The Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre will serve one of the world’s largest refugee settlements
A new cultural centre, designed for the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in northern Uganda, has gone on display at 2023 London Design Biennale at Somerset House.
The Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre has been developed by To.org and designed by Hassell in partnership with Ugandan-based LocalWorks and Arup.
Currently under construction, the centre is intended to serve as a space for creative expression, training, and performances within one of Africa’s largest refugee settlements. The settlement is currently home to more than 270,000 refugees, many of whom have escaped violence in neighbouring South Sudan.
The Bidi Bidi Pavilion at the London Design Biennale seeks to explain the design process behind the building, as well as highlighting the technical solutions that have been adopted to address the local climate. It also presents stories from the collaborative efforts of refugee and non-refugee communities involved in bringing the project to life.
The construction of the Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre seeks to employ affordable and environmentally-friendly local building materials, while the labour force consists of both refugees and Ugandans from the host community. Instead of using fired bricks, the walls of the building utilise compressed stabilised earth bricks made from soil extracted directly from the construction site.
The bricks are manually compressed and cured under the sun, eliminating the need for fuel. This traditional local method not only reduces construction expenses but also significantly minimises the environmental impact of the building.
A lightweight funnel-shaped roof naturally cools the interior of the building, ensuring a comfortable environment. Additionally, the roof is designed to collect rainwater, which is then filtered to provide clean drinking water for the community. The building is scheduled to complete in December 2023.
Founded by brothers Nachson & Arieh Mimran in 2015, To.org seeks to invest in entrepreneurial solutions to pressing environmental and social issues. Its purpose, according to the organisation’s website, is “to protect planet and people” by “seeding positive change and deconstructing the status quo”.
Xavier De Kestelier, Head of Design at Hassell said: “The Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre has been designed to empower refugees, providing the community with a space which encourages musical talent and creativity.
“We wanted to use knowledge and techniques gathered from designing for extreme climates and large scale arts centres in cities around the world and apply this to Bidi Bidi to develop spaces that are both environmentally conscious and harness talent from the community.”
Nachson Mimran, co-founder and Creative Executive Officer of To.org, said: “To.org brought together architects, ethnographers, musicians, and activists - some refugees, some not - to find innovative solutions for creating opportunities and infrastructure for the most vulnerable.
“Because of this collaboration, the Bidi Bidi refugee community will have a space to play, learn, perform, create, and share, with music and dance programming focused on reducing PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and building community, setting a new precedent for how we think about, talk about, and create opportunities for displaced people.”
The Bidi Bidi Pavilion is on display at the London Design Biennale 2023 at Somerset House until the 25th of June.
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