Project Title: T O T A L L Y M U D

Concept:

The changing rooms are placed between the pitch and the meeting venue and constitute the spine of either event. Different height levels respond to the two distinct functions.

The project read since the first sketches as an insertion in the landscape.

Having taken into consideration the limited budget, we tried to maximize the resources present on the site. We are counting on the willing help of the football team and the volunteers of the neighborhood to lend a hand for the upgrading of their pitch and the realization of the community-gathering centre.

Rammed earth, a natural building method, is the chosen construction system.

It consists basically in raw earth, which is placed within a reusable formwork.

The soil comes directly from the site as a 10 x 6 meter area is dug out one meter deep. In low-tech application like this, the earth can be transported by manpower in buckets or wheelbarrows and compacted by hand.

We have developed a modular plywood formwork that can be quickly disassembled once the form is full and the top layer fully compacted, and moved up the posts to create another section of the wall. At the end of the process when the walls of are completed the formwork is reused as structure of the roof.

The remaining portion of the earth stockpile can be used for the exterior paving

The generous roof overhang provides a sheltered platform for speakers to address the audience gathered on the stairs while the slope allows for rainwater to be collected in an underground tank.

This first phase secures the minimum standards of the project and fixes the guidelines for future expansion.