Léo Doctors’ Housing
Léo, Burkina Faso · 2019
Photo · Jaime Herraiz
A precedent for modular, climate-responsive residential design using local earth plaster and eucalyptus wood shading to create comfortable outdoor circulation in hot, arid climates.
- What we like about this project
- The overhead eucalyptus canopy is lined with a translucent corrugated sheet to protect against rain while filtering light.
Materials
- earth-plaster
- laterite-stone
- eucalyptus-wood
- corrugated-metal
Visual identifiers
- earth-plaster-walls
- eucalyptus-canopy
- laterite-gravel
- modular-housing
- curved-corridor
Style tags
- contemporary-regionalism
- vernacular
- sustainable
- earthen
Visual tags
- vernacular-modernism
- passive-cooling
- earthen-architecture
- courtyard-housing
- shading-canopy
- Geometry
- A series of modular, single-story orthogonal volumes with sloped roofs are arranged in a gentle arc, facing a curved, sweeping corridor defined by a matching curved wall and an overhead canopy.
- Facade system
- Monolithic plaster-coated load-bearing walls with deeply recessed doors and small, punched window openings.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing earthen brick walls with a lightweight steel and timber canopy structure.
- Spatial scale
- Human-scaled, single-story residential modules clustered around a shared pedestrian pathway.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct tropical sunlight casting deep, sharp shadows from the overhead eucalyptus canopy onto the laterite gravel ground.
- Atmosphere
- Warm, earthy, and protective, with a strong sense of shelter provided by the deep overhead shade.
- Environmental context
- Arid, open-air courtyard setting with native red-toned earth and gravel under a clear sky.
- Spatial experience
- The visitor moves through a shaded, semi-outdoor circulation path under a rustic timber canopy, looking across a gravel courtyard toward a rhythmic sequence of private residential entries.
- Composition rhythm
- A repeating sequence of angled plaster volumes balanced by the continuous, sweeping curve of the canopy.
- Style reading
- Contemporary regionalism
- Program
- Medical staff housing
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- earth-plaster, laterite-stone, eucalyptus-wood, corrugated-metal
- Visual identifiers
- earth-plaster-walls, eucalyptus-canopy, laterite-gravel, modular-housing, curved-corridor
- Style tags
- contemporary-regionalism, vernacular, sustainable, earthen
- Visual tags
- vernacular-modernism, passive-cooling, earthen-architecture, courtyard-housing, shading-canopy
- Geometry
- A series of modular, single-story orthogonal volumes with sloped roofs are arranged in a gentle arc, facing a curved, sweeping corridor defined by a matching curved wall and an overhead canopy.
- Facade system
- Monolithic plaster-coated load-bearing walls with deeply recessed doors and small, punched window openings.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing earthen brick walls with a lightweight steel and timber canopy structure.
- Spatial scale
- Human-scaled, single-story residential modules clustered around a shared pedestrian pathway.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct tropical sunlight casting deep, sharp shadows from the overhead eucalyptus canopy onto the laterite gravel ground.
- Atmosphere
- Warm, earthy, and protective, with a strong sense of shelter provided by the deep overhead shade.
- Environmental context
- Arid, open-air courtyard setting with native red-toned earth and gravel under a clear sky.
- Spatial experience
- The visitor moves through a shaded, semi-outdoor circulation path under a rustic timber canopy, looking across a gravel courtyard toward a rhythmic sequence of private residential entries.
- Composition rhythm
- A repeating sequence of angled plaster volumes balanced by the continuous, sweeping curve of the canopy.
- Style reading
- Contemporary regionalism
- Program
- Medical staff housing
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture