Three courtyard buildings on a 13-acre site near Kamuli town in Eastern Uganda provide accommodation, teaching and working space for agricultural students from Iowa State University and Makerere University.
The architecture contrasts a heavily textured clay brick envelop with light-weight timber-glass and coloured render facades facing the courtyards. An undulating roofscape organically embeds the buildings into the surrounding, and the folded metal gutters not only make an architectural statement of the rainwater harvesting that supply the majority of the Centre's water needs, but also act as light reflectors illuminating the underside of the walkway roofs.
The buildings were designed to minimise on the impact of the Centre on the natural environment. Besides a centralised rainwater harvesting system, solar panels generate a substantial proportion of the electricity demands and an anaerobic baffled reactor with constructed wetland ensures an environmentally friendly wastewater treatment system. Passive design principles including ventilated roofs supported by trussed purlins ensure a comfortable indoor climate throughout.
