Parc National du Mali

For the fiftieth anniversary of the country’s independence, the national park reopened with a set of new buildings: a restaurant, a sports centre and several entrance pavilions. They were designed by a practice based in Germany and founded by an architect from neighbouring Burkina Faso.

The restaurant sits on top of a rock formation and settles against it, its functions spread across the outcrop. Throughout the design, the aim was to bring the wide view over the park and the nearby lake into the building.

The sports centre shares the same language. Three pavilions surround an oval playing field, placed to give as much shade as possible to the field and to the indoor rooms. Here too, the link between inside and outside shaped the plan. The entrance buildings borrow from both, so the ensemble reads as one recognisable architecture across the park.

All the buildings are clad in local natural stone, which roots them in place and keeps costs down. The thick stone walls insulate the interiors and keep them cool. Only a few rooms, such as the restaurant dining hall, are air-conditioned, and there a strip closes the gap between wall and roof.