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Busajo Campus

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savore© Pietro Savorelli

BUSAJO CAMPUS

StudioBenaim

LOCATION
Sodo, Ethiopia

YEAR
2020

CATEGORY
Youth Center, Other Facilities

PHOTOGRAPHS
Pietro Savorelli

ARCHITECTS
StudioBenaim

AREA
4300 m²

STRUCTURAL DESIGN
AeI progetti

LEAD ARCHITECTS
André Benaim

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Tadesse Fikadu

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNING & REPRESENTATION
Fabio Azzato, Stefano Combet, Danilo Gentili, Oscar Benaim

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

Text description provided by architect.

Busajo Campus is a facility dedicated to local street children, who are hosted for a specific period of time, during which they are helped to rebuild their lives and find respect for themselves and others.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The project has been commissioned from Busajo Onlus, a nonprofit organization with social purposes based in Florence Italy.

AeI progetti, an engineering firm based in Florence, was the structures consultant, while the general contractor has been a local company called “Tadesse Fikadu.”

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The Campus provides spaces for living, teaching, professional training, sports, and leisure activities.

These spaces are structured in the form of a village on an area of 33.500 square meters.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The main cultural challenge for the project was creating a space able to be accepted as familiar from the local children.

The Campus architectural language uses the same vocabulary elements of the local spontaneous way of building but reassembled in order to avoid the chaos and dispersion typical of the Ethiopian suburbs.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The attention to local visual habits, materials and colors has been from the beginning the main tool to assure the children a sense of belonging to the place.

The challenge coming from the site climate was the necessity to provide protection from heat and rains.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

Therefore, all the facades of the buildings were provided with a continuous “filter-device”, a sort of covered porch shielded from the outside by eucalyptus wood panels, structured to form sunscreen grids.

The overhang depth of the roofs and balconies helps create constant shading to the facades, generating, together with the sunscreen panels, a real passive cooling system for the buildings.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The same “filter-space” acts as a porch, protecting from bad weather and allowing children to continue their outdoor activities, even in the rainy season.

For the main buildings, the Mediterranean courtyard type was chosen, in order to enhance community gatherings in a protected space – not only from the elements but also from the street.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The internal courtyards are important spaces for community gatherings, where children can meet, learn and play in a safe and secure environment.

The project makes extensive use of local materials: eucalyptus wood, a national Ethiopian tree, used from the construction phase for the scaffolding, and a local stone used for the courtyard's flooring.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The eucalyptus was then used for all the truss structures supporting the roofs, for all the solar screens protecting the facades, for the railings of the galleries. 

The natural red earth present in the area was used for the coloring of the concrete floors.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The campus is based on a principle of maximum self-sufficiency, containing spaces dedicated to vegetable gardens and animal husbandry.

Children are involved in the management of these activities for educational purposes.

Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli
Busajo Campus
© Pietro Savorelli

The Campus has been equipped with an autonomous well, which supplies drinking water also for people out from the campus.

The rainwater coming from the roofs has been regulated so as to be able to irrigate.


Busajo Campus
Model
Busajo Campus
Model
Busajo Campus
Model
Busajo Campus
Model
Busajo Campus
Model


Busajo Campus
Ground Floor Plan
Busajo Campus
First Floor Plan
Busajo Campus
Main Building Ground Floor Plan
Busajo Campus
Plan + Section
Busajo Campus
General Plan


Busajo Campus
Elevations
Busajo Campus
Workshops Plans + Sections


Busajo Campus
Main Building Section
Busajo Campus
Elevation / Section
Busajo Campus
Main Building Elevations

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