The article is from issue 10|23 of A&B
Kamwokya is one of the ghettos of the poor in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The dense, anarchic buildings are crisscrossed with pedestrian (mostly) paths leading between houses pieced together from the cheapest materials. Passages, squares, every free space is full of working and resting people.
Kamwokya paths leading to TLC
Photo: © Author
In Kampala's ghettos, life goes on much like in Uganda's extra-capitalist towns or villages - people spend most of their time outdoors. There is perpetual harmony, people are constantly on the move - door-to-door trading dominates. Because of the very high fertility rate (4.5-4.9), children are the most numerous group. Kamwokya is known for its exaggerated bad reputation, the fact that it is difficult to get out of, and the fact that Bobi Wine - a candidate in the last national presidential election - comes from it. Bobi Wine left Kamwokya thanks to music, it elevated him to the heights of popularity in the country. After a period of a rather entertaining life, Wine underwent a transformation and decided to fight for change in a country ruled by the same president for more than thirty years. He became a role model for his fellow countrymen. Another path to get out of the vicious circle of poverty is sports, shaping character, discipline, focus and responsibility.
Kamwokya's paths leading to TLC
Photo: © Author
In 2016, the Kamwokya Christian Caring Community and Ameropa Foundation organizations decided to turn a plot of land with an irregular shape resulting from the found, disorderly neighboring development, which included a sports field, into an orderly playground and games area. The task of designing the facility was given to Francis Kéré, a Burkina Faso-based architect and last year's Pritzker Prize winner.
Kamwokya paths leading to the TLC
photo: © Author
Public consultation on the planned development, which is always the first stage of Kéré's work, has begun. Residents have contributed their ideas, among them a computer studio, a gym or a room for music classes. The Treasure Life Youth Center in Kamwokya (TLC) is slated for completion in October 2022.
Kamwokya paths leading to the TLC
Photo: © Author
The TLC's functional program includes three pavilions, a central "stoa" and a sports game field. On the west side, where the main entrance to the establishment is located, there is a pavilion housing a room for teaching dance or playing instruments and kitchen facilities. A studio for recording music is still waiting to be equipped. A pavilion with sanitary facilities, a checkroom and technical rooms serving the complex has been placed adjacent to it. On the eastern side is the sports pavilion, which houses storage facilities for sports equipment, coaches' rooms and training rooms. A gym is waiting to be equipped. Under the roof covering this facility, space has also been provided for the parking of boda boda - moped cabs, which are the most popular means of wheeled transportation in Kampala.
central "stoa" (palaver)
Photo: © Author
All the cubic structures follow a similar structural scheme: the rooms are delineated by walls built of locally fired brick; they are equipped with window openings with solid, adjustable steel louvers instead of glass, and the whole is covered by a light steel roof floating above the walls, supported by slender steel pillars. The space between the walls and the roof was filled with steel profiles, preventing unwanted people from entering the facilities. These simple measures provided protection from the sun as well as rain, and ensured the possibility of effective cross-ventilation. The lack of any sound insulation is noteworthy. The sounds emanating from the music hall mix with the noise caused by athletes on the field and children playing in every corner of the facility, creating a colorful cacophony. This apparent oversight by the architect is not a mistake, but a deliberate ignoring of noise as a nuisance feature. Noise, the mingling of diverse sounds, is an intrinsic companion of local communities spending time together outside the interiors of their homes. Traditional housing in sub-Saharan Africa in many cases consists of a courtyard where one works, cooks, eats, rests, talks, dances or prays, and tiny living chambers, often without windows, where one only sleeps. And so it is here. The only rooms in the complex, which are additionally covered by a ceiling, are the coaches' rooms, sanitary facilities and the still unequipped computer room.
central "stoa" (palaver)
Photo: © Author
In the middle of the establishment, Kéré located a large canopy that shades the stairs - the simple stands of the sports field and a large part of the square. Traditionally, community gatherings were held in the shade of palaver trees, massive trees, or traditional "stands" usually built of stone or wooden columns covered by a thick canopy of branches, sometimes several meters high. This one proposed by Kéré, with its relatively large spans of structural modules, allows users to relax, but also to engage in less demanding sports.
central "stoa" (palaver)
Photo: © Author
The facilities are devoid of unnecessary details or ornaments. The architecture is ruthlessly subordinated to the function and climatic conditions. Its value is created by consistency in the selection of proportions and relationships between the various elements of the buildings or objects, from the finesse and delicacy of the steel structure, to the proportions of the window openings, to the proportions of the louvers. It is also consistent with the tradition of building in sub-Saharan Africa*.
sanitary pavilion and water tower
Photo: © Author
Quite controversial from our point of view seems to be the covering of the entire (except for the playground and the close proximity of the only tree) area of the plot with concrete in the form of terrazzo slabs and concrete cubes. A visit to the site dispels this doubt. Heavy precipitation in the rainy season causes very heavy washing out of the ground, leading to numerous changes and degradation of unprotected surfaces. The hardening of the area, together with a prudent solution to the site's slopes, allows the entire area to be used for users and immediately after the rainfall subsides. The number of canopies, in turn, reduces the formation of a heat island.
sports pavilion
Photo: © Author
An important aspect of Kéré's realization in Kampala is also the use of solutions that allow the facility to function "independently". Uganda's capital struggles with frequent interruptions in the supply of electricity and running water. For this reason, the "butterfly" roofs of the buildings were shaped in such a way that all rainwater can be collected and stored in a reservoir (the water tower at the sanitary pavilion), and the water from the concrete surfaces, after being collected and pre-treated, serves as "gray water." In addition, photovoltaic panels have been located on the roofs.
sanitary pavilion and water tower
Photo: © Author
The architecture of the Global North is usually depicted in photographs according to a similar pattern - without people or with stylized, for example, blurred figures. Does this follow from the fact that casual passersby or users might harm its dignity? Does it mean that these buildings lose out when they are used? The Treasure Life Youth Center complex in Kamwokya is never empty. All day long there is harmony caused by children playing, onlookers or athletes. It is therefore difficult to arrange a "northern" style photo shoot for it. However, it seems that the photos of Francis Kéré's realization full of users or simply onlookers prove that people love to be there, treating the places as their own, and their interaction with the architecture adds to its extraordinary value.
pavilion of music
Photo: © Author
Pawel Paradowski
photo: © Author
* Ron Eglash in his book "African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design" (Press 1999) argues for the use of fractal patterns in Sub-Saharan African architecture, art and religion. sports pavilion
