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- Social and environmental sustainability. Niafourang Project, Senegal.
![Social and environmental sustainability. Niafourang Project, Senegal.
Social and environmental sustainability. Niafourang Project, Senegal.](https://www.floornature.com/media/photos/38/8438/10_social-and-environmental-sustainability-niafourang-project-senegal_home_sez.jpg)
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The village of Niafourang in Senegal, situated on the Atlantic coast a few kilometres from Gambia counts 300 inhabitants, a high rate of unemployment so many young people are forced to leave the country to look for work.
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The three students’ idea evolved at the NTNU in Trondheim encouraged by the example and support of the Norwegian firm TYIN and sponsored by the Lund + Slaatto firm. Their goal was to create a library with computer area linked to an outdoor space, a kind of youth club aimed at giving new prospects for the future, by request of the Norwegian non-profit organisation “Friends of Niafourang”.
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In the autumn of 2011 the students arrived in Senegal where they built the centre with help from the locals in seventy-five days as recorded in the video filmed during the construction: http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=zsvPUxjjAmw
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Only local materials, such as on-site made bricks, were used for the building that was constructed in close collaboration with the users apart from necessary welding of the corrugated aluminium roof which was done in a nearby village. There is no electricity because it is not supplied to Niafourang.
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This was not only a cultural experience for the local population, which now has a youth centre and new possible ways out, but also for the young architects who gained precious hands-on experience.
Project: Tore Hanssen Grimstad, Andreas Brunvoll, Assad Ansar
Size: 250 m2
Client: Friends of Niafourang
Location: Niafourang, Senegal
Project team professors: Hans Skotte (http://www.ntnu.no) and TYIN tegnestue (http://www.tyintegnestue.no)
Sponsor: Lund + Slaatto Arkitekter (http://www.lsa.no)
Project Year: October – December 2011
Gallery: Project Niafourang http://www.projectniafourang.com/
Video: http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=zsvPUxjjAmw