Heart Shaped Hands Sports Academy
Kebbie Town, Sierra Leone
Masterplanning 2022
In 2022 MOTIV partnered with professional football (soccer) player and humanitarian Kei Kamara to develop the design for a sports academy on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown. As a native Sierra Leonean and former national team captain, Kei is committed to creating a sustainable program for athletes within this developing country that provides not only elite training and facilities, but a quality education for the country’s future leaders.
The 100 acre site is currently a palm plantation jutting into mangrove forests surrounding the adjacent river. This important ecosystem drives site planning and the educational program, with outdoor classrooms providing vital opportunities to learn about this threatened environment and running trails traversing the site to ensure that it’s wellbeing is always within student’s and teachers minds.
The design provides a phased approach to construction - allowing the academy to grow incrementally and sustainably. The buildings and infrastructure will be sited to maintain existing fruit bearing trees and create a heart of school that is surrounded by agriculture and integrated into their environment.
MOTIV built on early documentation developed and provided by MGA Architecture.