In Burkina Faso, Albertfaus Architecture has designed a secondary school complete with auxiliary buildings such as a school canteen, changing rooms, sentry box and water tank for the new Bangre Veenem School Complex. With few financial resources at hand, the project stems from the existing Koudougou village primary school.
Schools in Burkina Faso tend to cover large areas, with buildings scattered across the landscape in a series of single-story pavilions. Here, Albertfaus Architecture aimed to reduce the area of landscape covered by establishing two zones: the north zone and the south zone.
In the north zones, the secondary school and administration can be found. The south zone accommodates the nursery, the canteen and auxiliary bodies. Covering a total area of 5 acres, 40% of the allocated land is dedicated to the project, leaving the remainder open.
Construction materials used include compressed earth brick walls and vaults, a large metal roof structure and stone walls for the central plaza and auxiliary building.
Unlike the convention established in neighbouring local schools, the secondary school building here is conceived as a single building in that each of the volumes that make it up is housed under a single, large protective cover.
In terms of relationship to landscape, there is a significant presence of the endemic Néré tree (Parkia biglobosa), which together with the planting of more trees and vines will provide shady areas and help to control the microclimate of the surrounding environment.
