Africa report
Eco-responsible houses [1/4]: In Senegal, the challenge of bioclimatic construction
Audio 02:23
Worofila cabinet house project in collaboration with Elementerre, in Sine Saloum.
© Charlotte Idrac / RFI
By: Charlotte Idrac Follow
3 mins
The Pritzker Prize 2022 (one of the most prestigious architecture prizes in the world) highlighted the eco-responsible constructions of the German-Burkinabé architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.
An architectural current that is still relatively confidential, but which is increasingly being emulated on the African continent.
As part of the series of reports devoted precisely to eco-responsible constructions, we are going this morning to Senegal, where the construction sector is booming, and most of the buildings are made of concrete.
But a new generation of entrepreneurs and architects is moving the lines.
This is the case of the Elementerre company – which produces earthen bricks – and the Worofila workshop, which specializes in bioclimatic architecture.
Report on a joint project in Sine Saloum,
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From our special correspondent in Sine Saloum,
In the middle of a green garden, a large mud brick house.
The construction site is almost finished.
This is one of the first projects of the Worofila firm, co-founded by the architect Nzinga Bigué Mboup: “
Clients were very marked by references to traditional architecture, particularly in North Africa,
explains the architect.
In terms of plans, cross-ventilation is something that was very important to us.
We stand in the direction of the prevailing winds, so we have openings on each side of the rooms, and the compressed earth brick creates thermal inertia at the level of the envelope, especially the exterior walls.
»
Since 2010, Elementerre has been the BTC specialist, the compressed earth brick.
The company also produces insulating panels made of typha, an invasive plant.
"
Without having to expend energy, you can produce buildings that are very efficient and that are very durable,
" explains
Doudou Dème, its director.
That's what we've always done, we're not innovating, we're just redoing what our ancestors did by using new technologies to go faster, to have a little more of resistance.
»
But there are still blockages: "
Some think it's not a modern material, and others say that concrete is the solution
"
► To read also: Low-tech: what if progress changes sides?
Yet the demand is growing.
At the Elementerre factory in Gandigal, on the Petite Côte, a couple with a construction project came to find out: "
I find that here, it's super hot in the building, and this technique with air that breathes by the bricks, it can lower the temperature by a few degrees, save some energy.
That's why we're interested.
»
The challenge for Nzinga Mboup and Doudou Dème is now to move up a gear: "
It's a good start, but beyond the individual house, we have to move to a larger scale and think really to create eco-responsible neighborhoods because beyond what a house can do, there are sewers, we also have to think about plants
,” says the first.
“
We are in the phase where we have to work to train companies to understand these materials, and to build with these materials,
continues the second.
There is a lack of qualified companies capable of meeting the demand.
»
A return to the land as an alternative for the future.
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Environment
Senegal
Lodging
Climate change