The Kaira Looro competition announces winning designs for Peace Pavilion in Sedhiou, Senegal.

The winning designs for the Kaira Looro Peace Pavilion competition were announced earlier this month.

Peace Pavilion is the third edition of the Kaira Looro international architecture competition, the theme of which is architecture in developing and emerging countries. Participants were tasked with desigining a Peace Pavilion to be built in the city of Sedhiou in southern Senegal, Africa. You can find out more about the brief in our previous feature about the competition.

On the 3rd of this month, the jury declared the 30 winning projects, including 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, 2 honourable mentions, 5 special mentions, and 20 finalists. The first place prize was taken by Changze Cai from China who will take home a cash prize of 4.000€ and an Internship at Kengo Kuma & Associates in Tokyo.

Here’s an excerpt from the synopsis of the winning design, which you can read in full here.

Peace pavilion Gently float on the ground and blend into the base landscape in a humble posture. Stepping onto the suspended pedestal and entering through a narrow doorway, it is a courtyard enclosed by a wooden structure colonnade. The sun shines in from the top of courtyard and shines on the wooden box in the middle. The simple sequence expresses the tranquility of the space.People can walk, communicate and sit quietly in the courtyard to feel the stability and tranquility of their homes in the peaceful times.

The winning design will also be constructed after an evaluation by a team of expert architects and engineers from the organisation, in collaboration with Sedhiou’s authorities and institutions, in order to study its financial and technological feasibility. It will be inserted in a particularly delicate urban context. The lot is located along the bank of the Casamance River, on predominantly clay terrain and with a minimal slope. It is immersed in the surrounding environment and natural landscape, bordered by the river on one side, and 3rd and the city on the other. Therefore the project is intended to be a fusion of various spacial realities and must insert itself within an urban context characterised by a street market, central piazza, two sacred trees, and a nearby conference centre.

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