The scheme will provides 10,000sqm of academic and residential accommodation, offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma and Certificates for 200 pre-university students. The UWCEA will be residential for students and staff alike, with five ‘fingers’ of residential accommodation, and five of teaching units.

 

The site for the United World College of East Africa (UWCEA) sits at 1,900ft above sea level on the Olchoro Onyore Ridge in Kenya’s Rift Valley Region, 50km south west of Nairobi. The practice’s design optimises the site’s great potential by creating a significant, yet sensitive arrangement of new buildings on the edge of the Rift Valley. The design responds to the conditions and context of the site, creating a strong identity through its architecture. The project has a unique potential to inspire a distinctive design response due to its dramatic peninsular setting.

 

The design gathers together the college functions as a series of independent buildings defined by a connecting route or ‘street’ – the concept being to create a campus or village community that responds to site conditions and local climate, both of which support open aspect buildings.