The Kaira Looro Architecture Competition 2026

What is the Kaira Looro Architecture Competition?

Kaira Looro is a non-profit international architecture competition organised by Balouo Salo, an independent humanitarian organisation working with rural communities in southern Senegal. The name Kaira Looro comes from the Mandinka language and is generally translated as “building peace” or “architecture for peace”. For the organisers, this extends beyond the physical act of building: architecture becomes a way of creating spaces based on solidarity, dignity and shared community life.

The competition began in 2016 as a workshop before developing into the international competition that continues today. It was established with two connected aims: to raise awareness around humanitarian and development issues while generating funds for projects that address real needs in vulnerable communities. At the same time, Kaira Looro provides emerging architects with international visibility and opportunities for professional development through awards, publications and internships with leading architectural practices.

This connection between competition and humanitarian action is particularly important. Kaira Looro is not simply asking participants to imagine architecture for a hypothetical future. The competition is linked directly to Balouo Salo's work in Senegal, and its registration proceeds are donated to humanitarian projects. According to the competition's terms, 100% of registration proceeds are allocated to Balouo Salo's humanitarian activities, including projects involving wells, schools, health centres and water infrastructure.

The organisation reports that its projects have reached more than 50,000 people, with initiatives developed around access to water, healthcare, education and community infrastructure. 

This makes Kaira Looro unusual within the architectural competition landscape, as the competition itself has become part of a wider cycle: architects contribute ideas, participants contribute through their registration, and those funds support projects intended to have a tangible impact on communities.

Uche Okeke Legacy and Kaira Looro

Uche Okeke Legacy is proud to participate in this initiative as a media partner of Kaira Looro, helping to share the competition's work and the ideas of the emerging architects involved.

The partnership also has a natural connection to the Legacy's wider interest in the relationship between creativity, education, culture and community. Uche Okeke's own practice was deeply concerned with the role of art and design within society, particularly through his engagement with education, cultural heritage and the development of new approaches rooted in African contexts.

Uche Okeke Legacy has previously highlighted Kaira Looro and its humanitarian ambitions, describing the competition as an initiative that gives students and young architects the opportunity to develop design responses to humanitarian issues while contributing towards charitable projects.

For Uche Okeke Legacy, supporting the competition is therefore also an opportunity to draw attention to a generation of young designers who are considering architecture not only as a profession, but as a means of responding to social and environmental realities.

The 2026 Challenge: A Community Centre for Rural Senegal

The theme of the 2026 competition was “Community Center: Architecture for solidarity and social connection.”

Participants were asked to design a Community Centre in a rural area of southern Senegal. The proposed building was intended to become a shared space where education, culture, social interaction and community development could happen under one roof. The brief imagined a centre that could host community assemblies, meetings with authorities, training and remedial courses, craft and entrepreneurial workshops, cultural activities, recreational events and awareness-raising programmes. It needed to be multifunctional, inclusive and safe, while remaining closely connected to the local context.

But the challenge went beyond deciding what rooms should be included. The centre was to be conceived as a humanitarian self-construction project, without heavy machinery or specialised personnel. Participants were encouraged to consider natural and locally available materials, simple construction techniques and sustainable solutions that could reduce environmental impact while making the eventual project more achievable within its context. The result was a brief that required participants to balance several different questions at once: How can architecture respond to climate? How can local materials be used effectively? How can a building support education and community life? And how can design encourage local participation rather than imposing an unfamiliar architectural model?

The 2026 competition attracted participants from more than 125 countries, with a jury chaired by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and including internationally recognised architects such as David Adjaye, Benedetta Tagliabue, Amanda Levete, Mario Cucinella, Manuel Aires Mateus, Giancarlo Mazzanti, Agostino Ghirardelli, Urko Sanchez, Raul Pantaleo, Saad El Kabbaj, Driss Kettani, Emmanuelle Moureaux and Mohamed Amine Siana.

From this international field, the jury selected three projects from Greece, Poland, and Colombia for the First, Second, and Third Prizes.

First Prize: Afroditi Ioannidou and Vladimir Gligorovski, Greece

The First Prize was awarded to Afroditi Ioannidou and Vladimir Gligorovski of Greece. Their proposal takes inspiration from the traditional impluvium house of Casamance, reinterpreting its central open space as the heart of a community centre.

Rather than designing a conventional enclosed building, the architects organised the centre around a semi-circular arc. Along this curve are a covered entrance, library, study area, central community space, workshop, storage and WC facilities. The different spaces flow into one another, creating a sequence of indoor, semi-outdoor and outdoor areas. At the centre is an outdoor amphitheatre, conceived as a gathering place for the community.

The roof is one of the defining features of the proposal. Rather than simply covering the building, it becomes an architectural and social element in its own right, providing shade and creating a generous space that can be used even when no formal activity is taking place.

The structure is designed using locally harvested bamboo and rammed laterite earth. Bamboo forms the roof structure, while the rammed-earth walls create a series of enclosed volumes along the curve. The team also proposes rainwater collection from the roof, with water channelled towards handwashing stations.

Environmental strategies are integrated directly into the architecture. The double-pitched roof allows hot air to escape while encouraging natural ventilation and daylight. The building's orientation and shaded areas reduce the need for mechanical cooling, while the gravel surface of the central amphitheatre can also assist with water infiltration.

The architects describe their concept as an attempt to reinterpret a traditional Casamance typology rather than replace it with an imported architectural language. Their proposal is therefore rooted in a familiar spatial idea while adapting it to the multiple functions of a contemporary community centre.

For Ioannidou and Gligorovski, the ambition was to create a building that could belong to the village before belonging to any particular programme. As they explain in their interview, the centre is intended to accommodate everything from study and workshops to storytelling, festivals and informal moments of shade and rest.

Alongside the €6,000 First Prize, the winning team receives an internship opportunity with Kengo Kuma & Associates.

Second Prize: Marta Kuczynska and Jakub Czak, Poland

The Second Prize went to Polish architects Marta Kuczynska and Jakub Czak, whose proposal takes a more rational and modular approach to the Community Centre.

Their design is organised within a simple rectangular volume, divided into distinct functional areas while maintaining connections between them. The educational zone includes classrooms for learning, vocational training and literacy programmes, alongside a library intended for knowledge exchange and self-directed learning.

A multifunctional hall provides space for community meetings, cultural events, workshops, awareness campaigns and public discussions. The proposal also includes a dedicated space for prayer and reflection, recognising the importance of spirituality within community life.

At the centre of the building is a large semi-open gathering space protected from the sun. This becomes the social heart of the project, capable of hosting everyday encounters, celebrations and community assemblies.

One of the most distinctive elements is a series of large pivoting panels that allow the gathering space to change according to weather conditions and the needs of its users. When open, the area functions as an open pavilion; when closed, it becomes a more protected space.

These panels also bring local craft into the architecture. The proposal imagines them being produced using traditional weaving techniques, with natural grasses and palm leaves transformed into panels through processes involving local materials and natural pigments. In this way, traditional craft is not treated simply as decoration but becomes part of the functioning architecture.

The proposal also uses locally produced earth bricks for the walls and bamboo for the roof structure. Rainwater is directed towards planted areas, helping to irrigate vegetation and improve the surrounding microclimate.

For Kuczynska and Czak, the possibility of self-construction was central to their thinking. They sought an architecture that could be built using local materials and skills, involve residents in the construction process and remain adaptable over time.

Their project received a €2,000 Second Prize together with an internship opportunity at one of the participating international practices, including Benedetta Tagliabue EMBT, David Adjaye Associates or SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli.

The Third Prize was awarded to a five-member team from Colombia: Karol Eliana Cuellar Narváez, Jhuliana Giraldo, Juan Sebastian Piedrahita, Juan Santiago Uribe and Oscar Valencia. Their proposal takes perhaps the most literal approach to the idea of architecture emerging from the landscape.

The starting point is a question: what can architecture learn from the environmental intelligence that already exists within a landscape?

The team proposes a crescent-shaped building partially carved into the ground. The form is inspired by natural shelters and the ways in which excavation can create protection from heat while helping to maintain more comfortable internal conditions.

The excavated earth does not simply become waste. Instead, the proposal uses the soil removed from the site to form the building's rammed-earth walls. This creates a circular relationship between excavation and construction, with the material of the landscape becoming the material of the architecture.

The crescent is divided into modules separated by open patios. These spaces bring natural light and ventilation into the centre while also creating productive areas where the community could cultivate crops.

Three Approaches, One Shared Purpose

Although the three winning projects look very different, they share an important underlying principle: the architecture begins with the community rather than the building.

The Greek proposal looks to the traditional impluvium house of Casamance and places communal life around a shaded central space. The Polish proposal creates a flexible, multifunctional centre where education, craft, spirituality and gathering can happen alongside one another. The Colombian proposal takes its cues from the landscape itself, embedding the building into the earth and organising community life around a living tree.

Each project also takes the limitations of its context seriously. Rather than assuming that technology or imported materials are the answer, the architects explore bamboo, laterite, earth bricks, stone, timber, weaving and passive environmental strategies.

This is an important part of what makes humanitarian architecture different from simply designing a building in a developing context. The challenge is not to produce a visually impressive object and place it somewhere else. It is to understand the climate, resources, construction skills, cultural practices and everyday lives of the people who will use it.

The architects behind the 2026 winning projects were asked to think about what architecture can contribute when resources are limited but community knowledge is abundant. Their responses suggest that sustainability can be found not only in advanced technologies, but in local materials, passive design, adaptable spaces, traditional craft and meaningful participation.

Architecture as a Tool for Change

Kaira Looro's 2026 Community Centre competition demonstrates why architecture can be such a powerful medium for humanitarian work. A community centre might appear simple compared with a hospital, school or major civic building, but the programme proposed for southern Senegal brings together many of the activities that allow a community to develop: learning, gathering, making, discussing, celebrating and sharing knowledge.

The competition also creates a bridge between emerging architectural talent and communities that might otherwise remain outside the centre of international architectural discourse.

That connection is at the heart of Kaira Looro's wider mission. The competition's proceeds support Balouo Salo's humanitarian work, while the competition itself gives young architects an opportunity to engage with questions of climate, sustainability, cultural context and social responsibility. Previous Kaira Looro winning projects have also moved beyond the competition page towards real humanitarian initiatives, including projects such as the Women's House and facilities addressing healthcare and education.

For Uche Okeke Legacy, celebrating these projects is about more than recognising three winning designs. It is about recognising the young architects behind them and the possibilities that emerge when creative practice is connected to social responsibility.

Architecture cannot solve every challenge faced by a community. But it can create the spaces in which people meet, learn, work, share ideas and imagine what comes next.

That may be the most valuable idea at the heart of Kaira Looro: architecture is not only about what we build. It is also about the kind of community we make space for.