Category

Region

ANANSI

ANANSI

Category
Daylight in buildings - Region 5: Africa

Students
KAHOULEN BABAGNAK Cindy Manuela
NGAH TSANGA Anita Marie Reine
TAMBE McWilfried MASODA
TSANGA NKOULA Pie Achille Stéphane

Teacher
Giorgia DORIGATTI

School
École Nationale Supérieure des Travaux Publics

Country
Cameroon

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In a socio-cultural context, promoting and protecting elderly persons in Cameroon is the core of our project. Nowadays, the importance and role assigned to the elderly persons have undergone changes since most retire without owning a home or owning precarious and sanitary housing; they also face social isolation encouraged by social changes. These people represent 11% of the total Cameroonian population and if nothing is done the percentage will drop especially when we think of their fragile state of health.
According to one of the greatest myth of the Ashanti kingdom (now Ghana), Ananse is a spider appearing and acting like a man endowed with incredible cunning and having tried to collect all the wisdom of the world in a calabash; following this concept, we want to revive the importance of elderly persons by bringing them together in the same shelter, because they are considered as wise. This shelter is a retirement home in the locality of SANGMELIMA in the south region of Cameroon; it consist of a reception hall, an infirmary, living rooms and bedrooms, all to improve their living conditions. We know that spiders trap their preys on their webs and so, inspired by BIOMIMICRY, our project, ANANSI named from Ananse, portrays a cobweb-like building with strategically placed butterfly-like skylights that open into bedrooms.
The myth about ANANSE also allows us to comment on daylight because according to certain believes, Ananse is responsible for the creation of the sun. Indeed, sunlight is white light made up of several radiations among which some are harmful for the health, in particular the blue which produces blue-violet light which accelerates the aging of the retina. Thus, our project focusses mainly on these windows. Just to mention one, it is and aluminum framed window of standard size installed in the attic of the program, it constitute here of a real sky-light, its installation allows the projection of light in the room but also avoids heat in the attic and plays an Important role in insulation. Its insulating properties are defined by two U coefficients: the thermal transmission coefficient Uw for the window which is very low to ensure better insulation and the transmission coefficient Ug for the glazing. In the same launch, we opted for double-glazing.
To overcome the problem of radiation, we thought of adding bluecoat to the window, this additive filters blue light, which prevents color distortion and therefore reduces eye fatigue, glare and improve sleep. Still related to light, we have perforated the corridor walls for a better natural lighting. On the exterior surfaces of this corridor walls, we have climbing plant which grow up along the wall buildings to form a green covering, though the roots of the plants are contained in substrate at the base of the wall. These will provide a good microclimate suitable for the habitant.
In the end, we were able to resolve the problem of early death of the elderly persons by creating a more convenient place for them to live using the good radiations of sunlight. Also grouping elderly persons from different regions of the country in the same shelter is gathering knowledge, wisdom, history ,traditions of our country together thereby promoting national integrity within our country.

In the end, bringing together under the same shelter various living libraries and representatives of the multiple Cameroonian cultures while using daylight to ensure their comfort and health is the main objective of the ANANSI project. These resolve the problem of national integrity within our country. Through the use of the properties of the blue coat assigned to the glasses of the openings of our building, the residents are permanently beneficiaries of an optimal and comfortable light for their eyes and through the openings with usefully variable forms will benefit from pleasant and restful atmospheres. Finally, in order to provide the residents with clean air, living walls will be built and arranged in the common areas. In short, through these different concepts, we are trying to add life to years, not years to life.