Maze of Mbegu

Year: 2021

Site: Kifli, Kenya

Each year, the Oslo School of Architecture and Design hosts the 120 Hours Competition, wherein students across the world have only 120 hours to develop a response to the brief. The 2021 brief asked for a space of education and storytelling at the Eco Moyo Campus in Kenya. This non-profit organization facilitates students and teachers from neighboring villages where public education and resources for children are scarce.

With several existing classroom buildings, designed by pro bono organizations around the world, we felt the campus lacked both identity and playfulness. Through an architecture of identity, a new vernacular can be cultivated that creates communal bonds and promotes discovery through storytelling. This proposal is realized in tectonic masses, introducing new landscapes to Eco Moyo. The Kenyan story of Mbegu, or seed, is monumentalized in a set of follies within a wandering maze. Cast in earth, their porosity from the imperfections of the ground encourages seeds planted in the architecture.