Collège Hampaté Bâ wins two AIA UK Awards!
Students at Collège Hampaté Bâ, Niger. Photo credit: Souleymane Ag Anara.
We are delighted to announce that our work in Collège Hampaté Bâ, Niger, has been awarded two prizes by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) at the AIA UK Awards, 2024.
MEDIUM PROJECTS – Winner
EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE IN SUSTAINABILITY - Winner
“It’s an excellent example of what a building should have: purpose, sense of community, designed with the idea of doing more with less. It’s clearly the type of project we should all take inspiration from.” AIA UK Awards Jury comments.
The AIA is the largest and most influential network of architects in the United States. The AIA UK Excellence in Design Awards programme has been recognising outstanding UK-based architects, designers and projects for 30 years. The awards are judged on design achievements, design intentions, distinguishing aspects of the design resolution, and sustainability.
Our team at the AIA UK Awards, 2024.
Building a better future through education: About Collège Amadou Hampaté Bâ
Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, sees almost half its children out of school. Determined to change this, the Collège Amadou Hampaté Bâ team partnered with us to transform their vision of an effective school into reality. We collaborated with the college and local community to design and construct facilities, including eight classrooms, an administrative building, four toilet blocks, plus a water tower and upgraded water and electricity supply.
Utilising passive design principles, the new classrooms remain 7-8 degrees cooler than outside, enhancing comfort and learning for the students. Constructed with locally sourced laterite stone, the school features robust, breathable buildings with low embodied carbon. The project also empowers local communities by sharing construction skills, especially with young women, challenging gender norms and providing new employment opportunities.
What the AIA UK Awards’ jury said about the project
Medium Projects – Winner
“Collège Amadou Hampaté Bâ stands out for the successful capacity of mixing the use of passive design, local building materials and vernacular techniques, to create a sustainable building designed specifically for the needs of the local community - to accommodate children in a comfortable space where they can stay until their university entrance - helping the country to fight against the high dropout rate.”
Jury’s comments, Medium Projects Award, AIA UK Awards, 2024.
Exemplary Performance in Sustainability - Winner
“This school project is a wonderful example of sustainability. It used local building materials and local labour to create the structure, and while simple in design, it therefore speaks to the vernacular style of the place. The roof structure works as a shading device to the mass of the compressed earth blocks (Laterite Stone), and allows air to pass through, and passively mitigate extreme temperatures. The classrooms – especially compared to a neighbouring classroom building – are measurably cooler. For obvious reasons, the project is very low carbon, and very low energy use. An additional attribute noted in the description is the inclusion of skills training to a young cohort of women, which in Niger, is typically unheard of.”
Jury’s comments, Exemplary Performance in Sustainability Award, AIA UK Awards, 2024.
An award-winning project for Article 25
We’re delighted to have our work, and that of our partners, recognised. A huge congratulations to the Article 25 team, and our sincerest thanks to MHA Structural Design and Max Fordham for their generous engineering contributions, and to the main contractors Afrique Univers for their high-quality work and valued cooperation throughout.
We’re thrilled the AIA UK Awards’ jury recognised Article 25’s holistic approach to working in and with communities, and our commitment to sustainable practices.
These two awards come in addition to a recent RIBA International Award of Excellence for the project and a win at IStructE Structural Awards, 2023.