Comment of the Holcim Awards jury Africa Middle East
The jury considered the strength of the project to be its approach of merging the pedagogic concept with the building itself by making the construction a showcase of both preservation and advanced development of cultural know-how in local craftsmanship: different earth and wood construction methods as well as local ceramics and gardening are integral parts of the building complex demonstrating broad local resources and new technologies to the trainees. The essential idea and implementation methodology of this project has the potential to become a model for Morocco and other regions of the world.
Project description by author
The aim of this project is the transformation of natural, immediate and locally available resources on the lowest possible level of entropy, with maximum benefit for the local population, into beautiful architecture with a strong local identity. The purpose of the building is a training center for sustainable construction. 30% of the youth in Morocco at the age of 15 to 25 are illiterate. Vocational training is essential to avoid unemployment. The construction sector in Morocco is prospering, but there is a lack of models for sustainable construction that are appropriate in technology as well as sensitive to the cultural identity and the resources of the context. The Training Centre for Sustainability in Chwiter offers the youth from the suburb of Marrakesh the opportunity to learn a future-orientated profession.
Analyzing the local context we found that one major traditional building material for any kind of purpose and size, earth, is nowadays only used for fencing-walls and housing in poor, mainly rural areas. There is a lack of improved building technology to re-invent earth as an adequate building material for modern structures. In this project we adopt traditional know-how supplemented with appropriate modern technologies in order to meet the needs in safety [including earthquakes] and comfort of the present society. Our focus is on a global strategy for sustainability, not on sophisticated technical solutions that can be used by a minority of the world’s population. We want to promote a high level of sustainability based on an intelligent use of natural building resources - grafted with modern technologies and passive design mechanisms, which motivates through a strong, modern architecture.
All structures of this project are formed out of earth - with a diversity of techniques: simply replicable building techniques as well as modes of prefabrication, that are important for a mainstream building industry in both, industrialized and developing countries. Morocco is a country of great culture in architecture and craftsmanship. The design of the project wants to use and celebrate this traditional knowledge in order to keep this treasure of cultural know-how and of social value added.
The masterplan shows a balance between indoor and outdoor areas. The diversity of public spaces ensures a large spectrum of atmospheres. The area is entered through a massive earth wall that embraces a spacious garden. The building opens up for patios, surrounded with intimate niches for contemplation or communicative exchange. There are outside areas for practical working and an organic food garden where the students would grow vegetables. For us there are no contradictions between tradition and modernity, poetry and function, economics and ecology and sustainability and beauty.
Innovation and transferability – Progress
The use of the main material earth is planned in different techniques and scales of technology: traditional hand ramming with improved shuttering for the fencing wall, prefabricated rammed earth elements, which include the technical support for tempering the offices and classrooms, and a concrete load bearing structure filled with precast strawearth blocs, with a plastering of tadelakt (lime plaster) for the auditorium. The necessary shading of the walls will be done with a transformed traditional element of earthen structures: horizontal layers of locally produced ceramic tiles [used as protection against water erosion] with an graphical perforation added, will protect the wall from direct sunlight with an agile ornament of constantly changing shadows.
Ethical standards and social equity – People
The project area is lacking public meeting places. The center offers a variety of places: a spacious garden, an exhibition hall, a café, a library and an auditorium that can be used also by the public. Visitors will experience the atmospheric, aesthetic and technological quality of the constructions and natural cooling systems. Since earth construction is labor intensive, many laborers from the surrounding, including woman who traditionally work with mud, will be involved in the construction.
Environmental quality and resource efficiency – Planet
No CO2 emissions and no fossil energy are needed for the transport of the main building material raw earth. Earth construction is based on human labor. The walls can be recycled at the lowest level of entropy - with water and human labor or can be decomposed. A calculation of every construction material showed that 1555MJ and 108kg CO2/ gross m2 embodied energy is needed. Simulations prove that the energy consumption for the building’s use is minimized to 19.9 kwh/m2/annum. 100% of that energy is covered by 333 m2 solar panels. The supply air is preconditioned in the ground heat exchanger (foundations). From there it will be distributed through the precast, hollow core earth elements. Wind catchers transport the water-cooled air into courtyards and the affiliated gangways. Rainwater will be collected on all roof areas and courtyards (3,748m2).
Economic performance and compatibility – Prosperity
The earth walls can be built out of the excavation material, which is a free by-product on site. With the choice of a labor intensive building material and regional handicraft products (ceramics, tadelakt, weaving), a major part of the profit remains with the people. The project is of high positive influence for the small local economy. Maintenance is minimized through a design that allows the aging process of the natural materials’ surfaces. Repairing work is easy with local craftsmen.
Contextual and aesthetic impact – Proficiency
The design is inspired from two Moroccan archetypes: the rural ksar, as the compact place of community life and the urban medersa devoted to the training of students. A dynamic architectural sculpture that surrenders patios and gardens plays with sun and shades, static massiveness and rhythmics, and rough surfaces and refined shining renderings. It shows a new language for an old material that is deeply rooted in the culture while meeting the needs and dreams of the present society.
