A group of Spanish and Senegalese people from different disciplines, convinced of the opportunity of clay as a construction material, worked together to place value on this material in Kolda, a city in the middle of the Casamance region in Senegal.
Through the participation in a construction workshop, three prototypes of arches were developed to test different geometries applicable to traditional architecture. Due to the existence of an old but high-value machine to produce compressed earth blocks in the town, some prototypes of bricks with different mixtures of laterite, cement, and sand were elaborated in advance. The laterite is a resource available in the region that possesses extraordinary construction qualities: good thermal insulation, high compression resistance, and the ability to adapt to different humidity situations, creating cooler spaces.
The two goals of the workshop were to experiment with the relationship between material and geometry and to get back in touch with traditional ways of construction as an alternative to the extended cement construction.
Facts:
Project: Workshop Arte y Ensayo.
Coordinators: Sara Carvajal, Aliou Cisse, Famara Mane Paco Rodriguez, Paco Trujillo
Participants: international
Construction period: Dec. 2015
Sponsor: private