Over the past few years a team at FCBStudios, together with Max Fordham and Giraffe engineering have designed the first of a series of buildings on land bought by generous
donation for New Generation in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The November visit to Burundi by FCBStudios was to review the scheme with the leadership of New Generation who are championing the project and the children who will use the building in order that the scheme to be costed by the market and it was important that
there was a strong sense of ownership from New Generation.
The approach to the design has been to work with materials which are locally available, in order to limit the expensive import of materials. There has always been a sense that the building needed to capture the spirit of a positive future for young people in Burundi that New Generation serves. The building needed to be flexible over time to serve the charity in many ways. Time has been spent to the quality of finish, with a few special crafted elements for the parts of the building which people touch as they use it, the handrail that they use as they upstairs, or the windows seats to use as they gather.
The scheme was discussed with a group of children whom New Generation are training and supporting who wanted the building to be able to welcome visitors and guests, who valued safety and security, who relished the thought of a garden, as a place of shade and beauty
and place for positive growth and development.
Rachel Sayers, November 2019