An update about our International Outreach Group
Collège Amadou Hampaté Bâ, Niger
Working with Article 25, we expanded Collège Hampaté Bâ in West Africa's Niger to provide primary and secondary education for 1,200 students. The design utilises locally available materials and skills, and helps mitigate the extreme heat by using passive design principles. The project was delivered as part of our International Outreach Group work, providing engineering expertise on community projects that normally can’t access this kind of assistance.
Key information
Architect
Article 25
Client
Collège Amadou, Hampaté Bâ
Value
Undisclosed
Year of Completion
2021
Sector
Services
Challenge
Located in the north of Niger’s capital city Niamey, College Hampate Ba provides subsidised education to children from lower income families.
Phases 1 and 2 of the project include the design and construction of eight new classrooms, an administration building, a caretaker’s house, toilet blocks, sports facilities along with a new water tower to serve the Phase 2 secondary school and the planned future Phase 3 primary school.
We worked as part of a team with Article 25 architects and Michael Hadi structural engineers. Aspects of our work include design input into daylight, solar shading, natural ventilation and passive cooling; particularly of the classrooms, water supply, sanitation and drainage, power and lighting and lightning protection.
The classrooms have a double layer roof design, with vaulted earth brick ceilings below an outer metal roof. This helps mitigate the extreme heat as air is pulled through the void between the two roofs and heat from the sun cannot radiate into the rooms. The primary building material is laterite stone; an inexpensive, locally available material with low embodied carbon, which represents an underutilised resource in Niger. It is dug from the ground by hand in a quarry just 10km outside of Niamey, and hardens on contact with air to become suitable for building. During construction, local masons were trained in how to use laterite, with the hope that the skills can be disseminated in further projects around the region.
Our project team
Total of 2 people
Outcome
Temperatures recorded over a three-month period showed that even without mechanical assistance and with as many as 40 students present in every class, the classrooms were as much as 8°C lower than the temperature outside.
By replacing energy-intensive air conditioning with passive cooling, the design achieves an estimated total operational energy use of less than 30 kWh/m2/a. The building's performance demonstrates that even in hot, arid regions, comfort can be achieved through a combination of orientation, form, natural ventilation and material choices without resorting to mechanical intervention and the ongoing energy cost that implies.
Video
Quote
“It’s an excellent example of what a building should have: purpose, sense of community, designed with the idea of doing more with less. It’s clearly the type of project we should all take inspiration from.”
Gallery
Total of 5 images
© Article 25
© Article 25
© Article 25
© Souleymane Ag Anara
© Article 25
Awards highlights
| 2024 | RIBA International Award for Excellence | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | American Institute of Architects Design Award | Exemplary Performance in Sustainabiliy |
