Project Partners: Harpenden Spotlight On Africa, Nick Maughan Foundation, Studio 14 Structural

Project Brief: Access to digital education in rural areas in Uganda is severely limited, despite Africa’s prominence as a growing hub for technology skills outsourcing. Spotlight on Africa, in collaboration with The Nick Maughan Foundation are looking to change this through the creation of the first of a series of purpose built IT education centres in Uganda. The IT centre will provide state of the art facilities for the school’s 1,000 children to access IT classes as well as the opportunity for adults in the local area to access evening classes teaching a variety of digital skills catered to different levels.

Our Services: Brief development, Concept Design, Developed Design, Technical Design.

The Musoto IT Centre project aims to provide a state of the art IT education building which includes a classroom,
a server room, office, store and outdoor secured study spaces.

The project will be located at the Musoto Christian School in Mbale and is intended to be the first of a number of the centres that will be rolled out across the rest of the Mbale region and eventually, rest of Uganda.

A key scheme driver is a modular design which can be adapted to suit various different sites as the centre gets rolled out in future phases.

The design will aim to provide an inspiring space that opens up new opportunities for the children that receive an education at the facility. The building will primarily be used during the school day for teaching a digital education based curriculum, however, the facility will be opened up for evening classes for mature students as well as for hosting digital community outreach events and training days.

The design prioritises plenty of natural daylight, without compromising security. To keep energy usage to a minimum, a natural ventilation scheme is in place to ensure that the occupants feel comfortable and the heat generated by any computers or digital equipment can be removed without the need for air conditioning.

Taking inspiration from the local vernacular and using locally sourced materials is paramount to the values of the project. Durability and low maintenance is key to providing a long term solution that still brings joy to its occupants in many years to come.

This project is currently on site and is due to complete in May 2023.