Senegal: Nka Foundation announces a call for entries for its 5th Earth Architecture Competition

SÉDHIOU REGION, Senegal - July 12, 2017 - PRLog -- DESIGNING A RURAL ARTS CENTER FOR SENEGAL: 5^th Earth Architecture Competition

IMPORTANT DATES
Registration: July 13-31 (Early Bird) & August 1-October 13, 2017 (Standard)
Submission of Entries: October 16-19, 2017
Selection of Projects by Jury: October 24-November 2, 2017
Press Release on the Winning Projects: November 13, 2017
Building Workshops to Realize the Top 40 Design Entries: February 2018 to July 2020.

Nka Foundation announces a call for entries for its 5^th Earth Architecture Competition: Designing a Rural Arts Center for Senegal, an international architecture competition open to professionals and students of architecture, design, urban planning and others from around the world. Your challenge is to design a unit of a rural arts school for construction in a village in the Casamance region of Senegal. Registration is July 13, 2017 and submission of entries is October 16, 2017. To participate, register at http://goo.gl/hSuuQO and submit your design entry at http://nkaprojects.boards.net on October 16, 2017 and download the design brief: http://nkaprojects.boards.net/attachment/download/1249

OBJECTIVE
The objective is to design a modern mud type to be built asa unit of an artisanal village, a residentialvocational training center for unemployed rural youths of ages 16 to 25 years to undergo a 2-year skills development training in the vocational arts and design. We want the school plan to emphasize sustainable architecture and cost efficient construction. Thus, we want the buildings to fully integrate earth architecture and passive solar design.

The challenge is to design one of the following types for the school: a classroom type, cafeteria type, office building type, dormitory type, group toilet type, cafeteria type, dormitory type, dwelling type for the local teachers, and guest house type for our international visiting staff. Contestants are to design the school type for construction by maximum use of earth and local labor. Total costs of constructing the design entry is not to exceed $10,000 (USD) for materials and labor. The construction site will be Diakounda village in SédhiouRegion of the Casamance in Senegal.

The jurors will use judging criteria involving form, function and technical issues toselect three prize-winning designs. Specifically, the jurors will award prizes for first, second and third place consisting of a commemorative certificate and cash prizes to the winning designs as follows: 1st prize - $1,000 or construction of design in Senegal plus a trip to Senegal for a workshop to build the winning design (in case the winner does not reside in Senegal and to a maximum of 1 person); 2nd prize- Construction or $700 and 3rd prize- Construction or $400. Honorable mentions will be awarded. Every design team that makes the Top 40 Entries shortlist will be offered the opportunity to build their design in Senegal or Gambia in collaboration with the project organizers.

The fee per entry is $40 for individual and $60 for a team for early registration (July 13-31) and standard registration (August 1-October 13) is $50 for individual and $70 for a team.

HOW TO DESIGN WHAT IS BUILDABLE?

The construction of the top design entries in the competition is our priority for two reasons: (1)The building workshop will serve as cultural exchange as you build your unit of the school with the local youth trainees and local artisans; and (2) because at Nka Foundation, we have come to know that a means for a young designer to learn to design what is buildable is by providing you with the opportunity to design and build your own design. Thus,fromFebruary 2018 to July 2020, we will be collaborating with some of the design teams in the competition to organize construction workshops to build their design entries based on site atDiakounda village in Sédhiou Region of the Casamance, Senegal.

The competition promotes open source design, which implies that the submitted designs will be available for all to appreciate, use, or improve them to generate more practical and contemporary design solutions for the region. In light of this, thecompetition entry needs to be a type that can be replicated in another village in tropical Africa such as Gambia, Ghana or Tanzania. Ourlong-term goal is to enable the rural population and lots of other places, to overcome the stigma that mud architecture is architecture for the very poor.

Take the design-build challenge! Make your name known! Let's create change where it is most needed.  Here is where to register: http://goo.gl/hSuuQO. For additional information, see the competition discussion board: http://nkaprojects.boards.net .