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In this newsletter, we'll update you on the progress of the Regenerative Architecture and Extended Reality programme. We'll also share information about unique community activities and knowledge-sharing events!

Everything reported below happened during the month of November 2023 😉

📋 Some highlights from the Regenerative Architecture & XR training 🚀

In search of the living in the city! 🌴🦗

In the Regenerative Architecture and Extended Reality programme, November began with an explorative walk along and across the Djoliba (Niger River). This immersion walk was organized as part of the Ville Paysanne, Ville de Demain module's session on the city and the living, led by mentor Elvira Pietrobon.

Strolling along the river, the learners discussed with the mentor the place of the environment and its living elements in cities in general and Sahelian cities specifically. The river, a living and natural space that runs through the metropolis of Bamako, is a perfect example for understanding the social, cultural and economic value of these spaces. This urban walk was an opportunity for learners to take a critical look at what they see on a daily basis, and to ask questions about the place and role of these spaces and elements in the regeneration of Sahelian cities. Several courses of action were discussed, including the importance of highlighting the economic value of these spaces in order to protect them, or their value in mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Accompanied by their mentors Achref Ghrib and Elvira Pietrobon, learners from the Regenerative Architecture and Extended Reality cohort take an explorative walk across the Niger River and explore its shores.

Designing Regenerative Architecture Prototypes 📐🌱

At the Atelier d'Architecture Régénérative (Regenerative Architecture Workshop), learners have begun designing regenerative architecture prototypes. Organized into 3 groups, each group is working on a specific theme: a prototype of a regenerative habitat in the Sahel, a prototype of a regenerative learning space in the Sahel and a prototype of a regenerative building material or process in the Sahel. Each week, they make progress in their group work and then present their advancements to the other learners and mentors for feedback.

Example of learners' work and ideas for regenerative architecture prototypes.

Ongoing experimentation with local material prototypes 🟤🌾

Despite the site visits and architectural design workshops, the hands-on construction workshops never stopped! On the contrary, they have increased in frequency! During the month of November, learners continued to practice the skills they had acquired in making earth bricks and assembling and fitting earth brick walls. But eager to learn about other regenerative building techniques and cultures, they had the opportunity to explore and experiment with the rammed earth wall technique with the mentor Mamadou Koné. Using formwork and a pisoir, the learners compressed the earth to build a thick, solid prototype wall.

Learners building the rammed earth wall.

In parallel with the assembled walls, Mamadou Koné and Ousmane Diakité helped the learners experiment with different natural plaster mixes. The main aim is to test a lot in order to find the best recipe for protecting earthen walls from the weather, increasing interior thermal comfort and reducing maintenance requirements. It's a big challenge, but our learners are rising to it!

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Learners applying natural plaster to an adobe wall.

📢 Engaging with the community, building the movement 🛠️

Wednesday’s Masterclass Ritual: Les Rêveries de Toujèn : Promotion of Berber villages through Interactive Digital Cinema

This masterclass was a unique opportunity to illustrate to learners a concrete example of the use of contemporary and emerging technologies for the enhancement of cultural and built heritage. Tunisian architects Nadia Bouzgarou, Khaled Abdallah, and Oumaima Bourouis shared with us their experience. Particularly, they presented the project they developed around the enhancement of Berber sites and villages in the Dahar mountains in Tunisia using innovative tools such as Interactive Digital Cinema. This allowed them to work closely with local communities, thus initiating possibilities and opportunities for digital transitions in the management of territories and buildings.

Their sharing of experience resonated a lot with the learnings of the Kabakoo community as well as heritage experts who are trying to discover similar projects and prototypes of approaches!

Another masterclass of the month : Introduction to Design Fiction

Saran Diakité Kaba is a consultant in Design + R&D, corporate trainer, speaker and author-designer of the Red Team Defense. Saran, with a rich experience as the former General Director of Strate School of Design and ex-VP R&D at Stellantis, joins us at the Innovation Lab: Regenerative Futures in the Sahel to explore the captivating concept of design fiction, and to discover how we can shape potential, speculative or provocative futures through design.

This session was a great opportunity for learners to understand the importance of deconstructing imaginations and exploring other imaginations, alternatives and possibilities that can particularly stimulate creativity and value creation through design within the learner community. This masterclass was also interactive, as it was an opportunity for Saran to communicate with the learners and give them an exercise to further explore design fiction around the subject of desirable sobriety in the contexts of Sahelian cities.

Accompanied by their mentors Achref Ghrib and Elvira Pietrobon, learners from the Regenerative Architecture and Extended Reality cohort take an explorative walk across the Niger River and explore its shores.

More amazing masterclasses : The Art of Living, with Chab Touré, professor of philosophy and art critic

Born in 1956 in Goudman, Mali, Chab Touré lives and works in Bamako. His is a professor of philosophy at the National Institute of the Arts, critic, writer, and the director of the Chab Gallery in Bamako. He was the artistic director of the 4th Rencontres de Bamako in 2001. Chab, a member of the Kabakoo Academies community, met with learners to discuss the Art of Living. In other words, how to perceive one's city, one's neighborhood, one's home and even one's room as a work of art!

The idea of this masterclass is to initiate learners to consider their inhabited space as a living space and to therefore consider the impacts of these living spaces on the well-being of the inhabitants, their comfort, and even their psychological state. According to Chab, living in a space is an art that must be mastered on one hand by the architect who designs the space, and on the other hand, the inhabitant who lives in it.

Knowledge Sharing Day 💡📚

Keen to share and disseminate knowledge and insights produced during this innovation lab as much as possible, learners from Kabakoo Academies have organized a sharing session of their learnings and knowledge with broader communities called : Knowledge Sharing Day.

The Knowledge Sharing Day was attended by a number of representatives of Bamako's masons' associations, as well as other professions involved in construction, building, and architecture training. It was an opportunity for learners to synthesize what they had learned over the last months of training and share it with others. This day was, by definition, a day of reciprocal knowledge sharing. The learners were also able to learn from the participants, notably older masons with considerable experience in the field.

The learners put together an exciting, fun-filled program for the day to present all the modules they had begun, using innovative methodologies combining games, discovery, dialogue, exercises, workshops and technology!

The Knowledge Sharing Day will undoubtedly become an essential component of the Innovation Lab on regenerative architecture!

🎉 Upcoming Teasers

The Innovation Laboratory program is progressing well. Next month will be an opportunity to strengthen the activities of this Lab, but also to prepare to conclude the first phase of training and launch the second!

With Love & Hope from Bamako 💜💛

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