Rural Senegal community center designs selected in 2026 Kaira Looro competition
The winners have been announced for the 2026 Kaira Looro competition. The challenge, organized by non-profit organization Balouo Salo, called on participants to design a community center in rural Senegal “conceived to strengthen education, social inclusion, culture, and community development in one of the country’s most vulnerable regions.”
The brief called for a multifunctional civic space capable of housing educational, cultural, and social activities. Participants were also asked to prioritize self-construction techniques, local materials, and low-impact construction strategies adapted to rural environments in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The winning entries are as follows:
1ST PRIZE
Afroditi Ioannidou, Vladimir Gligorovski (Greece)
Project description excerpt: “In the Casamance, the impluvium house is organized around a central open space where rainwater collects, light filters inward, and daily life gathers. This project reinterprets that typology — not as a single dwelling, but as a community center that belongs to the village first, and to specific programs second. The building follows a semi‑circular arc, elongated and gently twisted. From left to right, the plan unfolds as: covered entrance, library, study area, a large central community space, workshop, storage, and WC. Rather than a closed corridor, the arc creates a natural flow — indoor, semi‑indoor, and outdoor spaces intertwine. Every space opens toward a central outdoor amphitheatre, a graveled stage that becomes the heart of collective life. The roof unifies everything. It is the gesture that makes the building legible, welcoming, and generous. A Roof That Is the Main Public Space The roof is double‑pitched, rising higher on one side and lowering toward the other. The central ridge is slightly elevated; the two ends almost touch the ground. This organic movement regulates sun, privacy, and hierarchy of use. The entrance is open and high — an arrival point. The library and workshop protrude slightly from under the roof, framing the central space. The WC is tucked low, almost invisible. But the roof is not merely a cover. It is an active public space in itself. Even when no programmed activity takes place, the shade beneath the roof is always available — for elders playing chess, for children gathering after school, for anyone needing a cool place to sit, talk, or use the latrine. The center does not demand a purpose to be useful. It exists as part of the village and part of the landscape — a shaded threshold between the domestic and the communal. Structure and Assembly: Bamboo, Air, and Light The roof is carried by a bamboo structure. Double columns on each side support paired beams that meet in a central V configuration. A double thatch layer — straw under metal cladding — provides thermal insulation, fire protection, and natural ventilation. A deliberate height shift between the two sides of the pitched roof allows hot air to escape and daylight to enter.”
2ND PRIZE
Marta Kuczynska, Jakub Czak (Poland)
Project description excerpt: “The Community Center has been conceived as a response to the social, educational, and cultural needs of a rural community in southern Senegal. More than a building, it is envisioned as a catalyst for social development, collective identity, and community resilience. The project creates a safe, inclusive, and multifunctional environment where people of all ages can learn, gather, share experiences, preserve traditions, and actively shape their future together. Designed as a humanitarian self-construction initiative, the center relies on simple building methods, locally available materials, and traditional craftsmanship. This approach allows local residents to participate in the construction process, strengthening their sense of ownership while ensuring that the project remains affordable, sustainable, and rooted in local knowledge. The architectural concept is based on a clear and rational organization of functions within a simple rectangular volume. The layout reflects the daily rhythms, traditions, and social structure of rural Senegalese life. The building is divided into distinct functional zones while maintaining strong connections between them. The educational area includes classrooms dedicated to learning, vocational training, literacy programs, and community development initiatives. Complementing these spaces is a library that serves as a place for knowledge exchange, self-education, and lifelong learning. Adjacent to the educational zone is a multifunctional hall designed to host community meetings, cultural events, workshops, awareness campaigns, and public discussions. Its flexible nature allows it to accommodate a wide variety of activities and changing community needs. Recognizing the importance of spirituality in local culture, the project also incorporates a dedicated prayer and reflection space. This quiet area respects local traditions and provides a place for contemplation and personal reflection. At the heart of the project lies a large semi-open gathering space protected from the intense African sun. This shaded area serves as the social center of the complex, hosting daily encounters, informal conversations, community assemblies, celebrations, and collective activities.”
3RD PRIZE
Karol Eliana Cuellar Narváez, Jhuliana Giraldo, Juan Sebastian Piedrahita, Juan Santiago Uribe, Oscar Valencia (Colombia)
Project description excerpt: “The project begins with a question: what can be learned from the intelligence already embedded in a landscape before any building arrives? In a territory where resources are finite and climate conditions demand precise responses, this proposal seeks to reinterpret an ancestral wisdom that, long before any designed intervention, had already produced efficient, resilient, and ecologically connected shelters. Inspiration comes from the invisible architecture of the earth itself. Just as certain species excavate curved refuges to protect themselves from heat, preserve energy, and maintain habitable conditions, the building is conceived as an extension of the landscape rather than an imposition upon it. Its footprint emerges from a series of curved excavations forming a crescent, a half-moon carved into the ground that becomes the founding gesture of the entire project. This crescent is subdivided into paired modules separated by open patios. These courtyard voids serve a double purpose: they draw natural light and cross-ventilation deep into each space, and their stepped earthen edges become productive surfaces where the community can cultivate crops. The excavation that makes the building also makes a garden and a protected public agora, a gathering crack in the earth shielded from the region’s intense heat waves by the very mass of soil that surrounds it. Light enters not only laterally through the patios but also from above through polycarbonate skylights that allow diffuse, thermally controlled zenithal illumination throughout the day. The wall system is composed of three complementary materials, each responding to a distinct structural and environmental role. The primary enclosure is tapia, rammed earth built using the red laterite soil extracted from the site itself. This technique is deeply artisanal, requiring manual labor, local knowledge, and no industrial inputs. The earth removed to form the excavation becomes the very material that closes the spaces: an act of radical circularity. Alongside the tapia walls, concrete retaining walls manage the lateral pressures of the embedded sections and incorporate a drainage filter system that channels rainwater away from the foundations, preventing moisture accumulation in the earthen elements. The third wall type is stone with electrowelded mesh, a non-permanent and adaptable system directly linked to the project’s future expansion modules. Because this wall can be removed or reconfigured without affecting the primary structure, it allows spaces to grow or contract as the community’s needs evolve over time, making adaptability a material condition of the building rather than an afterthought.”
HONORABLE MENTION
Alexandre Fidèle (Mauritius)
Project description excerpt: “This project is conceived as an architecture of shelter, assembly, and organic growth. Its main idea is to create a built form that feels alive, fluid, and protective, while remaining clear in its structure and coherent in its spatial logic. Rather than relying on a rigid or monolithic volume, the project develops through a fragmented composition of interconnected elements gathered under a shared roof. This approach allows the architecture to express both unity and variation, giving each part its own identity while maintaining a strong overall harmony. The concept is rooted in the idea that a building can be both structural and poetic: precise in its construction, yet expressive in its form and atmosphere. The design process begins with morphogenesis, where form is not imposed but gradually developed through sketches, physical models, and digital studies. Each step of the process contributes to refining the geometry, proportions, and spatial relationships of the project. The form evolves from an initial intuitive gesture into a more controlled and buildable system. This progressive transformation is essential to the project, because it allows the architecture to move from abstract inspiration to constructive reality. The result is a building whose shape appears organic, yet is supported by a rigorous internal logic. Materiality plays a central role in the project. Bamboo is used as the primary structural material, not only for its technical qualities but also for its expressive potential. Lightweight, flexible, and strong, bamboo makes it possible to develop curved and dynamic forms while keeping the structure legible and efficient. It becomes more than a building material: it is also a design instrument that shapes the spatial character of the project. Earth is used alongside bamboo to provide mass, grounding, and thermal performance. In the walls and base, earth introduces solidity and continuity, balancing the lightness of the bamboo frame. This combination creates a rich dialogue between elevation and anchoring, movement and stability. The structure is conceived through a system of bamboo hyperboloid forms, which generate the main architectural framework. These forms create a sense of upward movement and spatial rhythm, while also allowing the building to remain open and breathable. “
HONORABLE MENTION
Ariane Baillargeon (Canada)
Project description excerpt: “Roots of Memory is a community center located in Enampore, a Jola village in southern Senegal, where sacred forests play a central role in cultural, social, and spiritual life. Numerous legends and beliefs are associated with these forests, making certain trees sacred beings that embody memory and heritage. In Jola culture, the tree is far more than a natural element; it serves as a place of gathering, knowledge transmission, and community rootedness. Rather than drawing inspiration from the tree’s form, the project is inspired by its phenomenology, seeking to recreate its roles of convergence, rootedness, and refuge through architecture. The project is located at the edge of the forest, near the village gathering spaces and the main sandy paths that connect them. Its roof extends above existing circulation routes and becomes a living support for vegetation that gradually inhabits it. To preserve the trees already present on the site, openings are integrated into the structure, allowing them to continue growing through the architecture. Piece-on-piece log walls constructed from locally reclaimed dead palm tree trunks create a sequence of thresholds between openness and protection, while the site layout preserves the existing canopy and generates shaded spaces that accompany daily movement. The project therefore acts as an extension of the forest landscape and encourages spontaneous community gatherings. The project is organized around three pavilions inspired by the symbolic roles of the tree: convergence, rootedness, and refuge. Together, they create a place dedicated to gathering, learning, and the transmission of knowledge. The Convergence Pavilion marks the main entrance to the project and serves as its community heart. Like the traditional palaver tree, it hosts meetings, exchanges, and collective activities. Trees rise through the roof structure and contribute to the creation of a vegetated canopy that provides shade and thermal comfort. Visible from the surrounding pathways, this space acts as both a focal point and a threshold between the village and the project, where residents naturally gather. It accommodates celebrations, dances, and festive gatherings, as well as discussions, community councils, and collective decision-making. Surrounded by sacred trees, the community gathers in a place where nature and culture meet. The Rootedness Pavilion is organized around a majestic kapok tree, a sacred species that holds an important place in Jola beliefs. Considered a living being inhabited by a spirit and carrying collective memory, it becomes the heart of the pavilion. Protected by its presence, the space supports the transmission of legends, ancestral stories, and forest-related knowledge.”
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