UNTAMED ARCHITECTURE
2024-ONGOING
PORTABLE SCHOOLS IN KENYA.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EARTH ANGELS WELFARE GROUP KENYA
INDEPENDENT PROJECT
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
FIRST PROTOTYPE
BUILT DECEMBER 2024
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Growing up in Kenya, I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to give back to a country that has already given me so much.
One of the biggest challenges faced by schools in Kenya is the constant threat of eviction from their land. This project aims to provide a more affordable and portable solution to help keep children in school. This proposal is adaptable and can serve multiple functions, including its main role as a classroom, food distribution center, gathering space, and, in this prototype, a future women's tailoring area.
This project aims to also inspire a new generation of young people who have never had the opportunity to attend school by offering them a way to participate in the building process, through this modular, color-coded classroom kit that can be assembled in just eight hours, with no prior construction experience needed.
Website design and graphics 2018-current
Since I was 13 I have watched as St. Stevens school has been able to grow. From 100 students cramming into one classroom to now, through the Earth Angels Welfare, it has been able to really give the students the space they need to grow.
This place has turned into so much more than just a school. It's a safe haven filled with love, laughter, and a sense of community—things that a lot of these kids don’t get to experience at home. Many of these children also get their only proper meals from the school lunches through a feeding program by the Earth Angels.
In 2023, when the landlord who owned the land gave the school an eviction notice, we knew that 200 children wouldn't have this space, and until we could find new land and new materials and funding to build the school, they would be out of school for a while and back at home, which for many was an environment they would long to get out of.
To me, this has also become more than just a school as I have gotten to meet and spend alot of my time with the children, so much so that the stories from so many of the young girls inspired my film 'Mercy' to raise awareness of gender based violence in Kenya and the film is even dedicated to Ruth Adhimabho who is the headmistress at this school.
So when I was asked to think of ways to help this school and many others who face the same issues, I spent a year working on drawings, talking to the children, and figuring out a way that if the children had to move, so could their schools.
In Kenya, alot of children between 16-24 who never got a chance to get an education or had to drop out because of financial situations tend to move to the streets, which is a sad reality that I have seen firsthand, as they are not able to find jobs.
In 2023, as stated in my film Mercy, over 5000 young school girls were assaulted, and over 20% of the perpetrators were young, unemployed youth, many of them whom had dropped out of school and were on the streets
In partnership with my foundation, the Think Twice Movement, we are finding ways to create safer cities within Kenya, and through this, we are finding more ways to help unemployed youth find ways to use their skills to do good.
This project aims to not only create schools that can be placed and moved anywhere in Kenya, but it hopes to inspire a new generation of young people who have never had the opportunity to attend school by offering them a way to participate in this building process.
18-year-old Boniface (Pink T-shirt) and 21-year-old Michael (White T-shirt) live in the Githogoro Slum and were asked by the headmistress to come and help level the ground for the process.
After finishing, they began to watch the two steel workers on the left, and we invited them to join- they helped assemble the structure, and now got jobs with the steel worker in the green.
It introduces a modular, color-coded classroom kit that can be assembled in just eight hours with no prior construction experience, allowing for easy setup and adaptability.
With a simple kit of parts that can be carried in just two small pickup trucks, it makes it highly mobile, especially in parts of Kenya that dont have easy access to roads.
It also uses materials that can withstand fires and floods, which are two of the main aspects that threaten schools and communities.
In addition to serving as a classroom, the structure can function as a food distribution center, community gathering space, and, with this specific prototype, a space for women with tailing backgrounds to come in and work a partnership with my brand , The Lua Collection.
In addition to the design interventions already mentioned, it is essential to incorporate features that facilitate water collection, enhance temperature regulation, and promote cooling through the strategic use of mesh panels located at the top and sides of the structure. These mesh panels not only serve as an aesthetically pleasing element to let in more light but also function to slant the roof to capture and funnel rainwater into storage systems, making efficient use of natural resources.
Ruth Adhimabo is the school's headmistress and used to pay out of her own savings to ensure many of the children stayed in school. Ruth has become both a mother and father figure to so many of the children. Ruth and so many other headmistresses are the backbone of these communities, and they work every day to make these children smile, eat, learn and get clean- they do everything they can to make their lives better.
Ruth and people like her who have dedicated their whole lives to making sure children get more than just an education, but love and support are the real heroes, and that is why I want to do everything I can to make sure these havens they have created will always have a place.
In the end, these schools, are more than just where these students come to learn- this is their safe space and we want to do whatever we can to help these spaces always be there for them, no matter where they are.
