Project Details
- Project Name
- Asilong Christian High School
- Architect
- BNIM
- Project Types
- Education
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Shared by
- Hanley Wood
- Project Status
- Built
This article appeared in the November 2019 issue of ARCHITECT as part of our expanded coverage of the 2019 AIA COTE Top Ten Awards.
Listening to locals and training them to work as craftspeople during construction ensures that this net-zero school campus will enact lasting change, not just on individual students, but on the region as a whole.
There’s a bit of irony to be found in the metrics for the Asilong Christian High School: “Walk Score is not supported in this community,” reports Kansas City, Mo.–based BNIM, which designed the campus of single-story structures on a greenfield site in Asilong, Kenya. The irony lies in the fact that walking is the primary means of transportation in the area where the project is located, more than 230 miles northwest of the nation’s capital, Nairobi.
For the past decade, BNIM principal Laura Lesniewski, AIA, and associate principal Samuel De Jong, AIA, have been making yearly trips to the region, where sustainability is a given: “There’s no municipal infrastructure whatsoever,” Lesniewski says, “so net zero is what it is.” A lack of available utilities didn’t affect the goals for the project; instead, it inspired the team to set a high bar in bringing change to the community. “[Nearby] towns like Kapenguria and Kitale are on the grid,” De Jong says, noting that the team wanted to ensure that all the Asilong Christian High School students—there will eventually be 320 of them—had facilities that would offer “the same education that students are getting in larger towns.” To start with, that meant generating energy via a 2-kilowatt solar array that powers electronic teaching aids such as laptops, tablets, and e-readers, as well as lighting for evening hours.
The next hurdle was water: “We did some early climate data research,” Lesniewski says, but “we learned more from talking with the local people than from any available online data.” What they found is that access to clean water in the area is diminishing: The eastern edge of the campus is a now-dry river bed; upstream development and changing climate patterns, including extreme heat and drought, have rendered water management a critical problem. BNIM’s design includes an on-site well with a solar-powered pump, which provides all necessary potable water. On-site gardens provide vegetables for meals prepared at the school, and native plantings mitigate erosion.
For the structures, the quality of local materials and construction techniques was a concern, Lesniewski says, but “we didn’t want to divorce ourselves from that. We tried to improve the quality of the [local] bricks because it is a very natural material to use.” Both bricks and concrete for the new structures were prepared on-site. “We’re building off familiar techniques, but refining them to make them safer, give the buildings more longevity, and make them respond better to the climate,” De Jong says.
It’s common for civic buildings in the region to utilize wattle-and-daub construction with a metal roof, which informed the design of the new buildings: BNIM’s 24-foot-wide structures are spanned by lightweight metal trusses that support shallowly sloped shed roofs. Walls consist of a concrete frame on 7-foot centers, which are filled by brick or wicker screens. The brick infill was formed using a confined masonry technique: The bricks were laid first, and the concrete poured around them to provide a more solid, integrated structure.
Raising the roof plane created a separation between classroom ceilings and the corrugated metal spans that allow ample cross-ventilation. Many local structures with metal roofs can’t be used when it rains, as the sound of water hitting the roof renders the spaces acoustically inviable. Here, locally sourced woven papyrus on the ceilings mitigates the noise. Steel components—the rebar, lightweight trusses, and metal roofing—came from Kitale, about three hours away. “They bring it in pieces and it’s welded on-site to reduce transportation costs and as an opportunity to train people in welding,” De Jong says.
The school’s influence is meant to be far wider than just its local community in the northwest corner of Kenya. “This [can be] a model for stronger, more durable, and robust structures that could be used around the country,” Lesniewski says.
Project Attributes
Architect: BNIM
Owner: Asilong Christian High School
Location: Asilong, West Pokot, Kenya
Project Site: Greenfield (previously undeveloped land)
Building Program Type(s): Education—K–12 School
Year of Design Completion: 2018
Year of Substantial Project Completion: 2018
Gross Conditioned Floor Area: Zero
Gross Unconditioned Floor Area: 13,782 square feet
Number of Stories: One
Project Climate Zone: 2B—International Climate Zone Conversion Chart
Annual Hours of Operation: 1,560
Site Area: 887,429 square feet
Project Site Context/Setting: Rural Cost of Construction, Excluding Furnishings: $300,386
Number of Residents, Occupants, and Visitors: 61
Project Credits
Project: Asilong Christian High School, Asilong, West Pokot, Kenya
Client/Owner: Asilong Community
Architect: BNIM, Kansas City, Mo. . Sam De Jong, AIA (associate principal); Laura Lesniewski, AIA (principal)
Structural Engineer: Tipping Structural Engineers; Mar Structural Design
Civil Engineer: KPFF
General Contractor: Watsan Construction
Size: 13,782 square feet
Cost: $300,386
Materials and Sources
Ceilings: Handmade on site
Fabrics/Finishes: Local craftswomen
Furniture: Craftsmen in Kitale
Masonry/Stone: Bricks handmade on site
Structural System: Welders on site
Windows/Curtainwalls/Doors: Handmade in Kitale
Project Description
This project is a winner in the 2019 AIA COTE Top 10 Awards
FROM AIA:
This is the story of a community imagining a different future for themselves and the path they took to realize it. It began with seeking peace in the region through access to clean water, then enhancing educational opportunities for primary school graduates. Located in remote northwest Kenya – within a community of subsistence farmers and pastoralists – classrooms, offices, dormitories, and teacher housing form its core. Environmental conditions include dry seasons with harsh equatorial sun and wet seasons with pronounced rainstorms eroding sparsely-planted land. Design opportunities emerge from the place: zero net energy and water, emphasis on local materials and labor, and community engagement ensuring generational success.
Architect: BNIM
Structural Engineer: Tipping Structural Engineers
Civil Engineer: KPFF Civil Engineers
General Contractor: Kennedy Matini, Watsan Construction
Metrics Sapshot:
Community engagement: A partnership was formed with stakeholders to share in the decision-making process including development of alternatives and identification of the preferred solution.
Walk score: N/A; the walk score is not supported in this community. Primary transportation in this community is by walking. If a longer distance is required there are motorbikes for transport, the local form of public transportation.
Estimated occupants who commute via alternative transportation (biking, walking, mass transit): 70 percent
Estimated annual carbon emissions associated with the transportation of those coming to or returning from the building: 2,146 lbs CO₂/yr
Percentage of the site area designed to support vegetation: 88.7 percent
Percentage of site area supporting vegetation before project began: 100 percent
Percentage of landscaped areas covered by native or climate appropriate plants supporting native or migratory animals: 100 percent
Predicted annual consumption of potable water for all uses, excluding process water: In this region, water is a precious resource, and as such is carefully managed by all. Although annual consumption was not predicted prior to construction, the size of pump and storage capacity is a direct result of daily water needs on site, and is constantly monitored to ensure no water is being wasted or put to unnecessary uses. Because of sporadic rainfall, it is not possible to determine percentage of water consumed on site from rainwater capture. Though rainfall is constantly changing, when the rain barrels contain water they are used for irrigation, dishes and laundry over the use of potable water.
Is potable water used for irrigation? Yes
Actual annual consumption of potable water for all uses: 8,184 gals/person/yr; This is for all water used onsite, including irrigation.
Is rainwater captured for use by the project? yes
Is greywater or blackwater captured for re-use? no
Percent of rainwater that can be managed on site: 100 percent
Asilong Christian High School
Architect: BNIM
Owner: Asilong Christian High School
Location: Asilong, West Pokot, Kenya
Project site: Greenfield (Previously undeveloped land)
Cost per square foot: $21.8
Comparable cost per square foot for other, similar buildings in the region: $5.45; This data comes from a new dorm recently constructed on the primary school site.
Cost of a building per person on site (students, faculty, staff): $983/person
Estimated annual operating cost reduction (identify baseline): 100 percent reduction based on any school building that has an operating cost. The buildings on this campus have no operating cost.
Life Cycle Analysis of the costs associated with measures taken to improve performance: Based on location of the site, operating the school completely off the grid is the only feasible option negating any potential Life Cycle Analysis of costs associated with improved performance.
Predicted consumed energy use intensity (EUI): Although no simulation was performed to predict Site EUI, the on site photovoltaic capacity was derived by an understanding of all predicted loads on site. A 2kW photovoltaic system with battery backup was installed. 75 percent of the capacity is used each day.
Energy breakdown:
- lighting: 30 percent
- computers/tablets: 30 percent
- printer 30 percent
- TV and cell phones: 10 percent
Predicted Net EUI: 0 kBtu/sq ft/yr
Predicted Net carbon emissions: 0 lb/sq ft/yr
Predicted reduction from national average EUI for building type: 100 percent
Predicted lighting power density: 0.04 W/sq ft
Encouraged metrics:Actual Consumed Energy Use Intensity (Site EUI): 0.9 kBtu/sq ft/yr
Actual net EUI: 0 kBtu/sq ft/yr
Actual net carbon emissions: 0 lb/sq ft/yr
Actual reduction from national average EUI for building type: 100 percent
Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations with direct views of the outdoors: 100 percent
Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations within 30 feet of operable windows: 100 percent
Percentage of floor area or percentage of occupant work stations achieving adequate light levels without the use of artificial lighting: 95 percent >300 lux at 3pm March 21
Is this project a workplace? No
Peak measured CO₂ levels during full occupancy: Although peak CO₂ levels have not been measured, based on integrated passive design strategies and natural ventilation, CO₂ levels are expected to fall within typical outdoor air ranges.
Peak measured VOC levels during full occupancy: Although peak VOC levels have not been measured, the only products used that contain VOC's are the paint on the louvered windows and the finish on the papyrus ceilings. Finishes were given adequate time to dry prior to building occupation. Given the buildings' passive design strategies and natural ventilation, VOC levels are expected to be negligible.
Annual daylighting performance: 95 of regularly occupied area achieving at least 300 lux at least 50 percent of the annual occupied hours.
CO₂ intensity: Using the simple Construction Carbon Calculator, our estimated carbon emissions is 58 lbs/sf, which is a 39 percent reduction from a baseline education building. Because this tool is simulated for typical US based construction sites, we believe the carbon emissions from construction on site to be significantly less than the estimated values. All work on site is done manually, without heavy use of machinery and equipment.
Estimated carbon emissions associated with building construction: 58 lbs/ sq ft
Percentage of project floor area, if any, that represents adapting existing buildings: 0
Anticipated number of days the project can maintain function without utility power: Indefinitely
Percentage of power needs supportable by onsite power generation: 133
Post-occupancy evaluation summary: The design team sits on weekly calls with school administration regarding daily operations and building use. These Skype calls act as live post-occupancy surveys providing a continual feedback loop for improved design.