TU Delft students Laura Katharina Strähle and Ellen Rouwendal's community centre for the rural community of Okana, close to Lake Victoria in Kenya, was named Dezeen Awards Small Building of the Year 2018.
Strähle and Rouwendal designed the Okana Centre for Change as a prototype for creating low-tech high quality structures in east Africa.
The project was triggered by the question "what if students were able to make a change for poorer regions of the world with a small-scale architectural intervention"", said Strähle and Rouwendal.

The building's design was inspired by the local Acacia tree, under which people gather to be protected from the sun and rain.
Combining this with the technique of a reciprocal roof – a self-supporting structure requiring no central support – saw this distinctive roofscape being the driver of the building' form.
After extensive on-site research Strähle and Rouwendal created a structural frame that covers 64 square metres of column-free space beneath, with an open courtyard to provide ventilation and the opportunity for water catchment.
Coated brick walls with perforations enclose the interior space. This design can then be scaled, multiplied and adjusted depending on where it is to be deployed.

Working with the local NGO Sustainable Rural Initiatives, the prototype construction method was used to build six structures around a courtyard space that house&n...