A COMMUNITY SCHOOL IN MINYA
Location:Al-Sheikh Hassan, Matay, El-Minya, Egypt.
Project typology: Under construction/ Conceptual: Institutional (community school).
Project Year: 2019.
Site area: 2000 sqm.
Al-Sheikh Hasan is a community school serving nine small villages of Ezbet El-Shaikh Hasan local village unit in Matai, Minya Governorate, where the students need to walk every day 10 km to go to the school and back home again. The purpose of the building is to evoke this long and arduous trip of children between the agricultural fields and transform it into a journey between active, dynamic, and educational spaces. The structure is translated by creating many paths around the building units. It provides a spatial experience for the kids by creating in-between spaces that allow them to through a learning experience journey depending on “unknowing then knowing”.
The design approach relied on design a sustainable structure through knowledge transfer and user engagement. The project deals with parameters including cost, climate, resource availability, and construction feasibility and makes a balance between these constraints. Our goal is to create cost-effectively, and environment-friendly solutions using locally sourced earth materials. The structure tries to stitch the gap between the vernacular architecture of the local community and the conventional systems in the market by using compressed earth bricks to create an iconic contemporary structure in the form of walls and vaulted roofs. The system has the added advantage of being cheap, easy to produce, and also provides thermal protection against the hot climate for both ceilings and walls. We believe that our mission is to design and build a sustainable structure and community through knowledge transfer and user engagement.
