Primary School - "THE DOORS" in Sedhiou Town, Sedhiou Region, Senegal

Having a school for learning and playing is extremely important for young children, especially in Africa, where basic living conditions are still not fully met. With harsh natural conditions and climate change, African children are even more deprived and disadvantaged when social and political issues are unstable, discrimination against children and women still persists, border conflicts occur frequently and are complex.

However, in the midst of these difficult circumstances, the children of this "vulnerable continent" have a strong and vibrant spiritual life, exemplified by the Sedhiou region in Senegal. The African community in Sedhiou has a unique and precious cultural heritage, especially the spirit of "Teranga" - a message of hospitality, openness, and mutual support without age, skin color, language, or origin. This is a great teaching and meaningful message for all Senegalese people, especially for children - the future generations. With this spirit, the new primary school named "The Doors" is opened in Sedhiou, with the desire to preserve and continue those beautiful values through nurturing and teaching the children from the early stages of development.

For children in preschool and primary school age, theoretical lessons and textbooks are not effective, especially for active children like African children, as early on, community interaction is closely linked to their material and spiritual lives. Therefore, this is the design challenge and also the reason why the name "The Doors" is chosen for this primary school. In terms of basic architecture, it aims for indigenous tradition, using local materials and addressing climate issues. In terms of the main design concept, the doors of the school are designed with 6 different patterns in terms of color, shape, and 3 patterns in terms of function, totaling 16 different individual patterns. This intricacy and uniqueness come from the following purposes:

Children - The Doors:
With boundless imagination and richness, doors can be magical gateways leading to mysterious and fascinating worlds, as in the story "Alice in Wonderland". Therefore, with the diversity of doors not only in shape and color but also in their function, children can crawl through low doors, climb through windows, and run through tall doors, all stimulating physical and imaginative activities. In addition, through their

interaction with doors, teachers can understand students' preferences through their choices of color, shape, and play, thereby serving the educational aspect deeply. Along with the spatial layout, inspired by the traditional village of the local ethnic group and flexible space modules, the school creates courtyards surrounded by buildings, thus dividing the space into various diverse areas and functions. This contributes to making the world through doors more diverse, rich, and vivid.

Palaver tree - The spiritual life of Africans:
The school primarily focuses on meeting the material conditions for primary education, but it is also designed as a flexible cultural center serving the local community during non-teaching hours. Using the central courtyard of the school as a Palaver tree space, outside of children's study and play hours under the tree, the central courtyard is also a gathering place for the local community.

The spirit of "Teranga" - A global message:
The doors at "The Doors" primary school are not just colorful highlights on the traditional brown earth walls of Africa, but each door symbolizes each individual, each personality, each ethnic community, each characteristic, and each value of humanity, not only in Sedhiou or Africa but also worldwide. This conveys the message that we are all living together on the same planet, the only common home, sharing and supporting each other's development without conflict, war, and injustice in society, bringing a better future for the next generation.