Industrial trade school
Abstract
The idea of an industrial trade school stems from the
countrywide lack of skilled manpower and adequate institutions
for their training and the need to have more comprehensive
schools whose graduates are adaptable to varying situations and
opportunities of employment. The school falls under the
vocational secondary school group, the main intake is at the
C.P.E. level. The pupils 50 through a four year course of
academic work and training in various skills and trades leading
to industrial training and employment, it offers a further two
years of study for students from within and from other
vocational secondary schools capable of going on to advanced
engineering courses at university level.
The school is located near the Kawanguare village, a
predominantly Low income area--adjacent to a proposed small
scale industries site. The school will serve a hinterland
population of up to 32000 by 1979 and will provide spaces for up
to 900 students. The site is sloping in all directions from a
small hillock with an average grandient of 4%.
The specialized technological and scientific studies
require workshops and laboratories of a more specialized nature
to be provided alongside the more conventional school accomodation.
The objective is to find a solution which is responsive to
the various activity relationships and requirements and which
seeks to create a comfortable learning environment through
buildings that respond well to the climate and environmental
controls:- these factors here played a major roll in the actual
layout and design of the buildings. In developing the layout
the concept has been to group related and complementary
activities around one or more courtyards or internal circulation
route. The courtyards are then interconnected by covered
walkways along which are located the more communal facilities
like toilets, lockers ;--showerooms.. and the resource centre . ,
The characteristic and various requirements of the .
activities have determined their actual location on the site.
For example workshops, are a high noise zone requiring
individual vehicular se~vice and controlled access for the
users; while c,..53rOOll.:3require a less noisy environment. The
communal and administrative rooms.require to be easily accessible
for the public and the students while the specialist teaching
rooms and the resource centre require central locations.
The main construction is in reinforced concrete columns
with infill walls of locally available natural cut storie--a
material in common use in Kawanguare. The outside walls are
exposed stone for negligeable maintainance. The roofs are in
corrugated asvestors cement sheets. A box beam truss has
been used to achieve a low pitch in order to reduce the
asbestores surfaces exposed to view.
In this country school buildings are mainly built by local
communities on self help "Harambee" basis with or without
government aid. A good number have been built by church
organizations. Where the government is involved through the
Ministry of Works Construction is over along period of phased
construction.
In all, the buildings are limitted to simple structures
"due to the stringent funds available. It would be unrealistic
therefore to propose school buildings that call for sophisticated
methods of construction requiring ~eavy plant and expensive
materials.
This limitation requires that school buildings be
nationalized through use of repetitive structures and methods
of construction and through the use of locally available
materials. The degree to which this can be done is further
limited by the absence of competent factories where highly
prefabrication systems can be developed reducing site works to
mere assembly of components.
This has resulted in buildings that maximise on locally
available construction methods and materials, buildings which
take advantage of natural lighting and ventillation and which
provide thermal comfort through simple sun control methods and
roof insulation.
The successful functioning of the school will depend on the
organization and the relationship of the activities and the
spaces, the circulation pattern, the functioning of the internal
space and how the buildings respond to the environmental and
climatic factors.
Publisher
Faculty of Architecture, Design And Development, University of Nairobi