Children’s Eco-village – International Design Competition

Description

THE DESIGN CHALLENGE

We want to take the built environment to a new level in the villages of Kenya to demonstrate to our children, the impact good design can have on their quality of life. We want to work with creative architecture students and recent graduates from around the world to develop a new village that is environmentally sustainable, low cost, simple to build, and is contextually responsive to the site, culture, climate and its unique use.

The challenge is in two parts:
1. Masterplan a holistic children-focused eco village complete with the facilities outlined in the brief including the homes, schools, farm and playing fields
2. Create a unique design solution for each of these facilities

This village will be built over the next 2 years and will become home to an additional 100 orphaned and abandoned children. It will serve as a sister campus to the existing One Heart Village located 30 minutes away in Turbo to enable us to share some staff and resources.

The judging by our international panel of guest judges will be anonymous, therefore, participants must not place the names of individuals or groups or the location of participants on the presentation panels. The winning entrant will not only win the prize money, they will also be invited to work in partnership with Melbourne based firm ClarkeHopkinsClarke architects, to further develop the scheme and see it come to life.

HOW IS IT FUNDED?

One Heart Foundation is a not for profit organisation. All board members and administration assistants based in Australia, work on a volunteer basis. Our operational costs in Kenya, including staff salaries and the costs associated with raising our children are predominantly raised through child sponsorship here in Australia and abroad.
All funds associated with construction of homes and schools are raised through targeted fundraising campaigns in Australia, and through strategic events such as the Run from Poverty Experience .
One Heart Foundation does not, and will not, take on debt and therefore, will not take out bank loans for our projects. Therefore, every dollar we invest in facilities must be carefully considered. We need to work within very modest construction budgets to deliver the primary function of the space be it a new home or classroom.

THE SITE

One Heart has recently purchased 8 acres of land on Forest Road in the Provence of Soy, Kakamega County. The property is located is a 40 minute drive north-west of Eldoret, Kenya’s 4th largest city. Kakamega County is in western Kenya is a rural area with a poverty rate of 53% and where around 30% of children do not attend school.