PAKWACH RESIDENCE

Pakwach, Uganda - 2026

Under construction

Private Client

Pakwach Residence is a small rural development in Pakwach, Uganda, designed to accommodate the client, his partners, and senior staff working on the surrounding agricultural land. The brief called for approximately ten en-suite rooms together with shared living, dining and entertainment spaces, a kitchen and service area, outdoor gathering spaces, and a swimming pool. Cost, passive comfort, and the possibility of constructing the project gradually were important considerations from the outset. In response, the program was divided into a series of compact buildings organized as a small landscaped settlement rather than a single enclosed residence. The design combines locally appropriate construction methods with a highly permeable spatial structure, allowing air to move continuously through the site and buildings while using landscape, screens and changes in level to establish different degrees of privacy.

Site

Pakwach is located in northern Uganda, close to the equator and within a warm tropical climate. Temperatures remain relatively consistent throughout the year, while seasonal variation is defined more strongly by alternating wet and dry periods. High humidity, frequent rainfall and occasional storms make both ventilation and protection from rain important considerations for buildings in the region.

The site's equatorial position also results in strong solar exposure throughout the year. The sun moves between the northern and southern sides of the sky seasonally, meaning that solar protection cannot be limited to a single façade. Deep shade and protected openings are therefore required around much of the building perimeter.

Prevailing winds generally approach from the south and southeast. As the project is intended to operate without mechanical air-conditioning, this airflow became one of the main environmental parameters informing the orientation, spacing and openings of the buildings. Indoor comfort is instead based on natural cross-ventilation, high-level exhaust, ceiling fans and extensive shading.

The climatic analysis consequently established three primary requirements for the design: maintain continuous airflow, reduce direct solar exposure, and protect occupied spaces and openings from heavy rainfall.

Design Principles

Porosity

The main principle of the project is to keep the architecture continuously breathable. Rather than treating enclosure as a sealed boundary between interior and exterior, the project uses a series of permeable layers that allow air to move through the site and buildings while still providing shade, privacy and protection from rain. This porosity operates at several scales. Buildings are separated to preserve airflow across the site; rooms use openings on opposing sides for cross-ventilation; brick screens allow air to pass while restricting views; permanently ventilated window heads maintain airflow when the main windows are closed; and openings at the roof ridge allow warm air to escape from the highest point of the interior. The result is an architecture in which enclosure is treated as a filter rather than a barrier.

Vernacular Materials

Cost was addressed primarily through the use of simple construction systems and materials that can be sourced or produced locally. Load-bearing masonry, earth-based walls, timber roof structures and thatch form the main architectural palette. The different materials are used according to the requirements of each building rather than applying one construction system uniformly across the project. This allows the smaller accommodation units to remain relatively simple and economical while the larger communal spaces use more robust masonry and timber structures where necessary.

Phasing & Expansion

The fragmented organization also allows the project to be constructed and expanded incrementally. Individual buildings can operate independently, reducing the need for the entire development to be completed at once. The linear Staff Rooms can be extended by repeating the existing room module, while additional Huts can be introduced further south as more accommodation is required. Expansion therefore occurs through the addition of complete units rather than major alterations to the original buildings.

Landscape Privacy

Privacy is established gradually rather than through abrupt separation. Public circulation remains at the lower landscape level, while private accommodation is raised above it and buffered by planting, verandas, low walls and screened openings. The landscape therefore becomes part of the spatial organization. Planting separates individual rooms, filters views between buildings and defines transitional territories between shared paths and private interiors. Changes in level reinforce the same hierarchy, allowing privacy to be perceived physically as occupants move from communal to semi-private and finally private spaces.

Spatial Organization

Isometric sketch

Projections

Early sketches

Community Pavilion

The Community Pavilion sits near the center of the residential cluster and acts as the main informal gathering space between the accommodation units. Its circular seating area is recessed approximately 600 mm below the surrounding landscape, creating a shared conversation pit beneath a radial timber canopy. A central opening allows a tree to rise through the structure, bringing planting directly into the pavilion and reinforcing the relationship between architecture and landscape. Unlike the more formal communal spaces within the Common House, the pavilion provides a smaller and more relaxed place for residents to meet within the accommodation zone itself.

Huts

The Huts provide the more private accommodation within the development. Each is designed as an independent en-suite room surrounded by planting and separated from neighbouring units to reduce direct visual overlap. The rooms are raised above the main pedestrian paths, creating a clear transition from the shared landscape to the private veranda and interior. Curved walls, planting and screened entrance elements further reinforce this transition. Their circular geometry also allows openings to be positioned on opposing sides of the room, supporting continuous natural ventilation while maintaining a compact plan.

Staff Rooms

The Staff Rooms are organized as a linear sequence of compact en-suite units along the eastern side of the residential area. Their repeated arrangement provides a more economical accommodation type while maintaining the same passive environmental principles used elsewhere in the project. Openings on opposing sides encourage cross-ventilation through each unit, while individual shaded entrances create a small transitional space between the shared circulation path and the room. The linear organization also allows additional rooms to be added in the future without modifying the existing units.

Environmental Strategies

The passive environmental strategy begins at the scale of the masterplan. The buildings are separated rather than consolidated into a continuous mass, allowing the prevailing south and southeast winds to move through the development and between the individual structures. Their orientation and openings are arranged to maintain cross-ventilation through occupied spaces, while the pool is positioned away from the principal incoming airflow to reduce its potential influence on the microclimate of the residential zone.

The buildings are raised above the surrounding ground to improve protection from heavy rainfall and surface water while increasing exposure to moving air. These level changes simultaneously reinforce the hierarchy between shared circulation and private accommodation.

At building scale, deep roof overhangs shade walls and openings and protect them from rainfall. The steeply pitched thatched roofs quickly shed water while reducing solar heat gain, and their large internal volumes allow warm air to rise above the occupied level.

The arched openings used throughout the project combine conventional operable windows with a permanently ventilated semicircular upper section. Angled timber louvers allow air to pass through while filtering direct sun and views. This provides a secondary ventilation route when the main windows need to remain closed during heavy rain or storms.

The same principle is continued at roof level. A protected opening beneath the ridge cap allows warm air accumulating at the highest point of the interior to escape continuously.

Perforated brick screens provide additional ventilation without sacrificing privacy. At the main entrance they create permeable walls that filter views, light and airflow. At the Huts, the brick geometry is angled so that incoming air is encouraged toward the sleeping area while direct visual continuity from the path toward the bed is obstructed.

Together, these strategies allow ventilation to remain active across several levels of the design: between buildings, through rooms, across screened openings and finally out through the roof.

Materials & Construction

The construction strategy uses a limited palette of masonry, earth-based construction, timber and thatch, selected for their suitability to the climate, relative affordability and compatibility with locally available construction methods.

The Common House uses fired brick load-bearing walls. Its greater wall height, approximately four metres, together with its larger openings and communal scale, requires a more robust masonry system than the smaller residential units.

The Huts use earth-based masonry where appropriate. Their lower wall height of approximately 2.7 metres and compact geometry make this construction method more suitable while helping reduce material cost.

Timber forms the primary roof structures throughout the project and is also used for pergolas, screens, railings and ventilation louvers. Above these structures, thick thatched roofs provide the primary protective layer against sun and rainfall. Their steep pitch and deep overhangs help shed water quickly while keeping walls, windows and exterior circulation shaded.

Arched openings are repeated across the different building types as part of the load-bearing masonry system. The semicircular form allows the upper portion of each opening to be adapted into a permanent ventilation screen, integrating structural, environmental and architectural requirements within the same element.

The resulting construction language is therefore based on a simple hierarchy: masonry and earth provide mass and enclosure, timber provides structure and filtering elements, thatch forms the climatic canopy, and landscape occupies and defines the spaces between the buildings.

Porosity. Airflow. Shade. Privacy. Adaptability.

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