Seth Gebhart: Housing Compound- Freetown, SL

This is a compound or a house that is located in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is located in the northwestern part of the African continent. It has recently been in the news frequently due to the Ebola outbreak. The compound here serves as a home to around 75 orphans who have either lost their parents to disease, war, or natural causes. The compound itself is made up of 3 main buildings, as well as 1 large courtyard area, and a maintenance room for the electrical generator that is ran at night. The compound sounds quite large, but is actually not as big as you would think for housing nearly 75 orphans. The compound to me, brings back many good memories. Although it is not nice, or "comfortable" living- the environment of people and tight knit areas of open space make it great. Because there are so many people living here, I was always able to enjoy playing soccer, basketball or talking or drawing with some of the orphans. It never failed that there was something to do in the open areas that the compound provided. This home is built for interaction with people it seems, as it has so many open areas- it has only 3 rooms in the entire compound that is completely closed off. The library, one private room, and as well as the bathrooms. Because of this all the other areas are wide open spaces and open for talking and interacting. This interaction is something that I learned was important when designing my own housing. In addition, it teaches about the dangers of dealing with open areas and the safety and health concerns that also must come with designing open areas with high population.