Atelier de Bois: Working with Local Materials and Techniques

DAWOFFICE, Low Density, Project, Southern Coexistences, Technology and fabrication.

Clay, Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, Courtyard, Ecological footprint, Local materials, Local resources, Natural materials, Performative Envelope, Project, Senegal, Timber.

The Atelier Bois is a carpentry workshop owned by the cabinetmaker Lamine Sambou. It is located in the town of Thionck Essyl, a city in Senegal organized into an urban grid based on 100×100 meter plots. The common building typology in the area is isolated, and the buildings are surrounded by a perimeter fence that limits each plot. The project is located in the western quadrant of a plot and aims to unify the building and the boundary of the plot in a single element, treating the fence directly as the building envelope. The boundaries of the façade confine both the exterior and interior spaces by intertwining their limits, while integrating an existing tree through the generation of a working courtyard located to the south-west.