Rufisque, Senegal December 2002
Arq. Saija Hollmen, Jenni Reuter, Helena Sandman
The women’s centre in
Rufisque, Senegal is remarkable in many ways. Designed by a trio of
young Finnish architects: Saija Hollmén, Jenni Reuter and Helena
Sandman, it uses locally tested construction methods, combines them
with recycled materials and reinterprets traditional planning
configurations. But the complex has not just provided a new social and
training facility, its creation has been influential on the lives of
everyone involved, Senegalese and Finns alike. It is an important step
in the development of the recognition of women in this West African
country.
Rufisque is a
port just to the east of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Like most other
cities in Africa, it is undergoing traumatic transformation with the
impact of modern technology, and a surge of immigration from the
countryside. In Rufisque,
problems are made more extreme
because the sea is eating into the place from the south, so expansion
has to take place in the arid
land north of the city, and a
grey concrete shanty town is growing up there.
Shabby suburban streets are suddenly relieved by an almost strident red building, crisply detailed and well tended. This is the women’s centre, a focus for local groups, a reception organization for rural immigrants and a powerhouse for empowering women in a traditionally male orientated culture.
Saija Hollmén, Jenni Reuter and Helena Sandman submitted a proposal for the centre to the Otaniemi School of Architecture, and the project was developed with the help of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, and Finnish foundations as well as local organizations – the land was given by the city.* Sociologist Anne Rosenlew co-ordinated cultural interaction. The site is next to the usually dry wadi which runs through the bidonville and hence it was available for (careful) development.
‘A house under a baobab tree’, the centre is modelled on traditional compounds in this part of West Africa, with a strong perimeter surrounding buildings turned inwards to a communal court. The baobab is one of the few trees left in an area that is starved of wood. It shades one of the two principal entrances to the complex, a gateway that leads to the communal hall.
The other public entrance is on the north-west corner of the compound. Here is an attempt to make a small public square, on to which the centre’s shop and restaurant open. The attempt is fine – what’s needed is response from the surrounding owners of the grey buildings, who think they cannot afford to give so much as a metre of their land to the public realm.
Once inside the compound, all is clear and (at the moment) Scandinavian neat. A paved court is enclosed by the orderly rhythm of the piers of the communal hall to the right and the workshops on the other side. The red buildings are massively constructed to exploit the thermal flywheel effect. They have wide overhanging roofs to provide shade and are open to allow the maximum amount of natural ventilation. Up the road is the biggest cement factory in West Africa, so the structure is an insitu concrete frame filled in with concrete blocks, cast and cured on site. Roofs have recycled steel rsj structures, carrying corrugated galvanized metal roofing, with reed matting ceilings so that a void is created between metal and reeds which cools the spaces by convection – a similar device was used by Finnish architects Heikkinen & Komonen when they worked on the poultry farming school at Koliagbe in Guinea (AR November 2001.)
At Rufisque, every effort has been made to reduce use of wood – the region’s most precious natural resource. Not only are the doors and windows made of steel, but the reinforcing bars of the insitu structure are of the recycled metal. Ventilation is often achieved by using wheel hubs from clapped-out vehicles as protective grilles. Bottle bottoms sometimes make windows, though these are usually just openings shielded at night by steel shutters. The craft centre is largely open between its piers to allow the poisonous gases of the dying processes to be dissipated.
The rhythm of its open colonnade is echoed in that of the hall across the court. Here is dignified and noble public architecture created with fewmeans, and a building which may have a profound effect on the society for which it has been made.
Shabby suburban streets are suddenly relieved by an almost strident red building, crisply detailed and well tended. This is the women’s centre, a focus for local groups, a reception organization for rural immigrants and a powerhouse for empowering women in a traditionally male orientated culture.
Saija Hollmén, Jenni Reuter and Helena Sandman submitted a proposal for the centre to the Otaniemi School of Architecture, and the project was developed with the help of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, and Finnish foundations as well as local organizations – the land was given by the city.* Sociologist Anne Rosenlew co-ordinated cultural interaction. The site is next to the usually dry wadi which runs through the bidonville and hence it was available for (careful) development.
‘A house under a baobab tree’, the centre is modelled on traditional compounds in this part of West Africa, with a strong perimeter surrounding buildings turned inwards to a communal court. The baobab is one of the few trees left in an area that is starved of wood. It shades one of the two principal entrances to the complex, a gateway that leads to the communal hall.
The other public entrance is on the north-west corner of the compound. Here is an attempt to make a small public square, on to which the centre’s shop and restaurant open. The attempt is fine – what’s needed is response from the surrounding owners of the grey buildings, who think they cannot afford to give so much as a metre of their land to the public realm.
Once inside the compound, all is clear and (at the moment) Scandinavian neat. A paved court is enclosed by the orderly rhythm of the piers of the communal hall to the right and the workshops on the other side. The red buildings are massively constructed to exploit the thermal flywheel effect. They have wide overhanging roofs to provide shade and are open to allow the maximum amount of natural ventilation. Up the road is the biggest cement factory in West Africa, so the structure is an insitu concrete frame filled in with concrete blocks, cast and cured on site. Roofs have recycled steel rsj structures, carrying corrugated galvanized metal roofing, with reed matting ceilings so that a void is created between metal and reeds which cools the spaces by convection – a similar device was used by Finnish architects Heikkinen & Komonen when they worked on the poultry farming school at Koliagbe in Guinea (AR November 2001.)
At Rufisque, every effort has been made to reduce use of wood – the region’s most precious natural resource. Not only are the doors and windows made of steel, but the reinforcing bars of the insitu structure are of the recycled metal. Ventilation is often achieved by using wheel hubs from clapped-out vehicles as protective grilles. Bottle bottoms sometimes make windows, though these are usually just openings shielded at night by steel shutters. The craft centre is largely open between its piers to allow the poisonous gases of the dying processes to be dissipated.
The rhythm of its open colonnade is echoed in that of the hall across the court. Here is dignified and noble public architecture created with fewmeans, and a building which may have a profound effect on the society for which it has been made.
- ANNE ANSTRUTHER
* The NGO project was carried out through
the Tekniska Föreigning i Finland.
Architect
Hollmén Reuter Sandman, Helsinki
Photographs
Juha Ilonen