Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
View of access ramps and façade, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Colonnade supporting the upper gallery, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Upper gallery, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Classroom, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Lecture room, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Arris detail, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Ground floor plan, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
IDOM
Ground floor plan, Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Front façade of the Alioune Diop University’s Teaching and Research Unit building, comprising a 500-seat amphitheatre, classrooms for 50 and 100 people, laboratories and technology rooms, as well as offices for lecturers. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
The building is covered with a large double roof and a great lattice on the southern façade, which prevent direct solar radiation and permit air circulation. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
The lattice of the southern façade, made with 20,000 triangular concrete bricks, was produced onsite. This gave work to a hundred workers from Bambey for six months. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Lecture room seating. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
The large double roof is made of two principal layers, connected by steel lattice beams. The first is made of metal panels covered with insulation and protects the building from the scorching summer sun. The second is a dropped ceiling of mineralised fibres. Air naturally flows between the two. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Exterior corridor shaded by the double roof. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
East view of the building. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Metallic structure of the double roof. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Structure connecting the supporting wall and the lattice curtain façade. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Young woman leaning against the exterior corridor railing. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
East view of the building. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
The structure of the roof was conceived as a large tree that shelters life underneath it and creates a cool multipurpose public space. The shape of the flying roof columns emulates a tree trunk and its branches. It strongly marks the identity of the project as a whole. Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit, Bambey, Senegal.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Chérif Tall (photographer)
Alioune Diop University Teaching and Research Unit
Award Cycle: 2017-2019 Cycle
Status: Award Recipient
Country of origin: Senegal
Location: Bambey, Senegal
Client: ACBEP, Ministry of Urbanism & Ministry of Higher Education, Dakar, Senegal
Architect: IDOM, Bilbao, Spain
Design: 2013-2014
Size: 12,000 m²
Completed: 2017
Alioune Diop University was founded in 2007 as part of the Senegalese government’s efforts to decentralise higher-education provision, seeking both to encourage youth to stay in rural areas and to provide educational programmes appropriate to these contexts. By 2012 it was functioning beyond capacity, so an extension project was launched, of which this building formed the major part.
The structure comprises a 500-seat lecture hall, five 50-student classrooms, eight 100-student classrooms, three laboratories, ten lecturers’ offices and two meeting rooms. It was the architects’ choice to combine all of these into a single mass with an identity and presence worthy of its university status – unlike the campus’s pre-existing small, scattered blocks. Although single storey, its slanting roof soars to almost 10m on the north side. Its south side is distinguished by a lattice screen running the full 203m of its length, made of perforated breezeblocks manufactured on site by local masons. At the east end, a sweeping entrance ramp and outdoor stair create a connection with the rest of the campus.
The lattice wall – echoing similar, smaller features on local buildings – is one of the strategies for passive cooling in a location where temperatures can exceed 40°C. A broad corridor separates this from the accommodation behind, which is arranged into five sub-units with staircases in the voids between them. Their standard post-and-beam concrete construction is organised on a 3.6m structural grid, facilitating on-site prefabrication. Each sub-unit has an insulated roof; while the heat-reflective metal outer roof runs the whole length of the building mass and extends out to form a giant loggia to the north, drawing hot air up and away. This loggia is supported by thin metal columns of a varying three-branched form, recalling the solitary trees in whose shade locals commonly gather. Other ecologically minded measures include a series of stone-lined basins filled with gravel and vegetation, where both rainwater from the roof and filtered wastewater are directed.
By employing locally familiar construction techniques and following sustainability principles, the project succeeded in keeping costs and maintenance demands to a minimum, while still making a bold architectural statement.