4 ideas
Villagers made the compressed-earth bricks by hand on site; women carried water and children carried stones to the site, and the building was cool enough to teach in without electricity. It won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. Note that this account comes from a monograph edited and largely written by German curators, with Kéré contributing, so the villagers' experience reaches readers through an outside frame.
A lightweight corrugated metal roof is lifted well above a perforated ceiling of clay blocks, leaving a ventilated gap between them. Heat absorbed by the tin never radiates directly into the classroom. Warm indoor air rises through the ceiling openings and is carried off by the breeze in the gap, while deep roof overhangs shade the thick mud walls, so the room cools by stack ventilation instead of machines.
In a poor, hot region, imported concrete buildings and air conditioning need cash, foreign supply chains and electricity that villages lack. Concrete also traps heat. Its thermal mass keeps rooms cool, so the humble material outperforms the prestigious one on cost, comfort and maintenance.
Treat the building process, not just the finished building, as the product. When villagers are taught to press bricks and assemble the roof themselves, the skills stay in the community after the architect leaves. People can then repair and extend the school and build new projects. They also regard the building as their own, which gives them a reason to maintain it rather than wait for outside help.