In the Mauritanian city of Sélibaby LEVS has designed ‘New Sélibaby’, an urban plan and architectural design for 250 new social houses. Build from HCEB blocks, 50 houses will be finished this year. Currently, house 13 is on its way!
The city is facing serious challenges due to being exposed to yearly inundations. That is why it will be gradually relocated to a water protected area. We also address the request behind this question. How can our design have impact and help to make New Sélibaby prosper? How can we integrate local traditions in a contemporary design instead of the standard technocratic design strategy? This is achieved by disrupting the typical grid system, by adding squares, parks, markets, mosques and schools. The typical wide and space consuming streets are replaced by more traditional and shaded narrow streets which creates square metres for collective vegetable gardens. The houses are built by trained, local people and made with sustainable hydraulically compressed earth blocks (HCEB).
Client: Mauritanian Ministry of Habitat
June 2020