The academy was built in a rural village located more than a hundred kilometers from Lusaka, Zambia’s largest city, with the express purpose of making life more comfortable for a dispersed population that before the construction of the building was forced to walk some seven kilometers daily to the nearest school and back. The facility serves children aged one to seven, and includes classrooms, a community pavilion, an office, and living quarters for the teachers. Typologically it breaks away from the usual linear layout of schoolhouses, instead separating the classrooms and interspersing them with play zones and community spaces, all under a large metal roof. Bioclimatically speaking this organization makes it possible to combat the conditions of the region’s warm climate, not only through the solar protection provided by the roof but also through the natural ventilation it allows underneath. All the materials used are locally obtained, and the pavilion was raised with the participation of the village people...
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