ARC 300
Instructor: Mauricio Quiros Pacheco
Summer 2026
Travel Dates: Three weeks in July (exact dates TBC)

Canadian Centre for Architecture x U of T Daniels Summer School with Nzinga B. Mboup of CCA c/o Dakar and Worofila – (Re)imagining Senegalese Indigenous Crafts and Building Techniques

Program Introduction

In the context of increasingly imported and generic architecture, developing a more endogenous, situated approach to the building process has become central to architectural and urban discourse. The research conducted for the CCA c/o Dakar program has shed light on different materials and crafts that operate within a broad ecosystem of craftsmen, builders, and territories that have shaped the modern architectural and urban landscape in Senegal. Investigating these relationships has connected questions of resources, extraction, heritage, and indigenous craftsmanship to human trajectories and local knowledge & value systems. Drawing on the networks, testimonies, and fieldwork developed through the CCA’s research, the Summer School aims to become a space for ongoing knowledge transmission and material experimentation. The goal is to offer an educational framework for exploring and appropriating bioclimatic and non-extractive construction alternatives by studying and immersing oneself in the local ecosystems and heritage of Senegal. 

The first phase will consist of architectural walks and field trips, mainly across the Dakar region, that will help students identify various building materials and in their context. Three days will be dedicated to exploring the various construction techniques and materials within the capital, visiting the architecture-rich university campus, the city centre "Plateau" and other emblematic buildings of Dakar's modern heritage. The field trips will also help the students connect the identified local production systems to the extraction process through quarry visits. A day-trip to Rufisque for instance, a town highly influenced by its colonial history, will be combined with a visit to the nearby limestone quarry of Bargny.

Outcomes:

1. Photographs, drawings, and mapping the buildings.

PHASE 2: Cartographing human and material ecosystems
In the second phase of the workshop students will evaluate the information gathered and observed during site visits to produce maps of material and overall representations and materials to document the ecosystems encountered. They might use tools such as cosmograms to successfully represent the scale of the material and its territorial and human implications in order to fully comprehend the actors, sites and crafts involved.
Materials:

1. Fired Earth
2. Shell Concrete
3. Sculpted Concrete
4. Fiber
5. Rufisque Limestone

Outcomes: 

1. Cosmogram
2. Collages
3. Maps

PHASE 3: Designing prototypes
The last phase introduces workshop sessions, lead by senegalese craftspeople and will allow students to incorporate learned skillsets and material knowledge into new design propositions and methods, adapted to Senegal’s current urban, material, territorial, cultural, and political conditions. These will be expressed through 1:1 or 1:2 prototypes of the techniques studied, which will ultimately be exhibited at the 2026 Dakar Biennale, including documentation of the production process.

Methods:

1. Stone cutting
2. Brick-laying
3. Thatch roofing / Weaving
4. Fired brick making
5. Shell concrete finishing

Outcomes:

1. 1:1 Prototype or 2:1 Prototype
2. Project panels

Cost: approx. $5,000 (including hotel, flight, food, and transport)

Application 

This Studies Abroad course is available to undergraduate Architectural Studies (BAAS) and Visual Studies (BAVS) students in all streams who have completed 1.0 credit of ARC courses at the 200-level prior to the summer session in which the course is being offered.

Students wishing to apply should submit a CV and 250-word statement expressing their interest by 12 noon on Wednesday, April 22. Applications must be submitted in a single PDF file to this link.

Interested students with questions are invited to contact Professor Mauricio Quiros Pachecho.
 

Application Form: ARC300H0: Senegal Application

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 12:00PM EST.