'We don't need air con': how Burkina Faso builds schools that stay cool in 40C heat

[Jilly_in_VA]

If architects are people who like to think their way around challenges, building schools in Burkina Faso must be the dream job. The challenges, after all, are legion: scorching temperatures in the high seasons, limited funds, materials, electricity and water, and clients who are vulnerable and young. How do you keep a building cool under a baking sun when there is no air conditioning?

Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré grew up in the small village of Gando and knows the challenges well. He and other architects such as Albert Faus are finding ingenious ways to use cheap materials to make sure that the schools and orphanages that they have built around Burkina Faso are cool, welcoming places.

Kéré, who won the Pritzker prize in 2022, has spoken movingly about the support he was given as a child by the whole community, with everyone giving money towards his education as he left the village and eventually gained a scholarship and studied in Germany. “The reason I do what I do is my community,” he said.

Gando primary school, built in 2001, was Kéré’s first construction after completing his studies. “At first, my community didn’t understand why I wanted to build with clay when there were glass buildings in Germany, so I had to convince them to use the local materials,” Kéré has said. Men and women came together to build the school, merging traditional techniques such as clay floors, beaten by hand until they were “smooth as a baby’s bottom” with more modern technology to seek better comfort.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/29/we-dont-need-air-con-how-burkina-faso-builds-schools-that-stay-cool-in-40c-heat

Perhaps not practical for us, but certainly his ideas can be adapted for western use.

[Marcus IM]

1. Cuba is doing the same thing.

Every new school built since 2000 is solar powered and uses similar methodologies in building materials and structure ventilation. Older schools are being converted. It's impressive.

Thanks for posting.

[spooky3]

2. Truly amazing. Nt

[enid602]

3. Lisbon

Lisbon, a hilly town that’s hot in the summer located and placed their subway stations in such a way as to maximize and take advantage of

winds from the Atlantic.

[marybourg]

4. Spanish conquistadors in Arizona and Shakers in the east

and mid-west also built for coolness without a.c.. The advent of electricity changed everything.

[mitch96]

5. Moorish architecture in Spain did the same thing to keep their buildings cool.. nt