Koffi & Diabaté school gymnasium design a winner at World Architecture Awards
Held last November in Amsterdam, the Ivorian firm was in competition with 10 finalists selected from more than 100 projects of international stature. Judges described the gymnasium project by Koffi & Diabaté as "an exemplary, ethical and beautifully realised project, perfectly balancing tectonic and environmental design with astonishingly mature spatial and formal control".
A bio-climatic gymnasium
As part of an approach of sustainability, the Blaise Pascal Secondary School Gymnasium (registered under its French name : Gymnase du Lycée Blaise Pascal) in Abidjan raises the standard with a gym in an environment where design methods are too often modeled on those of temperate zones. The building is open, alive and conducive to sporting practices for 1500 secondary school students, while focusing on certain energy-saving practices through the use of passive solutions.
Playing with the slope of the ground, the gymnasium implants itself in declination of the existing classrooms. Entirely made of raw concrete, the structure of the building displays a contemporary approach with geometric lines.
To soften the materiality of the concrete structure, the visual signature of the building is marked by a sheet metal skin that makes sense in the tropical context at high temperatures and humidity. Transparency is induced by the perforated sheet allowing ventilation and natural lighting into the entire all-sports hall.
