African Design Magazine August 2015 | Page 31

African project Konokono Clinic Mostly nomadic, the Turkana only manifest architecture as a temporary condition, completely sourced from materials that are readily available at each particular site. The Turkana culture is a very patriarchal one. The pavilion is thus directed at the woman and children, who have a higher likelihood of malnourishment, and few resources to education. Due to completely different cosmologies, the Turkana live almost completely in the present, and as such their language has no future tense. Everything is ephemeral and immediate. The arid context entails a very specific survival knowledge, which combined with the reclusion of the tribe due to English colonialism, has made the Turkana unaware of elements that could improve their lives. MCSPA is now introducing families in the region to agricultural methods. The site exists in the most extreme emptiness – an arid desert. What is UnMaterial? UnMaterial is a studio at MIT where, within a collaborative environment, students seek to face with real challenges. They understand the ‘unmaterial’ as a reaction to the material, or lack thereof in the case of this desolate site. Their design work specifically comes from negotiating material constraints, in particular having scarce building materials and dealing with no excess and the arduous task of bringing material to the site. Team: Jose Selgas + Ignacio Peydro [TA] with Tyler Stevermer, Sixto Cordero, Austin Smith, Karen Kitayama, Beomki Lee, Tyler Crain, Anastasia Hiller, Suk Lee, Julian Ocampo and Sayjel Patel i africandesignmagazine.com 31