Speak Salone | Freetown, Sierra Leone
Data collection, analysis, and schematic design for a new rural secondary school outside the capital city of Freetown, Sierra Leone for Educaid Sierra Leone NGO. In a context where ‘architect’ is an unfamiliar profession, we were able to define our own roles as architects to meet the needs of the project, incorporating political, economic, and infrastructural research into our design work. We also relied heavily on meetings with local villagers, community workshops, and self-performed land surveys to ensure a contextually appropriate design that meets the needs of its community. The following images show spatial, material, and structural analysis of existing schools in Sierra Leone, methods of data collection such as site surveys and community workshops, and schematic design work for the proposed secondary school. The difficulties of building and teaching in a resource-challenged environment were inescapable, and left me with a deep appreciation for human resilience in even the toughest of places.
Team
Architect: Killian Doherty, Founder of AFO, Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at The University of Edinburgh, specialist in post-conflict urban growth
Client: Merriam Mason, Director of Educaid Sierra Leone