Open Architecture Network

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
“People in Kenya aren’t poor because they lack resources, but because they lack knowledge on how to use their resources.” To provide an educational environment for the youth of Mukuru Kwa Njenga to connect with the rest of the world means to recognize the significance of such an institution with regard to its context. Situated in the heart of the slum settlement, the site presents an ideal location for the gathering and education of the local youth. However, as such an institution, it is destined to quickly expand it’s spectrum of functions to include sports activities, market sales, conventions, rallies, medical care, and other social activities.
The underlying organizational scheme is a fractured courtyard. Emphasis is placed on the exploration of the site geometry and its relation to the programmatic interaction. The spatial pockets created serve communal functions and encourage everyday interactions. The goal is to allow enough spatial differentiation and flexibility to promote functional interaction and therefore foster the notion of a social space. To cross the boundary between destination and place means to blur the line between private and public, loose and controlled, static and kinetic.
One of the primary challenges was the issue of security and control. The approach taken is one in which the existing walls would we demolished and reused (along with excavated earth) to build up the two fractured corners of programmatic space. This allowed for the creation of strong corners, emphasizing the geometry of the site itself. The new walls grow directly out of this built-up ground surface to become a spatial element of the building enclosure rather than an element of security and control.
The fractural nature of the site is tied together through a symbolic seam; a tectonic path which weaves through the site juxtaposing the geometry of its surrounding. The simple wooden framework marches through the complex in an organic manner blurring the line between indoor and outdoor, between directional motion and static observation. Slightly elevated of the ground, it provides a zone of poche which can serve as observatory bleachers for soccer matches and artistic plays, as well as temporary market stands and artistic display frames fostering the creative minds of the youth.