The project for the elementary school was conceived as a place where safety, connections, a sense of belonging, and community become the guiding principles for the natural process of development and learning of children in rural areas of Senegal. The school, designed as a village, functions as a social infrastructure that guarantees education for young students and improves their quality of life. It is a place of gathering and unity, a living space for the entire community to benefit from. It was conceived following criteria of environmental sustainability and proposing technical solutions that reinterpret the local culture and identity.
The design concept is developed starting from the volume of a rectangle, which, when divided, extended, and rotated, leads to the adopted solution. The plan develops by giving life to two inner courtyards that, together with the school buildings, symbolize aggregation, places for collective experimentation and community events. The school becomes a flexible space. The misalignment of one of the blocks breaks the regularity of the complex, allowing those who experience the place to be directed towards the internal public spaces, places for communal living.
