Location: Kabalagala, Kampala
0°17'48.3"N 32°36'05.9"E
Architects: New Makers Bureau (https://www.newmakersbureau.com)
Structural engineering, cost planning, mechanical engineering, electrical planning: Localworks (https://localworks.ug)
All photographs by Franklin Kasumba at the opening of phase I of the facility.
You'll find this narrative interesting:
James Musasizi, at that time a team member (graduate architect) at LocalWorks:
Or if you'd rather read:
I think it's important to start by mentioning some things that are that are typical of art that architects need to appreciate if we are going to create a relationship between, or if we are going to talk about arts and architecture and how they relate to 32 Degrees East in particular.
So art is all about process more than it is about the final outlook of a thing. And that's something I learned from interacting with at least modern artists. I don't know much about people who are there in the Baroque and all these other movements, but [design here] seems to me to be primarily about process and understanding a medium. For instance, if you are a visual artist, you need to understand what your medium is and how you convey messages across that medium. We see people using all kinds of things, recycled material, acrylics, graphite, pen etc; they have a good knowledge of what that medium is and they can use it to communicate things.
Now why is that important to architects?
I have found that many times the convergence point between art and architecture is on the issue of process, whether that is the design process or even extending into the building process. Now 320 has both. It had the design and build aspect and from the get go process was front and center in that pursuit. So at the very start of the project in the design phase it was all about collaboration between the client, who are the artists; the design consultant and the contractor. In this case, the contractor was also a designer and that was an interesting process in and of itself. There was a lot of model making and it was very artistic in a way because it was a language of textures from the very beginning. I don't know if you've been to the project, but you will see that quite strongly. And if you listen to James's talk [on YouTube] about the project, there are those things that are architectural, of course, but on an artistic level, it's a very sculptural building. Very. I'm almost tempted to say it's more sculptural than it is functional. But sometimes the function of a building can be symbolic and I find that this building is sort of in that realm. It's almost like it is there to make a certain statement and it does so quite successfully in my assessment.
So from the very beginning, there was that whole language of textures that would all come from nature. And what I find to be quite interesting and poetic at the same them is the fact that all the earth that you see on that building, the rammed earth, the compressed blocks, was literally gotten from the site itself. The areas where you excavated, you then filled up with the debris that was from the demolition of the building that used to be there. So the earth that was taken from below your feet is now the one that's literally sheltering: you're within that. So even within the different configurations of that earth, you see the rammed earth and it has all these horizontal strips running through, which are just there as erosion reducers. They're drips as the water runs down the face of the wall. You're trying to slow it down, but the building itself, if you look at the layering of those rammed earth lifts (because it was done in lift). And why that was so is because we decided to use timber, timber shuttering but the same timber would then form the roof covering. So you're trying to minimize as much construction waste as you can, which I also found to be quite interesting.
So why am I bringing out the aspects of the building, like building up the building? It's because from the design all the way from the design stage, it was thinking about the process of how the architecture is made, contrary to some other ways of working, in which, say, you know, you start with a sketch and you know exactly what you want to do and say you're making a concrete, you're trying to make a material do what, ideally, it may not want to do. And the example I can think of is an earth wall wants to be thick. It's just what it wants to be because the more you heap earth, that's where it gets its strength, that's where it can actually function as a wall. That's if you want earth to be a wall. But you will find that many times when conventionally speaking-- and we do it all the time, so I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but many times we [architects] sit down, formulate an idea outside the process of how things are made, and you will draw, I don't know, a 10 meter concrete wall that's 200 mm thick. And structurally, many times, we are just oblivious of how materials work. And for me, that's something I really found that we learned from artists, because artists understand process, they understand medium, the mediums that they use in order to communicate an idea. So I found that working with artists in that way meant that we needed to understand if we are going to use stone. What does stone want to be? And how best do you leverage the strength of stone? Now, stone, as you may know, is very good in areas where you have water. And where you have, say, groundwater, high water table stone thrives in those places because of the way it's made or it's built up. It can allow for moisture to pass through, but that moisture won't destroy it, which happens with many other materials that are cementitious in nature. So you find it has a very good way of handling dump, and it won't allow that dump to rise up the walls. So already the architecture is you're creating a stone determine for solidity's sake alone, but it's functional in that sense.
So I found that the functional aspects and the aesthetic and symbolic aspects of the building were interwoven in that process, because it's not just, for example, the architect who is the habitat of knowledge, but you are working together with other people, particularly the artists, other designers, because the concept designer was from Europe. And now that also posed another it created another cultural layer because he was used to doing things a particular way, no overhangs as such on a building. So communicating the need for such elements and then seeing a roof not just being. A roof, but for it to mean, of course, it's the sheltering element to the earth walls, because you definitely need that. But it's also becoming this thing that ties the whole language of the building together. If you've been there, you'll see that a lot is going on. You have the stone and its textures, you have the rammed earth and its textures, you have these windows that are sticking out, you have others that are almost flush. You have sliding doors that have these horizontal lines of timber. There's a lot going on, but in some way everything seems to coalesce and create something that's coherent.
Now, one would argue, did we know, or was it as at the back of the mind, that all this stuff would work as well as it did in the end or not? Now, this is something else that happened on that project that usually you prepare a set of drawings (now I'm comparing architecture without the art aspect, how it usually works) ... you prepare a set of technical diagrams that you hold the contractor to to create something that is perfectly derived from those drawings; and somewhere along the way, a few variations here and there for functional reasons-- but it's rare that the design process will continue along the way. It's also not safe to do because if you design on site, then you're going to run into some issues. But I found that even as we went along building, there are things that you would learn from masons because they understand the medium. They understand how those bricks work. Yes, we know the technology, but there are certain things they communicate back to you with regard to how joints are not working or particular things you couldn't have foreseen. And now the process continues. That's what I mean by the design process continuing. I don't mean that we just went there without technical diagrams and just started, you know, waxing poetic and, you know, I think a wall should be here. Of course, those things had been predetermined. But there are certain things about the process of building itself that ended up being artistic in that way, that it's about the craftsmanship and working with all these other pieces and understanding that you don't know it all. But getting the process right is the most important thing and communicating that across the board. So, yeah, I feel like if this piece is going to have a central theme that ties architecture and art together, it is process and learning from how architect it's do things and also learning from how artists do things. Many times you will see an artist doing things as though it's random, but there's process to it. There's something going on in their mind, whether they are conscious of it or not. So for me, the building is a product of that.
Read detailed writing on this building by other publications:
*Article March 29th 2023
Franklin Kasumba, the photographer is a graduate architect with Adengo Architecture, an architecture design practice in Kampala Uganda.
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