Improving living conditions with a sustainable project

Sra Pou vocational school was built in the village of Sra Pou in Cambodia to provide vocational training allowing people escaping the slums of the nearby city of Oudong to build a new life for themselves.

The school was designed by two young Finnish architects, Hilla Rudanko and Anssi Kankkunen, who took the opportunity to work with a local NGO during a study trip to Cambodia in 2010. Their aim was to give the village of Sra Pou an infrastructure capable of improving people’s condition by teaching them how to work together to undertake sustainable enterprises.

Both the local people and the donors liked the plan, and the work was done by the future students themselves. Built entirely by hand, without any machinery or prefabricated components, the school inevitably has a very small “carbon footprint”. The project offered the local people an example of how to build a comfortable, dignified construction out of simple, locally available materials, encouraging them to work on their own homes in the same way.

Because of the lack of stone, the people made red earth bricks and left them to dry in the sun. The result is walls with lots of little openings that let in sunlight and fresh air to cool down the rooms. By night these openings let out the light from inside the building, so that it glows like a warm red lantern.

The wooden doors painted in bright colours attract people to the school by day, as they are visible from far away, inviting them into the building, which serves a meeting place for the community as well as an educational centre.

Design: Rudanko-Kankkunen Architects http://www.rudanko-kankkunen.com
Client: Blue Tent NGO
Link: http://srapou.org 
Photos: Architects Rudanko-Kankkunen

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