Standard Tropical Timber-Framed Housing.

This production model derives from Jean Prouvé’s 1958 steel-framed prototype.

The contract for six hundred and eighteen modules for teacher housing and school buildings was awarded to Atelier LWD in 1964, following an international competition funded by the European Fund.

The selected program demonstrates a successful synthesis of traditional and modern techniques.

Designed with a modular principle of 8.75 x 8.75 m at the center distance of the load-bearing posts, the housing units consist of one or two modules, and the school buildings of one to six modules.

The result of the collaboration between Jean Prouvé, consulting engineer, and the Atelier d’architecture LWD (Lagneau, Weill & Dimitrijevic), this structure embodies the prospective research for an industrialized housing system for tropical countries, and particularly for equatorial Africa with its hot and humid climate.

Unlike Jean Prouvé’s Tropical Houses (1949-1950), the process studied here does not aim for complete industrialization of construction, but rather the mass production of a few standardized metal elements complemented by local materials, easily assembled by local labor.

These prefabricated elements include an aluminum roof tray and facade panel, manufactured in Cameroon by the Alucam factory in Édéa, a subsidiary of Péchiney-Aluminium Français, as well as a load-bearing post made of folded steel sheet of French manufacture.
The concrete screed, the gable walls, and the facade wall sections (depending on the model, recommended in concrete blocks or wood cladding in forested areas), as well as the red wood framework, are produced by local labor.

The pursuit of economies through the valorization of Cameroon’s natural resources guided the architects towards the extensive use of wood in this production model, replacing Jean Prouvé’s 1958 steel framework prototype, which was far too expensive.

Most of these buildings have been destroyed or altered, their fragile aluminum facade panels replaced by concrete block walls.

The Timber Framework

Four load-bearing posts, made of navy blue lacquered folded steel sheet and placed at the four corners, are shorter and of stronger section in the production model than in the prototype. The two lateral trusses of a robust red wood framework are fitted and bolted onto these posts, supporting the purlins to which the aluminum roof trays are fixed by hooks.

Purlins and lattice trusses are assembled with Japy screws and bolts on the first units built in the suburbs of the capital Yaoundé, later replaced by more economical nailing.

The Umbrella-Sunshade Roof

An aluminum tray roof, extending significantly beyond the living unit, forms an effective umbrella-sunshade against the effects of rain and sun.

Thermal protection is provided by the permanent ventilation of the free space between the umbrella-sunshade and the false ceiling, and by the transverse ventilation from the perforated corrugated sheets and adjustable louver panels, known as “Nacos”.