Namabaale Education Centre nestles in the lush and undulating landscape of Lwengo District in the Central Region of Uganda. Designed by Localworks, a Uganda-based studio specializing in the design and construction of contextual green architecture, Namabaale Education Centre is a 3-in-1 primary school campus for 1,000 children (the project is funded by the Cotton On Foundation).
The new education centre’s plan was designed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. “The primary school was intended to be a single primary campus in the original master plan, which was designed prior to the pandemic,” explains Juliana Achi, Graduate Architect at Localworks. “Thereafter it was redesigned as a three-campus primary school with the three tiers — lower, middle, and upper primary — split into three semi-independent campuses, providing protected learning spaces that cater to distinct age and developmental groups.” Each semi-independent campus has the facilities necessary for a full day of school, including administration and classroom blocks, assembly halls, libraries, IT labs, kitchens, and toilets.
The Namabaale Education Centre’s classrooms are the third generation of a series of primary schools that Localworks has completed for the Cotton On Foundation during the past decade. In that time, the design has evolved: the basic principles have been retained — such as prioritizing durability, low maintenance, and the use of local materials — however, the structures have become increasingly lighter. In the latest revision, Localworks employed a bold steel–brick composite wall system in which the window frame doubles as a wall stiffener, concealed in a half-brick wall: a single layer of brick with a stretcher bond. This results in a significant weight reduction which in turn leads to greater efficiency in foundation design; it also allows for the roof to be built before much of the time-consuming brickwork is completed.
“The foundation comprises a concrete ground beam supported on a solid concrete block plinth wall that sits on a mass concrete strip footing,” says Achi. “The roof system consists of profiled zinc- and aluminum-coated steel roofing sheets on a steel and timber roof structure. This reflective roofing minimizes heat absorption.”
The education centre’s buildings are distinguished by the use of earthy brickwork. “The varicolored fair-faced clay bricks were chosen due to their exceptional behavior over an extended period of time,” explains Achi. “These bricks are manufactured by Butende Brick Works in Masaka, a neighboring district. The bricks help in the construction of buildings that essentially don’t age, in spite of their exposure to muddy or dusty conditions.”
Catering to the needs of around 1,000 children, it is important that Namabaale Education Centre’s buildings are hard-wearing. Floors, for example, are made up of 100-millimeter-thick hand-floated concrete slabs (creating a smoother surface). The slabs are installed on a base of concrete blinding, sand blinding, and hardcore set on compacted earth.
Campus buildings with a specialist role — assembly halls, libraries, and IT labs — are conceived by Localworks as “siblings” of the classroom blocks. Typically designed as freestanding pavilions with hexagonal footprints, the buildings are treated as covered outside spaces in response to Uganda’s moderate climate (with little year-round fluctuation in temperature). Privacy is afforded via the use of exposed brick walls with an openwork design.
