Kaira Looro Cultural Centre

Senegal (Competition Entry)

This proposal for the Kaira Looro Cultural Centre draws on the landscapes and traditions of Casamance, where climate quietly shapes both culture and architecture.

The sacred baobab tree - symbolic, geometric, and communal - anchors the design, informing spatial rhythm and material thinking. Traditional Togunas inspire gathering spaces, while courtyard homes, everyday utensils, and informal street greetings (Yangingoos) lend a language of enclosure, porosity, and human scale. Even Laamb, Senegal’s traditional wrestling, is reimagined as a courtyard arena for performance and play.

Beyond reflecting local culture, the centre aspires to host artists and artisans from across West Africa, becoming a stage for exchange and creativity. Supporting functions include a children’s welfare centre, library, audio-visual room, and administrative spaces, all woven together through a unified architectural vocabulary.

The design responds to a predominantly hot-dry climate with compact adobe domes that store and release heat, sheltered beneath a hovering timber-shingle roof. Porous circular courtyards punctuate the plan, drawing in indirect light, air, and moments of pause. Interstitial spaces between domes create shaded walkways and gathering zones that expand into the Laamb courtyard - a flexible arena for wrestling, cultural performances, or community events. Thick operable doors enable seasonal modulation of wind and temperature, balancing comfort with simplicity.

The result is an architecture that listens and adapts: rooted in memory, responsive to climate, and open to the evolving rituals of daily life in Seidou.