Yorkshire teamwith designs onMadonna school

NEW images have been revealed of the school in Malawi which is being paid for by pop star Madonna.

Engineers from Adams Kara Taylor (AKT), part of the WYG Group, which is based in Headingley, Leeds, are working on the new Academy for Girls School in Malawi, an African country close to Madonna’s heart as it is the birthplace of her adopted children, David and Mercy.

As part of the project, AKT is working with Raising Malawi and New York architects, studioMDA, on the design of the school located on a site a little less than 10km north of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.

Yesterday it emerged Malawi’s Government had backed Madonna in a land dispute with villagers after they refused to leave.

Lilongwe District Commissioner, Charles Kalemba, told 200 villagers the Government land had been handed over to Madonna. The villagers were offered other Government land. Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, who will be principal of Madonna’s school, said Madonna had compensated villagers.

Headman Binson Chinkhota urged villagers to move, saying the school would benefit their children.

The academy includes a library and administration building, dining hall, gymnasium, sports field, 30 classrooms, 12 dormitories and 18 staff houses on a 46 hectare site.

A spokesman for AKT said a key ambition of the project was to maximise the use of local labour and materials, such as bricks made from soil on site.

As part of the project AKT are aiming to demonstrate to local workers how traditional materials can be used in different ways and it is hoped the designs created are universal enough to allow them to be utilised on future education projects across Malawi.

The Academy for Girls will become a campus for 450 pupils when it is completed in two years’ time.