Vertical village in Dar es salaam.

The aim of the designer was to create a building which is permeable, so the design theme for the project was “urban porosity” he wanted to provide easy movement for air, light and people, both vertically and horizontally.

The building sits on an awkward pentagon shaped site with many pathways, which in results, form small irregular shapes. “The shape of the podium follows the shape of the site, and all the pathways from any corner of the site, leads into the building. “I designed it this way to make the building easy to use and to make it more permeable” Reuben Sanga.

The building adopts the idea of vertical development. The structure has 35 stories. “I did vertical development because I wanted to have symbolism (icon) in this building. Many iconic building around the world, Burj Khalifa, Capital Gate, Empire State, Shanghai tower etc, are skyscrapers, so having this vertical village will put our architecture into the world map” Reuben Sanga, designer.

Having a skyscraper also helps to use the area efficiently, and increase sight of the users, the building occupants can see outside environment far more in skyscrapers.

The vertical village is a smart building. It is smart because it can cool itself through stack effect technology. The building has the atrium to its centre, which helps to move hot air vertically to the top at the same time allowing cool air to flow inside. The building has three garden terraces which allow cool air to flow into the atrium and help in stack effect.

Talking about conservation, the building will compensate everything destroyed at the base by locating them in garden terraces. So the terraces will have plants and fish pond, which in fact helps in the cooling of the building.

With the services cores placed at the angles of the triangles the building minimize the usage of columns. The office spaces being arranged around the atrium, they receive adequate light and air.

NOTE: This is a student's project from Ardhi University, Reuben Sanga.