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Warm terracotta and burnt sienna hues dominate Patrick Schweitzer S&AA's Faculty Architecture Education School, presenting a striking cluster of pyramidal roof structures that cascade across an…

Faculty Architecture Education School by Patrick Schweitzer S&AA is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2020 Golden A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Competition Category.


GoldArchitecture· 2020

Faculty Architecture Education School

by Patrick Schweitzer S&AA

Client: S&aa

Golden A' Design Award Winner in Architecture Category

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The Design

About Faculty Architecture Education School

Faculty Architecture is a school of architecture in Kigali, Rwanda, planned for 600 students on a site of 5,600 square metres. The design starts from a simple volume on two levels. The volume is pulled apart on opposite sides, which creates a central gap that forms an outdoor space for students. Stone is used for the exterior envelope and self-coloured concrete for the interior. Small windows face outward, while large inward-facing windows are shaded by roof overhangs. Truncated upper sections bring in daylight and improve ventilation.

The Recognition

About the Golden A' Design Award

Faculty Architecture Education School is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Faculty Architecture Education School is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Faculty Architecture Education School creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.

Where to Get It

Award-Winning Sustainable Architecture Services

We design innovative architectural solutions that harmonize contemporary aesthetics with environmental responsibility. Our international team specializes in educational, cultural, and institutional projects, combining local materials with modern design principles to create buildings that respond to both pedagogical and ecological needs.

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
The firm responded to an international call for tender launched in March 2012 by the government of Rwanda for the design of a new architecture school to accommodate 600 students on a 5,600 sq.m. site not far from the existing faculty. For this project we began with a simple form on two levels which we distorted in the same way tectonic forces distort land masses: we pulled on opposite sides, making a gap in the centre that would form the outside area for the students.
Dimensions & Packaging
The project does 5 600 square metres
Tags
Rwanda, school, architecture, Kigali
Production Technology
The building uses two simple materials commonly found in the region: stone for the exterior envelope; and self-coloured concrete for the interior. The building has small outward-facing windows and large inward-facing windows protected from the sun by roof overhangs.
Design Challenge
The difficulty of the project was to manage it from France, with a relay on site and to use only local materials.
Research
The firm opted for a highly architectural project using complex forms, driven by both pedagogical and environmental concerns, halfway between traditional architecture and contemporary design. This is a simple, didactic building designed to train the future architects of a developing African country whose population is set to double by 2050.
Inspiration
The building uses two simple materials commonly found in the region: stone for the exterior envelope; and self-coloured concrete for the interior. The building has small outward-facing windows and large inward-facing windows protected from the sun by roof overhangs. The upper section of the pyramids is truncated in order to bring in natural light and optimise ventilation.
Project Duration
Kigali at Rwanda
2017 to 2018
Operation Flow
The firm responded to an international call for tender launched in March 2012 by the government of Rwanda for the design of a new architecture school to accommodate 600 students on a 5,600 sq.m. site not far from the existing faculty.
Patents
SetAA
Team Members
Architect of record : SetAA
Associate architect : EAACON
Construction : EGIS
Entreprise : CATIC
Landscape architect : Acte 2 paysage
Image Credits
Photo : Edwin SEda, Emmanuel Cattier, Jules Toulet

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