No School for Tuareg-Kids without Global Communication
A school in the desert for nomad children?
Exactly, because there is no public education for them. An idea of tuareg parents north of Timbuktu inspired AmiMali e.V. to build a school appropriate to this region at the edge of the desert: a basic adobe structure, plus a wooden construction for better ventilation, covered by a roof made of impregnated wool - the traditional black tent.
The Scarab School in the desert combines two traditions: the local one of the city of Timbuktu which is adobe and the moving one of the Tuareg nomads from the Southern Sahara which is the tent. This combination of the two cultures is simple and real and that is the innovation: two vernacular ways of construction in one to solve their problems.
(1)The problem with earthen architecture is the destruction rain – now protected by the tent. (2) The problem of the tent is that the climate inside throughout the day changes immediately with the outside climate. Adobe has the slowest heat transition. That means it stays cold in the morning and gives back heat at night.