Tambacounda Hospital 

Tambacounda Maternity and Pediatric Hospital builds on 15 years of exceptional work in rural eastern Senegal by the Albers and Le Corsa Foundation. Echoing Josef and Anni Albers' shared spirit and belief in using "minimal means to maximum effect", this project goes far beyond a single architectural structure, anchoring itself within the local community, economy and landscape.

With this in mind, in 2005 Nicholas Fox-Weber, Director of the Foundation, established Le Corsa to include the Foundation's philanthropic initiatives in the region. Since then, the Foundation and Le Korsa have provided support to Senegalese rural communities in the areas of culture, education and health. In 2015, they launched THREAD, a cultural center for locals in the rural village of Synthian, designed for free by the architecture firm Toshiko Mori, which since its inception has promoted cultural exchange between local communities and international residents. In the field of education, last year Le Corsa Foundation built an elementary school in the village of Fez, again designed by Toshiko Mori, the first school in a region of more than 110 villages to offer secular education alongside traditional Qur'an teaching. Both structures share subtle and evocative references to Joseph and Annie's practices and Bauhaus aesthetics, such as the beautiful woven surfaces reminiscent of Annie's tapestries and the geometric patterns on the walls and doors reminiscent of Joseph and Annie's prints.

the hospital. In health, the Tambacounda hospital - the only major hospital in the region - is a vital resource serving around 20,000 patients annually from the surrounding region and extending across the border into Mali. Previously, doctors worked under very difficult conditions; With the original layout leaving the common spaces tightly packed. The design of the new Maternity and Children's Hospital brings a sense of cohesion and greatly improves the comfort of patients and their visiting families. Herz's structure consists of a two-story, curvilinear building that houses two clinics – pediatric and maternity – together under one roof and provides approximately 150 hospital beds. The building's wide length allows for smooth movement of staff and patients and accommodates multiple common spaces between rooms and in the courtyards formed by S-curves, turning it into the true social backbone of the hospital.

Designed by Manuel Herz. The Herz design incorporates several passive climate design innovations to address the challenges posed by the vagaries of local weather, and to help eliminate the need for air conditioning. The building has a narrow width of just seven metres, a feature that allows all rooms to be naturally ventilated and cooled through cross ventilation. In addition, its Mashrabiya-inspired use of lattice-like bricks with openings has the advantages of blocking sunlight and facilitating air circulation, while also giving the hospital its distinctive repetitive visual form and its beautiful play of light and shadow. A second roof covers the main roof of the extension, blocking most direct sunlight and creating a chimney effect that draws heat up and out of the rooms below.

In addition, Herz and his wife designed a stadium, the first ever built in the city of Tambacounda. Sensitivity to the local landscape was also a key aspect of this multi-dimensional project, with Herz's design seeking to disturb the local trees as little as possible. After completing the Maternity and Children's Hospital, Herz will build staff quarters to help attract more doctors from the city, in a design inspired by an Anni Albers publication.

Collaborative project. Herz collaborated at all stages with the local chief, Dr. Magwe Ba and drew on the community's expertise, working almost exclusively with artisans and engineers from Tambacounda and surrounding villages, thus helping to provide employment and support for the rural economy. The comprehensive nature of the project helped create more infrastructure for the area outside the hospital; An experimental façade created by Herz and Pa at an early stage to examine how the bricks act in the climate, it was later extended to build a new small school for the children next door.