african fabbers house

site: douala (cameroon)

powered by: AICS, italian agency for international cooperation, COE ngo, urban fablab, laba douala for CAMon! project

architects: paolo cascone, marilena laddaga/CODESIGNLAB; digital design: elena ciancio; fabrication consultant: sergio subrizi; fabrication team: thrésor michel ndasse, danielle kengne, benoit joseph, balla owona, julien mbida, zanga, dieudonné ambang, jean ernest kenmogne, claire laure dongmo, zanga charlie, landry tamba sohmbe, christelle domwa, benoit valery kamdoum, françois joël siazeu youmbi, cédric ongong atouba, francis tiemeni ongong

500 million population that is going to live in urban areas in Africa in 2020. 90% of whom are still living in slums. (UN Habitat)

after many years of post-colonial studies on architecture and design, we investigate the possibility of creating a “local industry” for ecological habitat in africa. the [AFH] project bridges the main concepts of the tremendous heritage of african vernacular design with the 70’s experience of the the tropical house of j. prouvé . Within this premise, the AFH is the first low-cost and offgrid housing initiative generating a catalogue of possible configurations entirely designed and fabricated in africa. the aim is to explore a new-vernacular design as a paradigm for advanced manufacturing towards sustainable construction systems, which should create circular economies in the african context. the housing prototype is conceived as a space for sustainable living and self-producing, completely realized with local material systems easy to assembly, customise and replicate. the project follows an applied research agenda developed in collaboration with the african fabbers school within the framework of the Cam'on project.
the design and fabrication processes are developed in cameroon through a number of training programmes with local students, craftsman and partners. the next step will focus on improving the environmental performances of the prototype while implementing scalable configurations to be developed with local and international institutions such as UN Habitat. this with the aim to respond to the needs for affordable and ecological habitat in the african context.

in collaboration with
COE - associazione centro orientamento educativo