitants. The roof construction consists of four layers. The first layer is made up of halved bamboo columns running full length. They are laid side by side with concave facing up, and the second half of the bamboo is oriented with the convex facing upward. This results in the overlap of the bamboo roof tiling as a watertight surface to shield the interior space during the rainy seasons. The rest of the roof is composed of vertical and horizontal bamboo columns running across the roof and connecting to the main vertical posts supporting the structure above. The interior bamboo partition walls are designed to be flexible and modular. It consists of two halves of a bamboo column with a horizontal bamboo element that allows for varied angles to be met. The choice of perforated clay brick walls allows for transparency, light, and privacy to be met. The materials that make-up the clay brick are both familiar and locally sourced which allows for its feasibility and availability. Due to its benefits and sustainability factors, rammed earth construction was used to represent the most basic form of building material.
