Project update – Low-cost school and home for HIV orphans, Rakai, Uganda

The Mukwano Home creates a community like a family, where the orphans themselves, using low-tech building methods construct their community.

Holcim Awards Silver 2008 Africa Middle East
Overview The first series of eight buildings are now completed including residential space for 50 orphans and a primary school catering to around 200 children.
Main author Koji Tsutsui, architect, Koji Tsutsui Architect & Associates, Tokyo, Japan

Initial nucleus of a small community
The project to build a school and home for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS has been built on a tiny budget of USD 30,000. The first eight rectangular units have now been completed on a rural site without water or power, and form the nucleus of a small community. The project is environmentally and socially sustainable while maintaining an innovative approach to space making.

The architect used a rule-based approach to yield the spatial organization of the community, which comprises residential space for 50 orphans and a primary school catering to around 200 children. The simple freestanding rectangular structures are simple to set out and erect using basic equipment and unskilled labor.

The eight basic hut structures provide two sleeping spaces, three lecture halls, two offices and a bathroom – arranged in a ragged circle around the spreading foliage of a “teaching tree”, under which students can gather and take classes. Canopies link the triangular spaces between structures, creating a continuously-roofed outdoor space. The courtyard, with its tree and well, serve as a practical and symbolic heart of the community.

The walls are made of unfinished masonry, and support simple tin roofs on timber trusses. All materials are sourced locally and are easy to erect. Rainwater is collected from the roofs in cisterns; solar panels are used to generate power for lighting and computers. The children participate in growing food, providing the basis of a self-sufficient community.


The whole project strives for appropriate domestic technology and self-reliance: for example, the homes will be built by the orphans with local materials, utilize solar energy, and the community will produce their own food-stuffs.

Project background
HIV/Aids has made orphans of millions of children. With a tree at its symbolic center, the Lowcost school and home for HIV orphans enables children to create their own home, and even help in its construction. As the children grow to adulthood, the village can be extended for their own families to grow up in this caring community.

Last updated: 23-May-2011