Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Pavilions For Okana / Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

Architects: Laura Katharina Strähle Ellen Rouwendal
Location: Okana Village, Kisumu Kenya
Project Team: Chair Graduation Studio Explore Lab | TU Delft Prof Prof. T. Asselbergs | Dr.-Ing. M. Bilow | Ass.-Prof. N. Mota | Prof. T. Avermaete Author Laura Katharina Straehle | E. Rouwendal
Interior Décor: Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal
Project Year: 2016
Photographer: Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal
Website: www.laurakatharinastraehle.com

- 02 October 2017
- Edwin Seda
Education Centres , Schools , Sustainability ,

From the Architects:

Pavilions for Okana is a Design & Build Project and an interdisciplinary challenge that seeks to make architecture strudents involved in the daily lives of their clients, predominantly focussing on sustainable architecture and narrowing down on cost.

Pavilions For Okana / Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

The combination of design research and architectural composition triggered the project to grow beyond a theoretic level.

Pavilions For Okana / Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

Next to the design for a prototypical pavilion structure for the rural communities around Lake Victoria (East-Africa), the project focused on the realization phase following the graduation project.

Pavilions For Okana / Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

Hence the co-working students’ responsibility lay within the research of building techniques, cultural and construction patterns resulting in the reinterpretation of traditional patterns of inhabitation and the design for a community centre in Okana (Kenya).

Pavilions For Okana / Laura Katharina Strähle & Ellen Rouwendal

Next to it, managing the follow-up construction phase, acquisition of funding and having the final project leadership on site forms part of the challenge to explore the potential of a Design & Build – approach on academic level initiated by two students.

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