Strange Compound(s)

Syracuse University, Syracuse University School of Architecture

Project idea

Strange compound(s) is an attempt to reconcile the values of film and Nigerian society, culminating in a film school to foster social interaction and interrogate the diverse ways in which film is produced while upholding the spirit of existing regional architectural typologies. Research was done into the technical and metaphorical aspects of Nollywood practices along with typical building typologies used by Nollywood crews. This led to an exploration of dialectics in building material, transparency, and size.

Project description

The site strategy is defined by a dialectic between sterotomics and tectonics. The rigid programming of the school is composed of a raised series of fractured concrete volumes with “loose fit” programming below. Surrounding this raised mass is a series of courtyards for filming and screening, utilizing the walls of the compound as projection screens. Figural bamboo elements mediate the temporality of the courtyards and the stereotomy of the school, pushing, pulling, breaking, and twisting each other in a symbiotic relationship. This bamboo system is then carried out into the community as an urban tactic through a system of bamboo tripods, able to collapse to fit in film vans to be used as enclosure at filming locations. In doing so, the film vans carry this strange compound into the urban environment, documenting, creating, and ultimately changing the spatial and social landscape of Calabar as a network of new, “strange ” compounds.

Technical information

The main raised mass is made out of reinforced concrete and supported by reinforced concrete pillars. The library enclosure (middle of concrete mass) is framed in wood with a bamboo and glass facade. Bamboo is used throughout the site boundary and figural elements within the compound, along with the tripod system.