Description

The Saurimo Elementary School, previously known as the Henrique Carvalho Boarding School, was designed by Antonieta Jacinto (born in Huambo in 1930, died in Lisbon 2021) and Francisco Silva Dias (born in Lisbon in 1930) in Saurimo (formerly Henrique Carvalho), between 1958 and 1960.

In 1958, Antonieta Jacinto was commissioned to design a boarding school for the children of the engineers of Diamang, Angola’s only diamond company, based in Lunda. The project was carried out as part of a public-private partnership between the provincial government and the national diamond company, with the aim of benefiting both the development of Lunda province and the welfare of the diamond industry. Jacinto was the first female architect hired by Angola’s Department of Public Works, based in Luanda, immediately after graduating from Lisbon School of Fine Arts in 1956. While developing projects for the public agency, she also took on private commissions, such as the boarding school she began to design, inspired by her thesis project: “a school centre in a tropical country”. Francisco Silva Dias – her future husband – joined her a few months later.

Jacinto and Silva Dias’ project envisaged an ambitious complex of some 5,000 square metres, comprising several buildings, including a high school, male and female dormitories, a chapel, an indoor sports hall, an outdoor swimming pool, sports fields and gardens. However, due to budget constraints, only the school facilities were built as planned. Given the scarcity of building materials in this remote region and the need to optimise costs, the architects developed a straightforward structural system and used simple construction details to give shape to the school complex. Modularity and repetition were therefore key strategies to overcome these limitations and maximise the school’s space.

A central courtyard connects four pavilions, each containing different parts of the school programme: classrooms to the north, laboratories to the south, school administration to the east and the playground to the west. The ten classrooms are arranged in a two-storey pavilion, with five classrooms on each floor. The classrooms are accessed via a west-facing gallery and each classroom has a large east-facing balcony. The arrangement of independent volumes improves health and hygiene standards by bringing additional natural light and ventilation into the classrooms. As a result, the school is essentially an open-air structure, with shaded and well-ventilated circulation areas that act as cooling devices for the classrooms.

During the design process, Saurimo’s climate was taken into account. The architects analysed the climatic data of the region, classified as a tropical savannah (Aw), and used passive design strategies such as shading and ventilation to create a comfortable environment. The building section was designed with solar diagrams, with the aim of installing efficient shading solutions on both façades: on the west, a concrete grid separates the gallery from the outside, while on the east, a wooden brise-soleil prevents direct sunlight from entering the classrooms in the early morning. Fixed shading devices made from durable materials provided a cost-effective and durable building envelope. The reinforced-concrete structure with short spans is evident in the regular composition of the façades and in the modular areas designed to accommodate the different functions of the school.
The building demonstrates great clarity in responding to functional requirements, thermal comfort and budget constraints. It presents a consistent architectural language with an optimised economy of means. The constraints promoted rationality and facilitated the design of a modern building of ascetic beauty.

In 1961, the school opened as a public high school rather than a private boarding school as originally planned. Although the master plan was not completed as first devised, the dormitories were built in 1964 and the high school facilities were extended in 1972. The Municipal Services Department was responsible for the extension, which aimed to mimic the original façades and use the same materials, but made significant changes to the orientation, scale and proportion of volumes, indicating a lack of understanding of the original design.

In 1975, following Angola’s independence, the number of children attending this school increased exponentially. The building remained functional during the long period of Angola’s civil war (1975–2002), but suffered from severe decay and neglect. Since 2002, the country has been recovering from the effects of the war and many school facilities have been renovated as part of the national reconstruction plan. However, in 2023, Saurimo School has not yet been included in this large-scale effort.

Today, overcrowding is a major problem at Saurimo Elementary School, with more than 60 students per class and two schedules: primary school in the morning and university classes in the afternoon. Despite these challenging conditions, the building remains functional and serves the community as an informal, open structure: people from all levels of education use the building’s facilities to study at weekends because of its open layout and comfortable environment. The school has shown remarkable adaptability to change over the years, proving that the principles of the original architectural design, which focused on thermal comfort, economy and durability, are still relevant today.

References

Fonte, M. M. (2006). Urbanismo e Arquitectura em Angola – de Norton de Matos à Revolução [Doctoral dissertation, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa]. UTL Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/2027.

Fry, M. and Drew, J. (1964). Tropical Architecture in Dry and Humid Zones. London: William Clowes and Sons.

Interview of Margarida Quintã with Francisco da Silva Dias and Antonieta Jacinto, Lisbon, May 15, June 13 and September 2, 2014.

Jacinto, A. and Dias, F .S. (1958). “Memória Descritiva e Justificativa do Colégio de Henrique Carvalho”, Luanda, 1958, Silva Dias Archive.

Quintã, M. (2009). Arquitectura e Clima, Geografia de um Lugar: Luanda e a Obra de Vasco Vieira da Costa. Porto: Iperforma/Soapro.

Quintã, M. (2019). Modern Schools in Angola, 1961–1975. Design with Climate and Heritage [Doctoral dissertation, Técnico – University of Lisbon; École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne]. Infoscience EPLF scientic publications. https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/279416.

Ribeiro, A. (ed.) (2007). Francisco Silva Dias – 50 anos de arquitectura e urbanismo em Portugal 1950–2000. Almada: Casa da Cerca.

Soares, E. M. (1958) “Algumas Directrizes para a Elaboração do Projecto de Construção de um Colégio Internato em Henrique Carvalho”, Governo do Distrito da Lunda, Henrique Carvalho, 6 January 1958.

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Originally published in: Uta Pottgiesser, Ana Tostões, Modernism in Africa. The Architecture of Angola, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Birkhäuser, 2024.