Our alumnis from La Salle-URL undertake a new project of solidarity in Senegal

We present the fantastic solidarity project being carried out by our alumni of Arquitectura de La Salle-URL and that has had great recognition in the newspaper El Periódico. David García Martínez, former student of the Degree in Architecture and Master of the Integral Project of Architecture (MPIA) and founder of studies of DAW projects, has promoted the "Fem Escola" project in Senegal. In this same study also works Jesus Amengual Calvo, also former studient of technical architecture and of the Master in Integral Management of the Construction (MGIC). The point of departure for the idea came in the year 2014 in the DAW study, when one of the collaborators, Aina Tugores, had just returned from Senegal after working for two months in cooperation projects. The architect conveyed to the team the great satisfaction she felt from being able to work in Africa. He explained his experience in those lands by specifying the subhuman conditions in which these wonderful, open and welcoming people live. At that moment the whole team was awakened the need to undertake a new solidarity project and especially useful for Senegalese. Most NGOs had always opted to use concrete and veneer as an unfortunate and warm architecture. DAW wanted to bet with a type of durable material and at the same time economic. The final decision was to create a secondary school in the locality Thionck-Essyl following the architecture of the Catalan Volta created by Rafael Guastavino. This type of architecture is very common in the City of Barcelona, and the structure of the school follows the aesthetics of Modernist Barcelona. They chose the design of the Catalan Volta because it is an architecture capable of maintaining a natural freshness within each dwelling, ideal for projects such as these located in very hot places. Therefore, and according to the statements of David Garcia in the Newspaper: "It is not a project of charity, but of quality". At first, most of the DAW team could not understand what kind of project they were going to undertake. It was the first time they had done something like that, it was difficult for them to understand how to build a wooden structure using their own soil to make uncooked bricks, mixed with only 7% cement. Finally they have been able to conceive what the final result will be. The school will consist of 16 classrooms at a cost of 100 euros per square meter, so it is not an expensive initiative. The name they have chosen ("Make school") contains a double meaning: on the one hand, logically, to make a school, and on the other hand, to use the process to capture the knowledge of the Catalan revolution. Its purpose is to finish school in 2018, for that reason, and although it is a very affordable architecture economically speaking, they need 200,000 euros to reach their goal. To all this they have created a foundation called Foundawtion to raise the necessary funds to be able to finish the project. From La Salle-URL we congratulate you for this great work and wish you lots of luck!