Our international competition-winning entry and subsequent design for a 1,000 student academy for Quaranic studies and an International Baccalaureate curriculum transformed a 14-acre site in western Nairobi into a "campus in the garden" and "garden in the campus"—landscape and buildings are one.
When selected for the competition short list, we were welcomed into the sponsoring Daiwoodi Bohra community who sought a modern, forward-looking campus that was linked to their 1,000-year history. The design is inspired by their Fatemi architecture and philosophic principles with light and knowledge at its center. All buildings are oriented north-south towards the Kaaba, Mecca. Sacred buildings surround the central Sahat or courtyard. They are flanked on the east and west by the more public buildings. The Sahat or Radiant Axis extends to the east and west, connecting all parts of the campus. With Nairobi near the equator, this is also the diurnal path of the sun (light). The building scale and geometry frame physical "rays" from the Sacred Core and heighten views in both directions. The Sahat creates four quadrants in the plan, containing smaller-scale academic and residential courtyards framed by buildings that form a "live-learn community". The architecture becomes more contemporary and abstract as the distance from the center increases. The project was designed in collaboration with Frederic Schwartz Architects.
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