Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

Architects: Tashiko Mori
Location: Sinthian, Senegal
Interior Décor: Toshiko Mori Architects TMA
Project Year: 2015
Photographer: Iwan Baan
Website: www.tmarch.com

“It is one thing to build a building,” says Mori, “but the most important thing is how you run it, how you program it, and how it becomes a truly sustainable program useful to the community.”

Toshiko Mori, Architect

- 29 September 2015
- Kelvin Salasya
Cultural Centres , Conservation Architecture , Architecture , Africana , Contemporary African Directory , Modern Africana , Selected Works , Editor's Choice , Residential , Africa Architecture Awards ,

The design of the Sinthian Cultural Centre is described as a parametric transformation of the traditional pitched roof, which is literary inverted to collect rainwater. The construction of this structure is found in a remote Senegalese village of Sinthian, close to the Mali border.

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

This construction, begun by the New York Studio of Toshiko Mori, is designed in collaboration with two non-profit organisations – Sinthian Medical Center and American Friends of Le Korsa (AFLK)

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

The design complements the existing health and education facilities serving a community of twelve tribes. The new multi-purpose complex is intended to be a centre where gatherings and cultural exchange takes place. It will include performance spaces and accommodations for visiting artists.

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

One of the designs striking features is its visually organic roof shape, in line with traditional pitched roof as described earlier, used to collect rainwater. The cultural centre, distributed around two courtyards, will be constructed using locally available building materials and methods.

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

This process will consider the use of local elements made of bamboo and blocks of rammed earth. Additionally, to ensure provision of a suitable thermal comfort within the complex, the design employs the use of openwork walls.

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Nigerian Cultural Centre and Millenium Tower / Studio Nicoletti Associati
The Cultural Centre and the Millennium Tower of Nigeria, together with the National Square will make up a harmonious complex which will improve the quality of the City of Abuja. It is an ambitious proposal that extends two adjoining plots in the cultural, religious and administrative heart of ...

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Msafiri Mwazighe And The White Fields Of Sustainability: Swahili Cultural Centre
The project is a contemporary approach at modernizing the coastal region and still maintaining the tenets of Swahili architecture. This approach to maintaining the doctrines of Swahili Architecture are however not the main focus in the project as the more dominant project element has been on r...

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