07-06-2017

TAMassociati H2OS an eco village for Africa

TAMassociati,

TAMassociati,

Senegal,

Housing,

Architecture can provide a concrete response to problems like desertification, abandonment and emigration and TAMassociati demonstrates it with the H2OS project, an eco village in Africa whose first lot has recently been inaugurated.



TAMassociati H2OS an eco village for Africa

H2OS is an eco village designed by TAMassociati in Keur Bakar, Senegal, 200 km from Dakar. It was created for the African continent, but we hope it will soon become a model of sustainable housing that can be copied and adapted everywhere.

H2OS is an open-source architectural and technological project, designed and developed by TAMassociati and inspired byCircolo Sunugal (the Senegalese immigrants’ association) in Venice. The project has been supported by international and Italian institutions.
Theeco village is made up of communal spaces and housing modules that have independent energy and water, a fundamental aspect as the settlement is in an area with no electricity, water, schools or plumbing. It is participatory planning in which the community plays an essential role. These are self-built, communityeco-homes using stabilized raw-earth bricks. The only work by specialised technicians was on complex elements of the settlement, like the bathroom block and the technology systems in the communal house, which was also built by training local people.

Theeco-maison that has been inaugurated is the centre of the village and community, with spaces dedicated to training and information, arts and crafts workshops, research and conviviality. This space is also the heart of the eco project: a tank collects rain water in Summer months (from July to September) that is filtered and used throughout the year for sanitary purposes or for irrigating the organic vegetable garden, and there are energy systems that filter and perform phyto-purification. With H2OS, TAMassociati offers a concrete architectural response to problems like desertification, abandonment and emigration, with a non-invasive but participatory project that gives its users “the possibility to live in places where one is born and to move away for desire, not necessity. ” (TAMassociati).

(Agnese Bifulco)

H2OS - Open-Source prototype house for ecovillages in Senegal
www.h2os-project.org
Architects: TAMassociati www.tamassociati.org
Location: Keur Bakar, Senegal
Photos: TAMassociati


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