African Design Magazine November 2016 | Page 47

African project Island of the Future – Cape Verde

island

of the future

Adrian Kasperski ’ s first impulse for choosing a future work topic was seeing one of the reports by Fernando Guerra – a famous Portuguese photographer of architecture . The photos presented an almost unnoticeable building hidden in a nearly lunar landscape . After analysing the topic , it turned out that this building served as the cultural and administration centre of the national park of the Fogo Island in Cape Verde and was located inside an active volcano . Curiously enough , the design team had discovered there a local community of more than 1 000 people , who illegally inhabited and tilled the ground in the nationally protected areas .

The architecture of the building can only be admired on photographs these days as the building functioned only for a year . In the wake of a volcanic eruption in November 2014 , it was completely destroyed . Hundreds of people from the nearby village Chã Das Caldeiras were forced to abandon their homes .

Envisioned by Adrian Kasperski , the project aims to develop three different structures . The first one is the centre of culture and volcanism that is a continuation of the activity of the facility destroyed during the eruption . The chosen location is on the border of two entirely different landscapes . The project was treated as an opportunity to create a connection between the inside and outside of the island . The building seems invisible from a distance and only when one

africandesignmagazine . com 47