KAIRA LOORO CULTURAL CENTER – AFRICAN ROOTS

Sedhiou – SENEGAL

Spring 2018

.

The Sadhiou Cultural Center is the place to gather around people from different ethnicities and cultures with different skills. Our project is centered around a circular form of space, where every point on its perimeter has the same value, and with the material and structure of the native architecture that is familiar to the people of Sedhiou, With the hands of the people of this region, due to their different skills, the process itself will bring various tribes together and make them united. In addition, our goal is to give a large portion of the project to women, educating women is not only training one person but also educating a family and a generation afterwards. The rest of the spaces have been gathered around this area, as seven people (tribes) from African nations are united with their own ethnicity, language and culture in their “African” identity. Our main goal is to create a place that will repatriate its faith to the rich African identity and spirit, and to remind this to people. Since the most people of this land are farmers, we intended to allocate the larger part of the project to agricultural purposes like planting rice, besides the unity of the people, we aimed to remind that this land has all its necessities inside itself. In addition, focusing on the culture of a nation -regarding the widespread impact of the economy on that and the fact that Sedhiou is desiring sustainable development- has also led us to this choice, since it would cause the survival of the project’s economic sector and consequently it will result in the development and survival of this cultural center in the future. The concept of this project is entirely originated from the native culture and history of Africa. The light infiltrates through the textures, walls, and the ceiling of the project which carry the memories of pains and agonies of Africans, and reveals a shade of this rich culture over the people which has been colonized too many times during the history.

.

.

HAJIZADEH & ASSOCIATES

Leader: Amir Hossein Hajizadeh

Associates: Erfan Ranjbar – Farhad Sahafniya Yazdi – Amir Hossein Khazaei – Shadi Aghaei – Narges Mohtarami