Humanitarian architecture in remote senegal: A social sustainability catalyst for development through education

Humanitarian architecture's priority is caring for people's well-being or their needs after a certain crisis, natural disaster, or the ones living in extreme poverty. (Charlsworth, 2014). Communities living in extreme poverty need a chance to develop and regenerate their place to give a perspective to young generations to stay. Otherwise, they will emigrate to other countries or cities for a better future and leave their home in a degrading state. Thus, humanitarian architecture goes beyond making architecture for user satisfaction, it has a positive impact on an individual, in a society, and participates in the improvement of a community's life in a short and long-term perspective. In this case, the study focuses on humanitarian architecture projects in rural or remote areas in Senegal. This research aims to focus on the realization of a humanitarian architecture project and measure the impact of completed humanitarian architecture projects. It is essential to evaluate how communities have participated in the construction process, how they have welcomed, and how they use the finished product in order to define the kind of relationship they have built with the infrastructure and what impact the building has on their daily lives. The investigation of the structure of organizations involved in humanitarian architecture projects helps to understand how they work and who are the stakeholders collaborating to realize such projects in Senegal. The thesis analyses case studies of humanitarian architecture projects that are mainly educational infrastructures but that drive in their construction process some key concepts like community involvement, use of local materials, and sustainable design. Through literature review, analysis of case studies, and interviews with the local community, volunteers and architects involved, in those projects in Senegal, the study aims to explore the potential of humanitarian architecture as a tool to change a community's life by leaving them construction knowledge but also the possibility of humanitarian architecture as being a catalyst of development through education in third world countries like Senegal. It opens a discussion pointing out the Senegalese government, as they collaborate with many international NGOs, to evaluate whether this strategy directed by humanitarian architects can be readapted and implemented in the remote of public infrastructures in rural or remote areas in Senegal.