>>> RESEARCH

Project: Lusaka Pride Soccer Stadium.
Client: Architecture for Humanity and Grassroot Soccer, Lusaka, Zambia
Contributors: Priya Khatri, Giulia de Meo, Pushkar Nagwekar, Valerie Gudenus, Vidhi Shah, Lars Wannop.
Direction: Cameron Sinclair. Architecture for Humanity.
Description: The aim of this research oriented project was to build a community centre with Soccer as the focus for the AIDS affected youth of Lusaka, Zambia. The project concentrates on understanding the culture of Zambia to develop conceptual architecture for a Soccer stadium, activity structure for the community centre, AIDS awareness programs and promotions and marketing activites to generate revenue and awareness. Duration of project including research, concept creation and model making - 4 days.

Published on Open Architecture Network

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Research
Information on AIDS in Zambia.
One in every six adults in Zambia is living with HIV and life expectancy at birth has fallen below 40 years. At the end of 2006, UNAIDS/WHO estimates that 17% of people aged 15-49 years old were living with HIV or AIDS. Of these million adults, 57% were women. Women are forced into sex work for money. There is a saying among women in Zambia: "AIDS may kill me in months or years, but hunger will kill me and my family tomorrow". In 2005 there were 710,000 AIDS orphans in the country. Men are targeting increasingly younger sexual partners whom they assume to be HIV-negative, and the "virgin cure" myth (which wrongly claims that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS) fuels much of the abuse. An increased proportion of the abusers are HIV-positive and many transmit their infection to their victims. Police handled more than 200 cases of child rape in the second quarter of 2003, and some experts believe that for every Zambia was one of the first African countries to raise awareness about AIDS. In 1988, educational pamphlets and posters were dispensed with phrases such as “Sex Thrills, but AIDS Kills!” Over a quarter of adults think that mosquitoes can transmit HIV; 22% think they can be infected by witchcraft; and 15% believe that sharing a meal with an infected person puts them at risk (From a 2005 Survey). Condoms, although looked down upon by local church authorities, have been marketed in Zambia as an AIDS prevention tool by groups like Population Services International.

Information on Zambia.
Zambia is the 39th largest country in the world and it is slightly larger than the state of Texas. The average per capita income is $395, placing Zambia as one of the world’s poorest countries. The most popular sport in Zambia is Soccer. The Zambia national Soccer team beat the Italian National team at the Seoul Olympics of 1988 by a score of 4-0. Kalusha Bwalya is Zambia’s most celebrated Soccer player. Many say that the greatest Zambian team was that one that perished on April 28, 1993 in a plane crash at Libreville, Gabon.
The official language is English. The recognized regional languages are Chibemba, Chinyanja, Lunda, Tonga, Silozi, Nkoya, Luvale, Tumbuka, Kaonde, and there are up to 70 other indigenous languages.

Local Information.
Festivals/Celebrations:
Kazanga, Kaoma (Central Western Zambia) (June - August). The Kazanga ceremony is considered Zambia's oldest traditional ceremony having been celebrated by the Nkoya people for over 500 years. The ceremony celebrates and maintains Nkoya traditions of music, dance and many other ancient practices. Kuomboka, Lealui/Limulunga (Western Province, around Easter (March-April). The most famous of Zambia's festivals, this is the ceremonial migration of the Lozi king (litunga) from his dry season abode at Lealui to his wet season palace at Limulunga. Wearing an elaborate Victorian ambassador's costume, the litunga is taken by a flotilla of barges down the river, with musical accompaniment.
Ncwala, near Chipata, 24 February. This is a Ngoni festival to celebrate the first fruit of the season, where the Ngoni chief ceremonially tastes the fruit of the land, then spears a bull and drinks its blood.
Kulamba, near Chipata, celebrated in August. This is a Chewa thanksgiving festival known for its Nyau secret society dancers.
Music:
Leo Moyo (K'millian): Male R&B/Hip Hop artist, sings in English or Bemba (zamtunes.com). His most popular hits are "Kakabalika" ('The Sun Will Shine Again) - a song which tells the story of a pregnant woman who is abandoned, "Pa Ulendo" - a song praising a woman for her prayers and thoughts as he makes a journey to see her, "Nizakukonda", "Another Day" and "I'll Be Waiting for You". His album "Another Day" and "I'll Be Waiting for You". His album spent over 21 weeks as no. 1 in the Zambian charts, whilst "Kakabalika" spent more than 14 weeks at no. 1. The most popular band in Zambian history was ‘Jaggari Chanda’s Great Witch.’ In the late 1970’s, in order to encourage Zambian national unity, President Kenneth Kaunda ordered that 95% of the music on the radio had to be Zambian. In the 1990’s, economic problems caused the collapse of the Zambian music industry; airwaves were covered with imported ragga and reggae from Jamaica and hip-hop and R&B from the United States.
From this research it can be deduced that the Zambian culture revolves around festivals, celebrations, music, dance, and Soccer.

Project components:
The Lusaka Pride Centre is designed to give the people of Lusaka a chance to plan their own future. The program combines Soccer with music and education, housing them all in the same sustainable, flexible structure. The centre will help educate the community, develop their skills, and kick off the fight against AIDS.

Architecture: Budget USD 80,000 and donations:
The design for the Lusaka Pride Centre tries to merge two of the things that Zambian people love - Soccer and Music. We believe that it is much easier to spread AIDS awareness if it is integrated in local culture and entertainment. We also want to use the structure to reinforce the sense of community, by creating a common space that can be used for Soccer and local markets. The structure is extremely flexible. The rooms for market stalls and education are made out of fabric screens. These rooms can easily be resized according to the needs of the community.
The plan also includes the generation of power using the kinetic energy of the audience, to try and make the stadium self-sustaining. We aim to create a structure that doesn’t stop at being functional. It needs to be beautiful enough for the people of Lusaka to be proud of.
The structure is shaped like an infinity symbol, so that it can incorporate a football pitch and a community space. The structure is held up by pillars and uses solar powered lights that can absorb solar energy during the day, creating a faint luminescence during the night. This enables people to play until dusk. The football pitch measures 40x20m and is surrounded by a standing-only audience space. The floor of this space is covered with energy generating panels, which use the kinetic energy created by the dancing and cheering audiences to produce electricity. The adjacent circular space has a community park where people can spend time together. In between the two spaces is a stage that can be used for musical concerts on match days. It can also be used for AIDS awareness plays and public announcements. On either side of the stage are two structures made out of the shipping containers that were used to bring the artificial turf to Lusaka. One of them is a locker room, the other is a recording studio. The entire circumference of the structure is covered with drapes, which serve as flexible walls for the various rooms of the centre. These rooms are be used for AIDS awareness classrooms, art and craft rooms, music classrooms, and market stalls. The objective of this design is to keep the structure flexible, so that the people of the centre can increase or decrease the size of classrooms, depending on the number of students they have, and create as many market stalls as they want to.

Social Program:
The centre aims to create a sense of community amongst the people of Lusaka with various cultural, educational and social programs. The main event is a weekly Soccer match followed by a music concert. The event is open to the public, and includes performances by the community youth, as well as by local and national music artists. All matches are followed by concerts. The centre can take the opportunity to record concerts and compile CDs in the music studio, and sell them during match days. The sale of these CDs generates revenue, promotes AIDS awareness, and gives the young musicians an outlet for their talent. It also builds confidence in the youth as they share centre-stage with some of the most popular music icons in Zambia. The CDs and AIDS awareness programs are also promoted on local radio channels in Lusaka, both on ZNBC-One, a 7-language radio station, and ZNBC-Four, an English radio station. In addition to music, the youth are taught about traditional Zambian art, craft, dance and food – skills that are on the verge of dying out due to a dwindling population mostly due to AIDS.

Sustainability Program:
The Lusaka Pride center is designed to be sustainable both in terms of energy and finance. The centre is largely powered with the energ collective created by the people of Lusaka in celebration. Electricity will be generated by kinetic energy produced by people dancing to the rhythm of music and soccer at the stadium. The audience stands have a waterproof floor made of a series of springs and power generators. When the steps of the people press the power generators, they produce a flowing current in a process called Piezoelectricity. This recharges a set of underground batteries, which then power the entire complex. The more number of people dance, the more energy is produced. During weekend special performances and matches this energy is produced and stored for utilization in the lighting system. Design organizations ENVIU and DOLL are two firms that have researched and implemented this idea in a disco in Rotterdam.
Solar Panels installed on the roof of the stage and the community centre provides daily energy to partially support the activities of the centre.
In addition to this, solar powered lights are used on the roof of the structure that gives a gentle illumination at night.

Finances:
The activities of the centre rely on donations and charity in the initial stages. As the Centre and its programs become popular in the local community, the Centre is able to finance itself with the help of revenue collected from the CDs sold during performances and the market activities on a daily basis.