MICHAEL HASEY // AI & ARCHITECTURE

The Maasai Knowledge Exchange

school: McGill University

type: graduate thesis // community center

location: Loodariak, Kenya

The Maasai Knowledge exchange is a campus for Maasai ideas, entrepreneurship and education located in Loodariak, a small village nestled within the Rift Valley of Souther Kenya. Its intention is not to provide solutions for problems, but to provide a place for solutions to be made. It is a place for meetings, discussions and debates, and a hub for creating, fostering and spreading new ideas and meaningful support. By incorporating multiple public and private meeting rooms, a computer lab, library, and flexible indoor and outdoor areas, the campus intends to provide the necessary spaces and tools to achieve these goals. The campus will also be a place for gathering, celebration, and festivities, therefore reinforcing the importance and power of community, solidarity, and union.

The Maasai themselves are a pastoral people who occupy the regions of Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Currently they are subjected to various forms of discrimination, land grabbing and general government neglect. As a response, my project based in Loodariak, Kenya, intends to provide the much needed architectural space to give the Maasai both the freedom and the opportunity to choose their own future and destiny.

Designed around the idea of expansion and flexibility, the Exchange incorporates a wall system that flows throughout the entirety of the campus. Transforming between permeable walls that allow for spontaneous expansion, to wrapping, encircling and creating interior space, the wall system is meant to represent a collision between contemporary architectural design and traditional Maasai ingenuity and knowledge. The result of this collision is a contemporary campus that presents the Maasai’s integral position, importance, and power within Kenyan society to the world.

The Distant Approach

When approaching the Maasai Knowledge Exchange, visitors will be aware of its presence only when very close. The design of the centre was meant to enhance the natural environment rather than compete with it. By using local stone and taking cues from the low slung acacia trees and infinitely horizontal territory, the form and language of the campus was meant to seamlessly integrate with its surroundings yet remain highly contemporary in nature.

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The Entry Sequence

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The Gates

When approaching the gates of the campus, visitors may come upon various Maasai alterations and additions.The following view showcases a Maasai livestock enclosure that has been added to the permeable wall system. Such flexibility allows the MaasaiKnowledge Exchange to incorporate a wide variety of transitioning and flexible programs, a feature that would not have been possible in a standard, rigid and restrictive building.

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The Passage

When transitioning between the wilderness and domesticated interior, the fluctuating walls of the Maasai Knowledge Exchange mimic the traditional enkang and provide unique moments of calm and tranquility. By framing the sky and glimpses of the environment beyond, one becomes lost in its winding pathways of earth, stone and sky.

Outdoor Meeting Spaces

As walls transition from gateways to buildings, a curving amphitheaters area is created and provides areas of relaxation, contemplation and socialization. Shaded beneath existing acacia trees, these spaces also provide rooftop access, allowing visitors to have a full 360-degree view of their surrounding territory. Beneath these spaces are water tanks, utility spaces, and storage areas.

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The Media Lab

The media lab and library provides individuals and groups with the necessary tools to obtain, exchange, and distribute knowledge, ideas, and support. In addition, the lab will provide the Maasai with the necessary skills needed to succeed within the rapidly transitioning and contemporary realities of present day Kenya.

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Indoor Gathering Spaces

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The Amphitheatre

The largest meeting space in the Maasai KnowledgeExchange is a 400-person amphitheater that makes up the heart of the campus. This semi-outdoor area provides the necessary shaded space to accommodate large village wide meetings, discussions and debates. As groups of this size had virtually no sheltered area to meet in before, this space is one of the most essential components of the campus. By providing inspiring and incredible views of the landscape beyond, the Maasai will now have a central location to discuss the most vital issues that effect their immense and stunning territory and culture.

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Multi-Purpose Spaces

The campus also provides multiple private spaces for individuals and groups. These un-programmed areas can be used and modified in whatever way suits the users needs. In addition, the low ceiling, thick stonewalls, and ample indirect day lighting through operable windows provides a well-lit, ventilated and cool interior space.

Floor Plan

The architecture of the Maasai Knowledge Exchange materializes through the use of a flexible wall system. Like the Maasai Enkang, this wall system territorializes space through its language of wrapping, curving, and encircling. By incorporating this method, three main hubs were created by encircling the wall system around three large existing Acacia trees. These three hubs include the main parliament, the communication lab, and the multi-purpose space. Within each hub is the acacia tree that occupies its inner courtyard and provides both shade and contrast to the contemporary nature of the campus’s interior. In addition, each hub has a corresponding outdoor meeting area that provides additional space for gathering and relaxation. These outdoor meeting areas contain water tanks, utility and storage spaces below. To connect these hubs, the wall system pulls back from the hub and stretches across the open landscape towards the opposite hub. This stretching and pulling of the wall is reflected in its shortened and interrupted physical form, and results in a permeable wall. As a result, traditional Maasai thorn enclosures can be added to this permeable zone in order to create additional space to the exterior or interior of the campus. This flexibility allows the Maasai Knowledge Exchange to take on infinite forms through its modification and evolution over time to meet the demands of changing program, activities and uses. Such modification is imperative as it allows the Maasai to have complete control over the design and use of the outdoor areas of the campus. By providing this flexibility, the Maasai themselves become the architects of their own space, giving them the power to use and modify the space in whatever way they please.

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The Hill

The Maasai Knowledge Exchange sits atop of a gently rolling hill located on a sprawling plateau at the base of the Great Rift Valley wall. From this position, the campus has a commanding 360-degree view of the surrounding rugged landscape of acacia trees, ancient volcanoes and open stretches of grassland. Though located outside of Loodariak, the Maasai Knowledge Exchange is only a short ten-minute walk away. This distance provides ample exposure to the natural environment before the campus begins to slowly reveal itself from behind the trees.