Empowering Africa's Youth: Kaira Looro 2022 Children's House Winners Announced!
The architecture competition aims to provide safe and sustainable housing for underprivileged children in rural Africa
The winners of the Kaira Looro 2022 competition, organised by the humanitarian organisation Balouo Salo, have been announced. The competition called for a 250 square metre space to combat child malnutrition in Africa by providing nutritional material, health and hygiene awareness programmes, paediatric and social care visits, and training for community nurses to advise families on good prevention and nutrition practices. The competition was open to young architects, engineers, and designers from around the world, and the design proposals were evaluated by an international panel of prestigious architects and firms, including Kengo Kuma and Associates, Mario Cucinella Architects, and MVRDV, among others.
The second prize was won by a team, also from China ,consisting of Shimin Zhou, Wanning Liao, Tianchen Xu, Hanyang Liu and Joseph Ongaco.
The winning team will receive a cash prize of €5,000 and an internship at the prestigious firm Kengo Kuma and Associates in Tokyo, Japan. The runner-up will receive €2,000 and an internship at Mario Cucinella Architects in Bologna, Italy. The third-place winner will receive €1,000 and an internship at SBGA - Blengini Ghirardelli in Milan, Italy.
The winner of the 2022 edition is OPENNESS & ENCLOSURE by young Ziyu Guo from China. The second prize was won by a team from China consisting of Shimin Zhou, Wanning Liao, Tianchen Xu, Hanyang Liu, and Joseph Ongaco. Two honourable mentions were given, one selected by Kengo Kuma and the other by the organisation Balouo Salo, to teams from China and Poland, respectively. The first consists of Xizhou Chen and Chunlei Zhu, while the second consists of Michał Pietrusiewicz. Five special mentions were given to team projects from Italy, Brazil, Poland, and China.
Third place was won by Nattaphon Worawanitchaphong from Thailand.
The competition not only aimed to raise awareness of emergency issues in developing countries but also aimed to make young architects aware of the responsibilities of designers towards society, while also providing an opportunity for professional growth and international visibility to facilitate their entry into the job market, through the provision of prizes and internships at internationally renowned firms. In keeping with the event's tradition, this year's proceeds, from registration fees, will be donated to the humanitarian organisation Balouo Salo. Specifically, this year's funds will be used to build the winning project and other interventions linked to the fight against child malnutrition, such as infrastructures to promote accessibility to drinking water.
In addition to the winners, there were 20 finalists and 20 Top 50 projects, including entries from Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Chile, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Colombia, Benin, Ivory Coast, the USA, and Morocco. The winning architectural project will be studied and analysed in the coming months by Balouo Salo's team of humanitarian specialists to be integrated into the broader programme to combat child malnutrition, which includes training, awareness-raising, and involvement of local communities and authorities. The Kaira Looro 2022 competition not only showcased the talent of young architects but also provided an opportunity to contribute to the fight against child malnutrition in Africa.
All the winning projects can be viewed on the competition's official website
