Awards

Mali Performing Arts Center

The Mali Performing Arts Center is an institute that will become a vehicle for expanding Malian culture and music throughout the world. Manifesting the culture of Malian griots - respected ambassadors, holy men, and story tellers - the Center will be a real and tangible symbol of people, place, and music. This is a place of making and celebrating.

The project marries traditional methods of construction with advanced technology; hand-molded masonry walls, strategically placed shade trees, and simple corrugated metal roofs all combine with state-of-the-art recording and video equipment into a symbol for the future of Malian people. Passive techniques are critical because the site is not connected to any existing infrastructure; metal roofs are folded to collect rain-water for cisterns while also encouraging air flow in and through interior spaces below; for power, PV panels take advantage of the abundance of equatorial solar days.

 

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