How is the City of Ubuntu constructed?
Our 27-hectare site offers plenty of space and opportunities for our construction project. In the southern area, we are primarily planning the construction of our teaching and learning center. In addition, infrastructure is being planned for the education center as well as for our agriculture and livestock farming.
What does the City of Ubuntu site look like?
The City of Ubuntu is located about 200 km from the capital Yaoundé in the savannah in the west of Cameroon, in the Bangangté area, near the village of Sanki. About an hour’s walk lies between the 27-hectare property and the nearest village. The connection to the main road network is at the northern boundary of the property via a simple clay road, which can also be used by larger vehicles. The terrain itself slopes down from north to south to a depression and then rises again to the southern boundary of the property. The soil in the southern area is well suited as a building site due to its rocky nature.
What does the development concept look like?
The Viennese team of architects from Symbios Architektur , together with our Cameroonian engineer Mr. Fossi, identified the following initial development steps and design strategies for the structural and physical measures in the City of Ubuntu after an initial analysis of the site conditions:
In order to farm the land efficiently and profitably, it was divided into three zones.
Zone focusing on livestock farming
Zone focusing on arable farming
Zone focusing on cultivation
- Central mediation building
- AccommodationWorkshops, studios, etc.
- Buildings for knowledge and cultural exchange
- Necessary outbuildings, service buildings
- Necessary infrastructure
etc.
The individual building facilities were planned in such a way that they do not have to be built all at once, but can be constructed in stages according to need and financial resources.
At City of Ubuntu, sustainability is a central component of our projects. Every measure is carefully planned and designed in such a way that it can be implemented in an environmentally friendly way in the long term. These considerations give rise to a comprehensive circular economy on our site.
Our structures include the sustainable provision and storage of energy (solar power, heat/cold storage, etc…) as well as the use of rainwater and wastewater (storage, recycling, etc…). Well thought-out concepts ensure that resources are used in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner.
As in our other projects, we rely on close cooperation with the local population and our team from Cameroon. In this project, we combine the best aspects of both countries. Mr. Fossi, our civil engineer from Cameroon, is optimizing the designs of our Viennese architects to make the construction project a successful fusion.
What are the next steps?
Development of a paved access road with access paths to the various zones as well as a walkway around the site.
- in the core area of the development, in the vicinity of the future central building
- Simple roofed hangar
- Multiple use as a meeting place, work area, storage area possible
- in the core area of the development, in the vicinity of the future central mediation building
- Dormitory for approx. 20 women and 20 men each, sanitary facilities, communal area, cooking and dining area
- Partly protected from the weather, partly protected from the sun
- Modular, simple construction
- Highest achievable standard within the boundary conditions (sustainability, ecology, sanitation …)
What does the first community accommodation project look like?
Ecology
- Solar generation (PV, hot water)
- Wind power (e.g. drying, harvesting, storage,… electricity generation)
- Ground cooling/geothermal energy – Indoor climate
- Adaptation of traditional systems
- Heat/cold storage (walls, earth box, floor, buffer storage…)
- Electricity storage (battery,…)
- Adaptation of traditional systems
- Collection (roofs, paved open spaces)
- Storage for use (process water, irrigation, drinking troughs, cisterns, energy storage…)
- Recycling
- Discharge from points of use into central treatment
- Biological treatment (dirty becomes clean)
- Return of clean water to the groundwater – seepage tank (cycle)
- Enable solar energy generation
- Transformation of light into heat (winter)
- Ventilation (protection against overheating in summer, hygiene)
- Self-shading (summer / winter / sun positions)
- Light / shade (light / dark rooms depending on function)
- Structural protection against rain (erosion earth building – use proven technologies)
- Protection against ground moisture (distance from the ground, depending on function)
- Ecological construction methods
- Transformation of local building traditions
- Optimization of primary energy requirements for building construction (avoidance of intermediate waste storage in the construction versus sensible use of waste with added value in construction; i.e. what happens to the waste after the building’s service life
- Planning of buildings on the basis of easy-to-build prototypical, flexible basic modules (e.g. living space, storage, sanitary facilities, kitchen, etc.), which can be easily adapted and adjusted to changing requirements.
- In each construction cycle, it is possible to optimize the modules and adapt them to new findings or requirements.
Project Gallery
The City of Ubuntu architectural team
f. r. t. l: Dominik Bauer, Philipp Broinger, Ozan Dağli, Herwig Ferch, Javier García Fernández