Ziranenge/ Angel

Entry for the Design for the Children Competition hosted by the Architecture for Humanity Organization - Children Hospital , Rwanda, Africa

Our Response:
....A childrens legend....
the year now is 2058. my memory is cluttered with images of when it began ...50 years ago.
It was a time of great confusion and anarchy. A time when cultures and economies were failing around the world. It was a time after the genocide. It was a time when children were being lost to various deadly plagues of the kingdom. It was a time when the children sang a song of million voices.....

Ni ryari izuba, Rizagaruka, Hejuru yacu,
Ni nd` uzaricyeza ricyeza.
{When will the sun return above us?}
{Who will reveal it once again to us?}
- Million VOices byJean Wyclef

It was during this time that the two appeared - mystical, alien, beautiful and powerful. Yet there was something about them that was warm,earthy and humble. in their presence one always felt like this was were one belonged. They held within them the power to heal worlds. DP and CB were stardusts. they were miniscule in comparison to the larger greater force that was locked and hidden within themselves. No one knew exactly where they came from or where they would appear. But rumor was they were part of a sacred tribe called fight for the children. Together their duty was to heal the children of the land and aid in the birth of more. As these were no ordinary children they were the symbols of hope for a land that was termed as a place where GOD comes to sleep. However there was a prophecy which predicted that a time would come when the stardusts would transform into higher beings of OA and IA. The prophecy also predicted that the unison and transformation of these two stardusts would unlock the doors of the greatest healing force in the land - Ziranenge, ANGEL.

Concept:
Ziranenge/Angel

When we downloaded the information regarding the different sites proposed by the competition it was difficult for us to decide which site to pursue as we have limited understanding of the conditions on both sites based on the raw data available. Hence it became critical for us to formulate a system/tools of design that could be interpreted for various sites irrespective of boundaries. Keeping this ideology in mind we decided to select Lat. 2 09’46.011”S Long 30 31’21.07”E as our probe site. In order to understand accessibility to the site we began by drawing a circle 1acre in size {depicting the built up allowed} within the site as the loci for he site. We then began to trace paths of people who would arrive at the hospital from distances out of the region as well as those within the periphery of the site which became our point of access into the site. We later moved the foci on site to various locations as to understand how these walking patterns would morph and to challenge the notion of the location of the building within the large site. Our next move was to focus on the acre and develop the overlaps in various fragmented options that could take the form of the program. We selected one of these options to take the form of our design proposal.

We have titled our proposal as Ziranenge/ Angel as we feel this project is one that a} will be responsible in bringing relief to the children and pregnant women who have limited access to such facilities b} we also feel that the project in a way would become the regions “child” where everyone around would contribute to it in some for or the other.

Our goal was to create a structure that would offer security, comfort, be cost effective and have the ability to create its own identity. We are proposing the use of Adobe bricks as they are not only sustainable but their ability age naturally and to appear as part of the landscape are essential qualities of design. An important factor in terms of design was also to propose the fortress wall as a design element that rises from the ground around

Ziranenge/ Angel by Amit Talwar Associates in Rwanda won the WA Award Cycle 3. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.