The firm has worked together with Article 25, a construction charity, ‘Save the Children’, and UK’s engineering consultancy firm ‘Buro Happold’, to offer a design prototype for the school design project. The design has integrated local design insights by working in close association with the local community.

The design reveals highly flexible buildings with larger classrooms benefiting from effective ventilation and natural light.

The design incorporates modular features, with floor, walls and roof on a flexible plan, which can be easily assembled and reconfigured to meet the different demands of communities in Sierra Leone.

The school can be easily assembled using locally sourced bush-sticks, standard-sized timber planks and generic modules of sheet metal for the roof.

Louvered apertures in the walls admit natural light and reduce contrast with the daylight outside.

The pitch of the roof is at a 30 degree angle, to minimize solar gain and encourage cross-ventilation. The ‘top hat’ of an additional roof increases air flow through the spaces and adds more natural light.

The roof can be extended to create a generous overhang at either end of the building, creating shaded external areas for informal teaching or play.

Foster has designed the buildings taking into account climatic and economic restraints and it has produced something close to a new vernacular, ‘an architecture without architects’.

Though the scheme visually resonates with existing schools, functionally it displays dramatic departure from the traditional design patterns. This has ensured widespread acceptance of the design, enabling teachers to move around in classrooms that are light and naturally ventilated and offering better security and supervision.

The design is being jointly funded by Foster + Partners, Article 25 and Buro Happold; construction will be financed by the Foster family.

The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition is the largest open submission contemporary art exhibition drawing together a wide range of new work by both established and unknown living artists. It is held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, UK.

Summer Exhibition 2009, which was first held in a warehouse on Pall Mall from 1769 to 1779, is now in its 241st year. It will be held from June 8 to August 16, 2009.