PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
A Sustainable Classroom for Malawi
This classroom is meant to serve as a prototype for the rural village schools in the Republic of Malawi (sub-Sahara Africa). Partnering with the African Children’s Mission, a group at a local church and associated with the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, has helped me to better understand the needs of the people of Malawi. This group is qualified through years of organized involvement in support of the people of Malawi, including many individuals with direct on-the-ground service in the rural villages there.
This design consists of a one-room school with an attached service core. Since, it is intended as a prototype for the small, rural villages of Malawi, effective natural environmental systems are essential. Many of these villages function without the benefit of electric power, wired communications, or other centralized utility systems. Much of the teaching currently occurs in open-air gatherings. While the mild climate supports this for much of the year, seasonal variations (most notably the rainy season) create the need for a sheltered teaching environment. The need for safe and durable shelter is significant, it is intended that the classroom should also be able to serve as a village clinic.
Since learning becomes harder when essential health needs are not met, this classroom design intends to provide essential physiological needs in order to facilitate the educational process.
The building process will start by drilling a well to provide freshwater, the number one necessity of human life. The first, of three, of the core will enclose and protect this fresh water source. The other two portions of the core will house a small clinic service space with a solar-powered refrigerator to store needed drugs and a storage space for food and solar oven cooking equipment. A teacher’s loft will be incorporated above these three parts of the core. The solar panels will be mounted above creating a double roof system, reducing the heat gain from the almost perpendicular solar rays.
This core will be constructed out of straw bales in order to introduce to the villagers another usage for local materials as well as a way of speeding up the construction process and minimizing construction costs. Bamboo, another local material, will be used as rebar within the concrete foundation and support throughout the structure.
Next the process of constructing the classroom will commence with the same concrete foundation, bamboo support and straw bale construction. The classroom may be placed on either side of the core according to the needs of the site. This room is meant to be flexible in way of use and reaction to the climate. Each bay will have openings on each side enclosed with a horizontal flap door system functioning with a pull cord. These doors will be painted with primary colored chalkboard paint inside and out to allow for interior and exterior use. The pull cord system will allow the user to vary the height of the opening depending on the need for cross-ventilation and natural light. The ceiling will be made of bamboo framing with canvas stretched across and will have the capability to be raised on one end to maximize cross ventilation when needed as well as protect from the elements. The wall parallel and across from the wall of the core will be made similar to the ceiling in order to be easily moved when an addition to the classroom is needed.
Above this classroom a second roof will be constructed to protect the classroom from the direct sunlight and the seasonal heavy rainfall. This roof will extend beyond the limits of the classroom creating porches on the north and south sides. It will be framed of bamboo that will be covered with the water resistant material, which is most readily available at the time each section of the classroom is constructed. This roof will not only protect from the elements but will be sloped to collect rainwater on one side. The cisterns will be added as needed and will be made of locally available barrels or plastic water containers connected and stacked vertically. This water will be used to irrigate the field in order to grow food and provide more materials (straw, bamboo, etc.) for additional construction.
In use this classroom will provide a year round fresh water source, refrigeration of essential drugs and space to administer healthcare, food and cooking equipment storage, greatly needed shelter for the educational process to occur, as well as housing a teacher. The construction process will be quick yet substantial and long lasting. It will sustain life through a source of fresh water, a source of food and a source of healthcare. With these essential physiological needs attended too, the educational process will be more likely to succeed.
