Urko Sánchez Architects

SOS Children Village in Djibouti

SOS Children Village in Djibouti

SOS CHILDREN VILLAGE IN DJIBOUTI

Urko Sanchez Architects

FIRM
Urko Sanchez Architects

SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

STATUS
Built

TYPE
Educational › Other Government + Health › Community Center Residential › Multi Unit Housing

YEAR
2014

BUDGET
$1M - 5M

LOCATION
Tadjoura, Djibouti

Djibouti is located in the Horn of Africa, which suffers from persistent droughts and severe scarcities.

SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

We were approached by SOS Kinderdorf to design a residential compound of 15 houses where to run their family-strengthening programmes.

We learnt about SOS systems, about the community where the project would take place, their nomadic traditions and the extreme climate of the region.

SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

We searched for traditional housing references in similar cultural and climatic environments and finally decided to design a MEDINA with certain singularities:

A. It is a medina for children – A safe environment, with no cars, where the narrow streets and squares become places to play

SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

B. It is a medina with plenty of open spaces – Public and private spaces are clearly defined. And in the private, the inside and outside areas melt, allowing residents to maintain certain outdoors living.

C. It is a medina with lots of vegetation – Where the inhabitants are encouraged to take care of their plants and benefit from the result.

SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

In terms of distribution, all houses follow the same scheme but are arranged in different ways, placed close to each other giving shade one another and generating alleys between them in an apparent disordered way.

Natural ventilation and sun shading was intensely studied, introducing natural ventilation towers where needed.

SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

The construction of this project was possible thanks to an international team, which reflects the mixture of backgrounds in the practice of our profession, making every project a very enriching experience.


SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti


SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti
SOS Children Village in Djibouti

Urko Sánchez Architects
T +254 721 243387
Urko Sánchez Architects
Ziwa La Ng'ombe, Links Rd, Mombasa, Kenya