The Crafted Monolith of Kasulo

Architecture Association

Project idea

A Monolith as the concretization of a crafted public space, in an area of leftover. An artisenal public architecture that exploit the landscape and try to help an economically affected community, where rituals define space and where education will rise through the act of making, experiencing, imitating and deeply reconnecting to materiality.
A project that will originate from publicness and belongs to its community.

https://vimeo.com/225392977

Project description

The project is set in the in the city of Kolwezi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A perforated landscape of artisanal mines, where people hide them selves by digging into private houses, searching at Cobalt, a material used in the production of batteries for electrical devices.
A crafted architecture that exploit the landscape and try to help an economically affected community where rituals define space and where education will rise through the act of making, experiencing, imitating and reconnecting to materiality.
A project that will originate from publicness and belongs to its community.
A Monolith located in the Kasulo district, will be the concretization of a crafted public space, in an area of leftover.
Spaces are defined and being defined by a process of cast and carve, blending boundaries between object and architecture and considering the construction phase as a workshop in it self.
The video depict the extreme situation and landscape on which the Kasulo community has to deal.
Depicting local skills and way of transmitting knowledge through the act of making and experiencing.
The current situation is defined by an extreme landscape of artisenal mines where people hide them selves by digging into private houses, searching at Cobalt, a material used in the production of lithium-ion batteries, for electrical devices.
Material digged by children young as 7 as well. Local rituals are still considered one of the main way of transmitting knowledge.
An educational process though materisl and aesthetical communication, in a particolar time and place of cultural repression.
Therefore conceiving rituals and community behaviour as spatial configuration.
A Monolith located in the Kasulo district, where public spaces are not provided and are conceived as the leftover between solids and voids.
Where dimensions and organization came from the urban grain, the project will be the concretization of a crafted public space in an area of leftover.
By elevating the core of the building, shading and natural ventilation will be provided.
Inside, axial connections from which steps became benches, enhance the gathering and involvement.
A continuous transmission of knowledge in the ascent and descent, though the use of embodied patterns, symbols, narratives and patterns.
The Monolith is made of compressed earth and sand based mortar, coated with a mud plaster whcih gives the building its sculpted look.
The facades are decorated with palm sticks, called toron, that project from the surface, as readymade scaffolding for the construction ritual.
Initially developed though the casting of the leftover mines, that will become the columns on which the structure will be supported and main circulation settled.
An artisenal building in which interconnected vertical spaces could lead to educational journeys.
Where construction is defined though a process of collecting, compacting and processing the lefover soil, already extracted from the mines.
A time based process where the construction is conceived as a ritual in itself and where the community will gather and participate in both construction and celebration.
Ending in a crafted architecture that will originate from publicness and belongs to its community.

Technical information

Monolith : A building, a symbol, a statement that emerge from an extreme landscape situation and which shape and texture counteract to act of hiding, manifested by the surrounding community of Kasulo.

Educational : A process through material and aesthetical communication.
A stratification of objects and artefacts used as educative tools.
Where the local rituals are conceived as one of the main way of transmitting knowledge and where the boys initiation ritual is a crucial example.
In the educational process I realized that the colonized Western standard classroom isn't a successful way to transmit knowledge.
However, the spatial organization coming from local rituals and ceremonies, reconnects with the arrangement of arenas as a way of gathering. Interconnected vertical spaces which could lead to educational journeys.

Crafted : The whole building is developed though the use of local avaiable materials, where construction and education are blended together.
As previously described, spaces are defined and being defined by a process of cast and carve, blending boundaries between object and architecture and considering the construction phase as a workshop in it self.

Technical Features : The Monolith is made of compressed earth and sand based mortar, coated with a mud plaster whcih gives the building its sculpted look. The facades are decorated with palm sticks, called toron, that project around 80cm from the surface and works as readymade scaffolding for the construction ritual, on which during festivals and ceremonies, race are held and people could climb on it.
The Building is initially developed though the casting of the leftover Cobalt mines, that will become the columns on which the structure will be supported and main circulation settled.
By elevating the core of the building, natural ventilation and shading will be provided, so as a shelter will be created as central, public gathering space.