AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.09.2003, Page 52

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Heilsugæslustöðin í bænum Mali í Gineu./
The health clinic in the town of Mali in Guinea
clinic with a maternity ward in the
town of Mali in Guinea. The aim
was to design both an cological
and humane environment and
therefore they used building
materials obtained locally, such
as the earth bricks. A large part
of the 2.000 patients the health
clinic serves came from far away,
accompanied by relatives who
also needed shelter where they
could rest and cook. The
architects decided to group the
various sick wards in one rectan-
gular building with open canopies
in between. The roof connected
the building and it was made of 3
mm thick tiles made of similar
material as the building except
here some fibreglass was added.
Traditional round huts with straw
roofs were designed for the rela-
tives whilst electricity for the med-
ical service and cooling of the
medical equipment was obtained
through solar panels.
A year later, Eila Kivekás asked
the architects to design a small
house for her with two guest
rooms, where she could stay a
part of the year and take part in
company activities. The architects
chose the same building materi-
als for Elia's home, which was
located on a hill on the outskirts
of Mali. In order to obtain cooling
and natural ventilation both for
the rooms and the building mate-
rials, the same basic approach
was used as in the health clinic.
Each room was conceived as an
independent unit, placed in a row
along the slope with canopies in-
between and the roof connecting
the different rooms. The whole
house appears to breathe the cli-
mate. The walls and the thin
earth tiles of the roof were made
of the composite earth mixture,
the floor was made of hand-
made clay tiles made by women
potters, the eastern wall was
made of knitted bamboo, the gar-
den towards the west was
enclosed by stone walls and
planted with fruit-trees and blos-
soming shrubs with all the veran-
das opening out to the west
towards the mountains in the
far distance.
The Indigo Company grew and
Mikko Heikkenen and Markku
Komonen were asked to design
more buildings; two primary
school buildings in 1997 and a
school for chicken farming a year
later, which proved to be the first
of its kind in Guinea. Because of
the location, the architects
designed a new type of building
for the school, a traditional one
that was all the same flexible
and could be built in different
locations out of various materials
and with different building tech-
nologies. In the mountainous area
of Boundou Kouram, the three
school buildings with a small
teacher’s office are positioned
along the slope so that they face
the beautiful valley, whilst in the
village of Madina Kouta, they are
grouped around some fruit trees.
The choice of building materials
depended on local conditions;

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Photographs: Heikkenen+Komonen