Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre, Uganda – ADC

In 2016, northern Uganda’s remote village communities were sparsely populated, relying on hunting and small-scale farming. Today, Bidi Bidi – located 600 kilometres north of Uganda’s capital Kampala – is the largest refugee settlement on the African continent and the second largest in the world, home to over a quarter of a million refugees, primarily from South Sudan. Refugees under 18 make up 65 per cent of this population and face significant challenges due to limited access to education and creative outlets.

The Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre aims to address this need. Led by TO: Foundation — the philanthropic arm of to.org — and designed in collaboration with Hassell, LocalWorks, and SINA Loketa, the project looks to foster creativity and unity among the settlement’s inhabitants and provide an important third space that prioritises artistic expression, trauma reduction, and youth development.

Taking the form of a sheltered semi-open-air amphitheatre, the centre doubles as a performance venue and a community gathering space. It includes classrooms, a recording studio, a tree nursery, and freshwater facilities, addressing critical needs in a region where food and water shortages are exacerbated by climate change.

Since opening in December 2023, the centre has quickly become a hub for younger members of the refugee camp to gather, share music and dance traditions, and find a sense of community.

The centre features a unique roof structure shaped to maximise rainwater collection, supporting a 200,000-litre capacity water tank that can provide 1.2 million litres of water annually. Seventy per cent of this water is distributed directly to the community, while the remaining 30 per cent irrigates a vegetable garden and orchard, contributing to food security.

Inside, a semi-open-air amphitheatre serves as a performance venue and community space, complemented by classrooms and music training facilities as well as a recording studio. Meanwhile, a tree nursery and a vegetable garden support the local ecosystem and offer practical benefits like fresh produce and agricultural training.

The construction of the centre utilized low-cost, low-carbon local building materials, with the workforce comprising refugees and Ugandans from the local host community. Walls have been made from compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB), using soil excavated from the site, hand-pressed, and sun-cured – a method that reduces construction costs and environmental impact, as firewood is scarce in the region.

The roof’s lightweight steel structure, prefabricated in Kampala, protects the earthen walls from adverse weather while providing shade and ventilation. The building’s brick patterns allow for natural light and ventilation, enhancing the acoustics of the performance, classroom, and recording spaces, while a row of floor-to-ceiling doors ensures the centre can accommodate groups of various sizes, from small gatherings to large community events.

“Places of gathering make communities. Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre has already proven to be transformative for this refugee settlement,” said Tateo Nakajima, director at Arup. “As well as bringing the community together to celebrate their cultural heritage and future identity, it provides a platform for extraordinary individual voices. Arup has been honoured to work on this unique initiative for the Bidi Bidi community alongside to.org, Hassell, and refugee led organisation Sina Loketa demonstrating the potential of locally-sourced, natural materials and construction methods to achieve innovative design outcomes. Community identity is key to civic resilience and sustainable development, and we are excited to see how this centre, built with and for the Bidi Bidi community, will offer the next generation a space to learn, reflect and perform.”

“The Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre embodies a vision of sustainable, human-centred design, prioritising the needs and aspirations of the community it serves,” added Xavier De Kestelier, head of design at Hassell. “We wanted to build a world-class venue that speaks to the value of cultural buildings, supporting and working closely with the community in their creation of a space that could act as a local landmark. This collaborative relationship offers opportunities for the centre to be adapted for generational needs – or indeed to influence buildings of the future.”