Kaira Looro 2021 Competition: Women’s House in Africa Takes Home Top Prize

The Kaira Looro International Architecture Competition announced its 2021 edition, calling for an architectural model for a Women’s House to be built in Africa. The objective was to raise awareness of equal opportunities in developing countries and support charity projects promoted by the Balouo Salo humanitarian organization. The winning design was intended to be a symbolic and ecological 300 square-meter space inspired by local traditions that can be self-constructed with the benefiting community itself. The space is intended to be a place where associations and members of society can meet and discuss topics of equality and human rights, guaranteeing the involvement and emancipation of the female community in favour of the region’s social, economic, and political development.

The competition was open to young architects, engineers, and designers, either in teams or as individual participants. The design proposals were evaluated by an international jury consisting of prominent figures in the field of gender equality and architecture. The President of the jury was Kengo Kuma (Kengo Kuma & Associates), and other jury members included Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT Miralles Tagliabue), Urko Sanchez (Urko Sanchez Architects), Agostino Ghirardelli (SBGA), Oulimata Sarr (Regional Director of UN Women West and Central Africa), Salimata Diop Dieng (Minister of Women, Family, Gender and Child Protection of Senegal), Lehau Victoria Maloka (Director of Women Gender and Development Directorate of African Union Commission Azzurra Muzzonigro (Sex and the City), and the scientific committee of Balouo Salo / Kaira Looro.

Juan Pablo Lopez Isabella from Uruguay was awarded first place for his design. The second prize went to a team from Portugal, consisting of David Gonçalves, João Dias, Gonçalo Santos, Pedro Gomes, and Daniel Simões. The third-place winner was a team from Italy, composed of Annachiara Trabacchin, Elena Paccagnella, Gloria Aiolfi, and Alberto Martini. Two honorable mentions were nominated, one selected by Kengo Kuma and the other by the Balouo Salo Organization, the teams come respectively from Vietnam and Poland. Five special mentions were awarded to team projects from Canada, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Brazil, and Greece.

The winning team will receive a cash prize of €5.000 and an internship at the prestigious “Kengo Kuma and associates” architectural firm in Tokyo, Japan. The second-place winner will receive €1.000 and an internship at the “Miralles Tagliabue EMBT” architectural firm in Barcelona, Spain. The third-place winner will receive €500 and an internship at the “SBGA | Blengini Ghirardelli” in Milan, Italy. Furthermore, the winning project will be built by the Balouo Salo humanitarian organization as a charity project in a small village in southern Senegal to promote equality and combat discrimination and violence, encouraging emancipation of the female community in a rural context in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The project area is located in southern Senegal, where Balouo Salo has been active since 2014 with the creation of various infrastructural projects that have facilitated access to potable water, encouraged education, and promoted sustainability and human rights. This area is one of the least developed in Senegal, with a poverty rate of approximately 90%, and only 8% of the population having access to filtered water. Additionally, 70% of the population lives in homes without access to electricity.

Finally, it is important to note that all of the proceeds from enrollment fees will be donated to the Balouo Salo humanitarian organization. Specifically, this year’s