Young architects from Tula Dmitry Ignashin (31 years old) and Dmitry Dmitriev (30 years old) became winners in the international category of the KenCada competition. Participants were challenged to design a school building in Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city. Within its walls, 236 children of different ages will study and 11 teachers will teach. In addition to educational, administrative and utility rooms, the architects needed to provide prayer rooms.
“The main idea was a combination of modularity (this moment is reflected in the layout of the classrooms) and uniqueness (a library of complex shapes in the center of the complex and shading elements“umbrellas”),” Dmitry Ignashin and Dmitry Dmitriev talk about their project. - When planning the main building of the school, a module for one class 9x9 meters was taken as a basis. It was ideal both for accommodating classes with a small number of students (16 people) with a storage area in it, and for standard classes (24 people). The module, which is square in plan, allows flexible zoning of the classroom space depending on the type of classes being held."
“One of the conditions was the separation of classes such as Baby Class and KG (for toddlers and children of kindergarten age - approx. Archi.ru) from classes of type Standard (for children of school age - approx. Archi.ru). For this, groups of classes of different age categories were spread out into different wings of the main building. Connected by the administrative block of the premises, they all together formed a U-shaped composition in the plan, thus creating a spacious courtyard. The library was placed in this courtyard, which became the center of the composition of the plan,”the winners specify.
Also, one of the conditions of the competition task was to take into account local climatic conditions in the project. “To protect the inner courtyard from excess sun, we have developed a system of sun protection elements, which, in turn, also have the function of collecting rainwater. These elements have a simple design: the frame is made of thick plywood, and the coating is made of a polymer membrane. The library was made according to the same principle, which made it possible to make such a varied filling of the courtyard more harmonious. Also, all the facades and the inner gallery were provided with sun-protection elements - wooden blinds”.
