Nos mudamos! Adiós Vigatans! Hola Amargós!
Ens mudem! Adéu Vigatans! Hola Amargós!
We're moving! Bye Vigatans! Hi Amargós!
On demenage! Salut Vigatans! Bonjour Amargós!
FARAFINA is a project in three phases that combines a commercial and cultural activity located in Barcelona, a training hotel in Bamako designed by architecture students from the US, and a training center for children and youth in Siby (Mali) located 50 km. west of Bamako.
STORE:
FARAFINA, the African home store, opened in late 2005 on Vigatans Street in Barcelona (watch a video), and five years later it is moving to 10bis Amargós Street, not far away from its original location. During its first five years, FARAFINA has imported articles made by African craftsmen with whom it has a direct and equitable professional relationship. Through its careful selection of furniture and articles for the home that are representative of the best contemporary African design, FARAFINA has also acted as an informal embassy of Subsaharan Africa in Barcelona. It has become a place of dialogue and encounters for many lovers of African culture and for those who did not know about it but who have been impressed by the originality and beauty coming from countries often associated with poverty and conflict. FARAFINA tries hard to improve such negative perceptions of Subsaharan culture and creativity at all levels. It is for this reason that it also has a music section as well as a section with products of everyday use, such as sheabutter, traditional herbal teas, incense and toys for children.
HOTEL IN BAMAKO:
Around 2008, FARAFINA started a project in Bamako to build a training hotel on the Niger River. In order to exploit its full pedagogical potential, FARAFINA contacted a group of architecture students at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in order to create designs for the hotel as part of a projects seminar directed by Professor Zeuler Lima. Hopefully these designs will be a point of departure for the actual construction of the hotel, which will be carried out in collaboration with the ESIAU, the Bamako school of architecture.
TRAINING CENTER AT SIBY:
The third phase of the project will begin once the hotel starts operating and making some profit as its source of funding will be the revenues from the hotel. It is the creation of a training center for children and youth without means and/or with disabilities in Siby, a small town located 50 km. west of the capital city of Mali.
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