Over the summer of 2016 we have seen the completion of the two storey dormitory and classroom block at Lake Bunyonyi School, Uganda.
Lake Bunyonyi School in southern Uganda provides secondary school education and vocational training to nearly 300 pupils from the surrounding rural region.
Since 2008, the school has benefitted from the support of the Richard Feilden Foundation and the Happold Foundation along with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Architects and BuroHappold Engineering. This support has manifested itself through five phases of construction including classrooms and washrooms, ground stabilisation and drainage systems, a new dining area and, most recently, a boys’ dormitory. Today the school is largely self-sustainable; low school fees are supplemented by income gathered from other sources such as the sale of crops grown on school land and honey from the school’s beehives.
Our latest phase of work took place over the summer of 2016. This phase was concentrated on the fit out of the two-storey boys’ dormitory and classroom block – the first two storey structure at the school. The work included building infill masonry walls and installing electricity supplies to make the structure habitable. We also created a drainage system to help protect slope stability, and made significant improvements to the access routes around the dormitory.
On site, the 2 month programme was managed by volunteers from BuroHappold and FCB Studios. It is through BuroHappold’s SOS scheme that our engineers gained the time to work on site at Lake Bunyonyi, and furthermore gained time to design, plan and provide site support back in the UK. The Happold Foundation awarded the BuroHappold volunteers a grant to cover the costs of flights to help make this project possible.
Thanks to Roland and Nathan’s hard work, the school now has much needed space to expand, an improved learning environment and a building to be proud of.