OCHAP

Office for Cohabitation Processes

KURANDZA LEARNING CENTER

PROGRAM: Learning center (elementary to high school)
TEAM: Valerio Franzone
CLIENT: Archstorming, Kurandza
LOCATION: Chivonguene, Mozambique
AREA: outdoor 1.600 m²; indoor 212 m²
STATUS: International design competition entry, 2022

Kurandza Learning Center is a girls’ school in rural Mozambique. Its design enhances students’ self-esteem, sociality, and curiosity. The complex is U-shaped because its circular, open form signifies protection and curiosity. The buildings have simple massings, different sizes and colors, like building-block toys, creating a familiar, protective, and playful environment.
The complex’s colors match Mozambique’s flag colors and meanings. The classrooms and boundary wall are green: the richness of the soil. The institutional spaces are red: independence. The childcare room, kitchen, bathroom, and workshop building are yellow: the country’s resources. The interiors are white: peace. There’s no black because Africa is already the school’s foundation.
The windows follow each building’s function. The classrooms have different geometric shapes to be joyful. The office has ribbon windows to feel institutional while still letting everyone look inside. The kitchen has portholes because it already has funnels like a ship. The multipurpose room has large French doors to welcome meetings. The childcare room has glass-holed patterns for a magical light. The bathroom has high openings for privacy and ventilation. The workshop room has full-height openings for every need. The guardhouse has 360° windows for security. The storage has no windows.

The classrooms are the reason the school exists, and their facade, with a triangular-and-square window pattern, symbolically extends across the school’s brick fence, allowing views of the landscape. Still, the brick fence dematerializes into a metal mesh in front of the other buildings, creating a pattern of colors and shapes in the landscape.

The project is designed to allow different construction techniques and material options without affecting its appearance and functionality. In dialogue with the design architect and the local architect, the client will choose their preferred option based on their needs and budget, from rammed earth to brick walls and from wood to metal roofs.

Like Mozambique, the school is independent and self-sufficient: with solar panels for electricity and a rainwater collection system, it manages its resources.