Raw Kick-start

Raw Foundation was invited to visit Douala during the SUD to kick-start a collaborative building project with 2012architects and ICU art projects. Part of the Doul'art centre will be transformed incrementally over the next couple of years, using salvaged, found and natural materials and using passive, low-tech techniques to create a comfortable internal climate. The latter is a great challenge, given the humidity levels and relatively stagnant air of Douala. Timber, for instance, does not dry naturally, but has to be mechanically treated. Could rainwater perhaps be harvested to increase the thermal mass and therefore cooling, as well as supplying an alternative to bottled water? How can this be done in a way that minimises maintenance? These are the questions that will be addressed during the project.

It took a while, but a certain feeling and vibe of the city of Douala gradually became sensible to the raw crew. Having absorbed the urban set-up, its materials-use and practices, mobility and its ever-changing nature, typical of a port city, emerged as a strong theme. The initial ideas for the project are inspired by this: the folding and unfolding of the city and its elements, on a daily basis; the rise and fall of the stalls of the street vendors; the roll-in and roll-out of wheels and mobile units. To let the movement speak of the use and function, to let the facade and building form react and play with the requirements of the current use, this is the inspiration. At the heart of all this, is the integration of programme and the creation of building climate, within a presumably restricted budget.

Raw builds using these materials, using these low-energy techniques and lastly, builds with a strong inclination to maximise the involvement of the surrounding community. This is achieved through a series of events, workshops, film screenings and various other stunts, using the buidling site as a temporary urban space.

A presentation on the  Saturday morning of the SUD festival stimulated a discussion on the merits of building with cheap and available materials and how to encourage locals to simulate, duplicate, replicate the methods that will be used. Through the use of the building site a a temporary podium  with workshops for skills transfer as well as events, a larger public will be drawn into the works and the enthusiasm for building with unconventional materials will, all going well, be contagious. Contacts with local groups working with youths to develop their life and DIY skills are already being made. It is promising to be a rather interesting project for 2011.
Local and international [resident] artists will be encouraged to get involved in the construction period. Their input in the eventual building will also be expected through the use of mobile walls, sleeping and working units, as well as facade elements.
In conjunction with 2012architects, the city and surrounding plantations/mangroves will be scoured for appropriate materials.
A desire for participation and interaction, on as many levels as possible, is at the heart of this project, alongside the propogation of low-energy and low-tech solutions to creating a pleasant internal building climate and creating a showcase of inexpensive materials with which one can build wonderful spaces.

There is, therefore, much to do and french to learn.

www.rawprojects.org
[BJ Hooft & Calanne Moroney]