What’s a mediastation?
It’s a point of access, a portal. A place that connects: nations, cities, people, and even neighbours. A place of meeting, where you communicate, learn and share knowledge, get to know strangers and get to know yourself, so you can build your own self. It provides for the basic need of listening and to be listened to, the basic need of reference, and the vital human need of looking for the horizon. Therefore, a mediastation cannot be less than iconic. Like a lighthouse pointing the way over unstable waters.
This one is made out of stone from this land, by equally local hands. The stone is ideal for keeping the inside cool or warm against exterior temperature variations. The walls are round to remind people of their roots, to stand earthquakes, and also to support better the steel frame, which rests on a central support too. Around that four-stories-tall column there’s an empty space, filled only by air and light. Through here the building breathes and opens itself to the abundant equatorial sunlight, reducing the need of electric illumination. On the roof, an array of solar photovoltaic panels collects the energy to power the station. They also collect rain to a reservoir on the fourth floor, as water here is not dispensable. It can be used on the toilets, and after that it can still irrigate the garden and the grass, once it goes trough the root zone tank. That is the simplest way to treat sewage: a cesspool separates the solid from the liquid, and the effluent is directed to a tank filled with rocks, gravel, sand and earth, where a specially selected plant grows. Its roots gradually extracts the organic matter, and the result is a fairly clean water. This building should output no more than some recyclable garbage, radio waves, and positive vibrations.
The hole structure anchors a massive broadcasting tower. It doesn’t only gives the radio the means to reach a lot of listeners, and the Internet hotspot more coverage than it needs, but it can also be used by mobile telephone systems or other services, from which the station can make some cash to help it support itself. With further studies, the tower could be topped by a wind generator. This would take advantage of the constant monsoon wind to produce more electricity, and maybe sell some exceeding energy.
Every required function fits inside the station. Additionally, some places can host more than one type of activity, even unpredicted ones. On the second floor, the library and the laboratories are divided by rotating shelf-walls, resting on casters and joints on the central column. This way, this floor space can easily be reconfigured to suit different needs. Library and labs can grow or shrink to meet their public, and all furniture and equipment can be enclosed in a story’s slice, leaving space for a big gathering, for instance, or a an exhibition, or a temporary workshop. Likewise, the balconies on the second and third floors are dubious. They are big enough to host new partitions, just needing to be shut out. The fourth floor represents a possibility too: it’s a technical story, but with a great view! Ideal for special parties and a future expansion.
Outside, the building is surrounded by open fields. This accommodates the basketball and tennis court, the root zone tank, a garden to teach children how food grows, a great mango tree, an area to play soccer and just on its corner, on the walkway curve near the entrance, a small amphitheatre. Everyone can enjoy here, appropriately protected from the sun, a small play or a pocket show.
This is a place in activity, all around and inside the building. It’s designed to attract people and to create sympathy, so that the community feels it belongs to them, and knows it’s somewhere they can look up to. This is the way an alive building can grow collaboration. Hopefully, it will help to create in Mukuru Kwa Njenga the synergy between people of goodwill that are everywhere, which is the only thing that can make us move forward.
