The Chipakata Children’s Academy
What started as an effort to provide bicycles for some children in Zambia turned into something more substantial: a school, a health clinic, teacher housing, and landscaping on 100 acres in Chipakata Village.
In 2011 the founder of the school, Joseph Mizzi, traveled to Zambia to participate in a program to provide bicycles to school-aged children. He realized that the need for bicycles was due to the long distances the children in local villages had to travel to school. This inspired him to consider creating a foundation that would build and operate schools and orphanages in rural African communities to alleviate this problem.
The Chipakata Children’s Academy is a new primary school in Zambia, Africa. It is the first initiative of the 14+ Foundation, a New York City-based non-profit organization established in 2012. The design for the new school has realized the Foundation’s mission to develop, build and operate schools and orphanages in rural African communities. The site in Chipakata Village is approximately 100 kilometers east of Lusaka, Zambia’s largest city.
Situated on level topography with views to the surrounding hills east and west, the design of the project seeks to define a sense of place and community for the Village. Locating the school within the village has dramatically reduced the distance the children have to walk to school each day.
Situated on level topography with views to the surrounding hills east and west, the project defines a sense of place and community for the Village. Locating the school within the Village has dramatically reduced the distance the children must walk to school each day, as the nearest school is seven kilometers away. The Academy provides a comprehensive primary school education, grades 1-7, for children in seven villages in and around the Chipakata Village community. The first phase of the project, which opened in January 2015, includes a classroom building, community pavilion, administrative office and teachers’ housing. Nearby, agricultural fields dedicated to generating food and income support the operation of the school and ensure long-term economic sustainability for the project. Local village residents were key participants throughout the development and construction process.
Referencing regional school planning typologies, the design of the classroom structure transforms the standard model to create a new paradigm. The design provides for ten teaching and learning spaces compared to the four rooms found in the typical prototype. This is achieved by breaking down the monolithic volume of the typical classroom bar building and introducing open space for collaborative activity between classrooms. Additionally, elevating the roof canopy above the masonry base allows for an upper level accessible by stair, with open-air spaces directly above each of the four classrooms. Informed by the local climate and solar conditions, the window openings and roof canopy are configured to maximize daylight within the classrooms. Clerestory windows are integrated into all the classrooms with a continuous roof overhang serving to protect spaces on both levels from harsh solar gain during the summer months. Adjacent to the classroom building is a community gathering space — a triangular shaped structure — providing shelter from the sun and rain and a flexible space for eating, gathering and community celebrations.
The project also involves providing the community with vital improvements, goods and services. To date we have completed numerous such initiatives including infrastructure improvements (roads, bridges and water wells), increased access to medical care and other services through projects like our community grinding mill (for maize) and a retail shop, which makes basic household goods available with all proceeds going to support direct operational costs and/or used toward other community initiatives. A portion of these proceeds will go toward our micro-financing partnership with Tiyeseko Women’s Club, a newly-formed community group comprised of more than 30 local women who seek to improve their lives and well-being through various income-producing activities under this program.
This project is absolutely fantastic and meaningful which create an architecture that is helpful for the children in Chipakata Village who want to study as an ordinary children. As an architecture student, we should not limit our ability on just focusing on the architecture skill. For example, the drafting skills and software techniques.We should explore more than what we had learn. And be aware on the social issues. I would count tha architecture is a part of the service industry which provide the benefits and convieniences for people. Although the architectural skills are the basic in our study, it will not help us to explore the sense of the awareness. We have to widen our horizon to get known with our environment. We need to help the victims with the abiities that we have to create a better world.
I would think that this kind of the project should be the core of our temporary architecture era. Living spaces and the idea of living should be mainly focus in the entire architecture industry. And for architecture student, we should take more opportunity to explore the world, instead of just sitting in front the computer and doing the software. We shoud let ourself close to the reality and familiar with every problems and issues. And this is how we could make the architecture better for our generation.
