World Refugee Week 2023, LDB takes CSR to Bidi Bidi Refugee Music and Arts Center in Africa

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Images by Hassell, to.org & London Design Biennale

Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center in northern Uganda’s Bidi Bidi refugee settlement.

London Design Biennale has dedicated a pavilion to Hassel’s Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center in the Northern Uganda’s Bidi Bidi refugee settlement which was developed by to.org, and designed by Hassell in partnership with Arup, according to Designboom website. Debuted at the London Design Biennale in this month of June, the project is currently under construction, and it will provide a space for creative expression, training and performance in Africa’s biggest refugee settlement as an interdisciplinary project that’s currently home to over 270,000 refugees, 65% of whom are under the age of 18, that were forced to flee from their homes in South Sudan due to ongoing political conflict in the country.

The project which is part of a larger mission to reframe the narrative around the word ‘refugee.’ Redefining the world refugee, with the philanthropic platform to.org taking the lead, in collaboration with the Hassell team, Kampala design studio LocalWorks and the global Arup Consultancy, will showcase the unique process, architectural elements and technical solutions exemplified by the Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre building, with stories from the refugee and non-refugee communities whose collaboration efforts are behind the reality of the project in the near future.

According to Nachson Mimran, the Co-founder & Creative Executive Officer of to.org. as quoted by Designboom website,‘The word refugee should refer to a status, not an individual’s entire identity. We regularly see demeaning rhetoric around the existence of displaced people. When words are used to ‘other’ the most vulnerable among us, we have a shared responsibility to reclaim and reframe those words. By creating opportunities for the refugees we work with to shine, to have their voices heard and their creativity amplified, we hope to de-slur the word ‘refugee’ and turn it into a status that inspires universal respect.’

With the construction of the project ongoing in the Northern part of Uganda, East Africa, the Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center is being built to be a sheltered, low-carbon semi-open-air amphitheater that can double as a performance venue or community gathering space, as the building will also provide classrooms, a recording studio, areas for music training, a tree nursery, vegetable garden and freshwater facilities. These are all important to a local community where food and water shortages are rapidly worsening due to climate change.

Low-cost, low-carbon and local building materials are being used in the construction process of the project, with a labor force comprising refugees and host-community Ugandans. The building walls employ compressed stabilized earth brick instead of fired brick using soil excavated from the site. The purpose for these traditional local methods is to minimize the cost of construction; it dramatically reduces environmental impact, as the blocks are manually pressed in situ and cured in the sun without fuel. The structure further benefits from a large, lightweight, and funnel-shaped roof, naturally cooling the building interior and collecting rainwater, filtered to provide potable water to the community. This elliptical plan gives room to two centers, one collecting daylight and rainwater and the other offering an amphitheater stage.

Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center under construction | image by to.org

With the multimedia music project, the Music and Dance programming at Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center is being developed to Playing for Change and others, including Ugandan and international musicians and dance crews, and it will be operated by SINA Loketa in collaboration with Bidi Bidi refugee instructors and administrators.

Mimran added that, ‘To.org brought together architects, ethnographers, musicians, and activists – some refugees, some not – to find innovative solutions for creating opportunities and infrastructure for the most vulnerable. Because of this collaboration, the Bidi Bidi refugee community will have a space to play, learn, perform, create, and share, with music and dance programming, focused on reducing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and building community, setting a new precedent for how we think about, talk about, and create opportunities for displaced people.’

LONDON DESIGN BIENNALE

Established in 2016 by Sir John Sorrell CBE and Ben Evans CBE, London Design Biennale is a global stage for world-leading contemporary design and design-led by innovation, creativity and research. It promotes international collaboration and the global role of design with exhibitions and installations that demonstrate the ambition to create universal solutions to problems which concern us all according to the London Design Biennale website.

The theme for this year’s edition which is currently ongoing at Somerset House, hosting more than 40 exhibitors from all over the world, showcasing world-leading designs, confronting global challenges and inspiring audiences with thought-provoking and interactive installations, with EUREKA showcasing new design-led innovation from the UK’s leading research centers including disciplinary invention and creativity from academics, leaders and problem solvers is The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations and the event will end on the 25^th of this month.

The 2023 edition of the London Design Biennale will see visitors exploring a life-size construction detail of the Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Center, with a 1:100 scale wooden model, building plans and details, and a specially commissioned video produced by To:Studios, presenting the project through the stories of the Bidi Bidi community. Placing a spotlight on local craftsmanship, also on show will be one of the original presses used to produce the compressed stabilized earth blocks forming the center’s walls.

The press will be used for earth brick-making workshops during the exhibition and employed to produce the blocks for the London Design Biennale installation with locally sourced soil in the UK. Lastly, the show will be accompanied by a panel talk on 20 June at King’s College London to mark World Refugee Week as part of the London Design Biennale talk series.