Architect Nico Jeuch

MangoTree is a construction project in northern Kenya on the Lamu archipelago. It consists of new school grounds with space for children to play and explore, providing girls and boys regardless of religion with a safe and appropriate learning environment. The primary school for 360 students includes two school wings with 14 classrooms, a library, an arts center and

sanitary facilities as well as an office and entrance building, a kitchen and dining hall, a basketball court, a food garden, and a chicken coop. The design combines local culture and low-tech solutions with modern approaches to natural light, structural concepts, and sustainable resource management. Spacious classrooms and outside areas favor active, play-based learning.

Technical concept
A reduced single-story structure ensures a simple building and maintenance process. Coral brick walls combined with concrete frames act as the base for a highly functional roof, comprising timber truss beams and corrugated fiber cement panels. Eternit is used instead of corrugated iron sheets, to optimize the thermal impact of solar radiation. Another thermal advantage of the roof design is how it allows a constant airflow

underneath the top layer. Tall windows on both sides generate cross ventilation. Adjusting the wooden rotary shutters can eliminate strong drafts through the classrooms. The ground plan shows how this structure appears in alternating closed, standard classrooms and open areas. The classrooms are supplemented with smaller group rooms supporting the pedagogic concept.

Natural light
Lamu is located at 2 degrees south. Thus, sunshine is nearly vertical all year around. Beyond protection from this sun and heat, bright classrooms were a high priority for the project. Those qualities are not easily achieved in such an extreme climate. Large windows would overheat the rooms, and direct light would increase the visual contrast, leading to an overall darker experience inside. MangoTree instead works with indirect light. The classrooms are set on an east-west axis to guarantee solely diffuse light distribution inside the building. The white Lamu sand around the building and locally traditional cotton sails across the wide hallways act as solar reflectors. The prototype that was built last August reveals the efficiency of this concept.

The two School wings accommodating first to third grade in one building and fourth to sixth grade in the other. The separate volumes are visually tied together by the common base plate. Through this connection the space in between can be used as a shared playground. The placing of the buildings include all the existing trees and further more through close proximity benefits from a good microclimate.

We are mainly using local material such as coral bricks from the neighboring island brought by sailing boats and much of the material is transported up to site by donkeys. The durability of the material is prioritized and by constructing all buildings with the same repeating elements a high quality can be assured leading to a long life span. The school functioning as an independent system can be maintained by the local community.

ARCHITECT NICO JEUCH

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