Distance Learning Centre

Nouakchott, Mauritania

The distance-learning centre offers a traditionally nomadic people 'a place of exchange with the world' - via an enormous satellite dish. The centre contains an interactive room for video-conferencing, a multimedia room, technical spaces and a café. Its site - next to the exhibition centre in Nouakchott - reflects its importance. The building is realised as a concrete shell construction. The main mass is a half-cylinder completed, conceptually, by a virtual 'other half' formed by new means of communication. The cylinder is linked to a brise-soleil-covered cube by an elevated walkway symbolising the technology that has made this communication possible.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture