Grundschule auf der Insel Manda, Kenia

Study trip to Kenya - summer semester 2016
The Study Trip to Kenya started in Mombasa, where the students met an Architect, who was working in the office of Urko Sanchez. He organized trips to some buildings and building sites their office was working on.
The projects in Mombasa are mostly very modern and centrally located. During the visit to Mombasa the group was invited by the Technical University of Mombasa to present their work and studies in Germany and to discuss future projects.
After a week in Mombasa, the group continued the journey to Lamu.  Lamu is an island in south-east Kenya where the use of cars and other vehicles are prohibited - transportation is provided by donkeys and boats. The group experienced very narrow alleys and a very high density city structures. In the town of Lamu the group also visited workshops of traditional carpenters.  Urko Sanchez had also projects in this part of Kenya, in contrast to Mombasa the buildings were very traditional as can be seen in the Red Pepper House Project.
The most important trip was to the nearby island Manda, which was the next project the students would work on in Germany. Manda Island is cut off from the Mainland, causing electricity and water problems. The students were invited to the see the local Primary school, which was too small considering the number of children studying there.

Design studies - winter semester 2016/17
Back in Germany the Students started working on an expansion module for the school. The concept was to build spaces that were missing, such as a room for the teachers, classrooms, and proper sanitary spaces. On the following pages the different designs of the students are presented, which include ideas relating to different aspects of expansion, interior courtyards, rainwater collection points, and the influences of sun and wind on the design.