Africa Research and Exchange Academy (AREA) Campus

The Africa Research and Exchange Academy combines classrooms with spaces for construction research and practical testing. In Kumbo, Cameroon, the proposal creates a place where researchers, builders, students, and community members can exchange knowledge about locally useful construction and infrastructure. Derek McFarland’s thesis began with close study of the region’s climate, water and electricity constraints, vernacular buildings, local materials, and the social role of the Nso community. That research shaped a campus organized for teaching, testing, and making rather than a sealed academic institution.

Program zones support research and instruction while construction itself becomes part of the curriculum: methods can be demonstrated, evaluated, and improved in place. The design responds to the northwest’s heavy rainfall and rolling terrain and draws value from established building knowledge instead of treating it as a constraint. Developed with Journeyman International and AREA, the project remains a design and construction proposal: a framework for reciprocal learning in which outside expertise and local experience meet on equal ground.