The project preparation of a boarding house at St. Benedict’s Primary School (Nairobi, Tika Road) is ongoing. First design concepts have been developed both at TUK and HSA in an intense teaching cooperation.

A detailed design of the boarding room facade is an important next step. It is a general aim of the project to introduce a high level of prefabrication to ensure good construction quality, to reduce waste and to shorten the assembly time on site.

The local conditions of Nairobi in regard to the climate as well as to the existing fabrication and construction facilities must be considered.

Task

The dimensions of a standard sleeping room (5,40 x 3,60 x 2,70 m) and the layout of the furnishing is set. The task of the workshop is to design a façade which creates high architectural quality and gives solutions to the following topics:

• Load bearing structure
• Daylighting exposure
• Ventilation
• Sun protection

Materials

The design should base on the materials following materials:

• Timber profiles, mainly for window elements
• Precast reinforced concrete units, mainly for load bearing elements. The material concrete should be reduced to a minimum amount due to sustainablitity aspects.
• Rice straw panels (60 mm), mainly for nonloadbearing wall surfaces. The outside surface of these panels must be covered by a rearventilated cladding layer.

Method

The design process is based on physical models in the scale of 1:10.

The workshop aims to deepen the understanding for the interaction between construction, architectural appearance and the prefabrication.