About the Campaign:
“20 Centres for 2010” is the Official Campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Its aim is to raise funds to create twenty Football for Hope Centres for public health, education and football across Africa. The centres will address local social challenges in disadvantaged areas and improve education and health services for young people. The Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha is the first of the 20 Football for Hope Centres in Africa. Read more about The Football for Hope Campaign
Location:
Kimisgara Community - Kigali - Rwanda
About the Centre Host:
Today, the ethnic groups of Rwanda still struggle with the legacy of the genocide in 1994. Since 2002, and in search for justice and peaceful coexistence, Espérance seeks to fight the ethnic divide of the Rwandan population by targeting vulnerable and disadvantaged youth in the Kimisagara community through education and social programmes such as “Football for Peace and Anti-AIDS”.
Besides playing regular football, Espérance’s activities include football programmes within the areas of peacebuilding, education and anti-aids. For example, football tournaments are run in conjunction with AIDS awareness activities.
The organisation uses football as a tool not only to reconcile differences within the population, but also to raise awareness of fundamental challenges that face the communities and youths. Espérance carries out these activities with 56 volunteers. Some 180,000 youth benefit from these activities.
Further, over 300 youths are trained to become educators themselves. Further, Espérance also supports youth organisations to increase their competencies in order to actively participate in national youth policies.
Statement of design intent by Design Fellow
The point of departure is the placement of the pitch, optimizing the north-south orientation. and activating a new visual and pedestrian link along the canal, connecting the local community and existing football pitches to the Maison Des jeunes to the North.
The building form and placement articulates this new linkage, creating new communal outdoor spaces for the community and the centre, in turn defining new play areas for the school to the rest of the site. The building programme is accommodated in one block to further minimize costs whilst unifying all the overlapping social interests and activities.Fenestration has been considered to optimise views to and from the pitch whilst maintaining privacy where needed by placing windows at high level, in turn facilitating the natural cross ventilating of rooms, mitigating the need for mechanical cooling. Deep overhangs to the north and south also assist the cooling of the interior spaces
The dominant roof collects all of these programmatic and social functions; it frames the entrance and views to the pitch, expresses Esperance’s social space for activities, orientates the user around the building, creates a semi–private for ‘post match discussions by players (with a drinking water point), defines the spectators area to the canal , and providing continual shade throughout. In addition to these functions the roof will also harness rainwater for drinking and will be equipped with solar panels (subject to design).
The two steel shipping containers used to transport the pitch and its accessories have been re-used and designed into the scheme as storage and a water tower,not pumping and controlling the flow of water, but acting as a visual beacon for the centre. They have been placed strategically to demarcate entrance points.
Internally finishes are modest yet robust. Areas internally have been identified and set aside for the purposes of personalising by Esperance and the community. We envisage mosiacs or murals however this will become clearer through the onsite workshops soon to be conducted.
Landscaping elements will focus on seating for viewing games, and trees for shading, which we intend the community to physically take an active role in assisting with the construction and planting of.
We envisage the construction of the centre walls to be cast in rammed earth, which will be excavated from the site for foundations and the formation of the pitch, using new techniques employed by the local Architect of record and contractors.
Key Developments:
Next steps:
Back to Football for Hope program overview
