Xai-Xai School

Located in the Gaza province of Mozambique, the Xai-Xai School will create a safe and welcoming environment for children to flourish and grow into their best selves. The design helps achieve this with a continuous roof canopy that protects all programmed spaces, collects rainwater and supports solar photovoltaics and thermal collectors.

Canopy: 1) a roof or structure over which a covering is attached, providing shade and shelter from sun, wind and rain. 2) the aboveground portion of a forest, plant community or crop. A canopy layer of trees provides protection from strong winds and storms, also collecting sunlight and precipitation, acting as the primary productivity center for flora and primary home to fauna in forests.

Xai-Xai's canopy will create a place for vulnerable and disabled children to gather and learn without fear or encumbrance. The primary entry court is in the northeast corner, leading to a covered walkway along the administrative wing, which also includes the bathrooms. The path continues with gentle ramps up the site, between pairs of classrooms and covered schoolyards, framing a large open schoolyard. A multi-purpose space, kitchen area and dining hall overlook a smaller courtyard, providing a space to learn about farming and the environment, directly nourishing the young children's minds and bodies.

The roof canopy is a lightweight steel truss structure with a corrugated steel roof, supported by compressed stabilized earth masonry walls. All of the building components can be transported and/or assembled on site with light equipment, even using the site itself as the primary source of masonry materials. The upper canopy is elevated above the spaces below, allowing for natural ventilation and diffuse indirect lighting. Bamboo screens in the windows and doors promote cross ventilation and provide a luminous secondary canopy over the classrooms. Perforated masonry walls provide similar benefits, but with more robust protection and privacy in the administrative, dining and multi-purpose areas.