City
Earth, shade and compact housing
Niamey 2000 combines earthen construction with passive cooling in a six-home complex. Architect Elizabeth Golden describes how courtyard shade and airflow help cool the homes; a university history dates a humanities institute’s first vaulted premises in Niamey to 1964.
At a glance
A place worth remembering
Earth walls and shallow vaults
The award entry presents a housing prototype of six two-floor family homes that together take up the ground area of a typical single-family compound. Walls and shallow-vault ceilings are built of compressed blocks of unfired earth; a little reinforced concrete supports the roofs.[1]
Courtyards and airflow
Vaults in a university record
Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey (UAM) dates the first premises of the humanities research institute, then called CNRSH, to 1964 and notes their vaulted design. The page says the institute took the name IRSH when it joined the university in 1974, while continuing to use the same premises.[3]
Good to know
A few clear answers before you explore.
How does Niamey 2000 fit six family homes?
The entry says the six two-floor dwellings share the ground area of a typical single-family compound.[1]
How do the courtyards help cool the homes?
Elizabeth Golden attributes cooling to the courtyards’ shade and to cross and stack ventilation.[2]
What does the university page record about IRSH?
UAM dates the premises of the institute then called CNRSH to 1964; it says the institute retained them when it became IRSH within the university in 1974.[3]
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