Designs for the Global South: a sustainable primary school in Uganda

Abstract

In the summer of 2011 Robin Young-Ellis, a philanthropist, humanitarian, businesswoman and a board member of the non-profit group “Hope4Kids International” contacted the School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin (UTSoA) seeking design assistance for a new rural primary school in Uganda. In response to her challenge UTSoA graduate students, Kaziah Haviland, Amarantha Quintana-Morales, Carrie Joynton, Todd Mattocks, Greg Montgomery, Rachel Bullock, Brian Doherty and their faculty advisor, Professor Michael Garrison, formed a student group called Texas Impact Design. Texas Impact Design was founded to design a new rural primary school in Uganda that would promote regional sustainable design as an example for rural school development. Our research found many challenges facing Uganda, including poverty and unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate funding and financial services, gender issues and poor social services, especially health and quality education. This paper will describe the Texas Impact Design of a proposed Busia Primary School in rural Uganda.