Shiyala Primary School
Andrew Perkins (MArch ’12, BS Arch‘10)
Project Credits: Orkidstudio
Andrew Perkins, operations manager for UAP Company, is an architect with a passion for making, and a history in community engagement and the public arts. His jack-of-all-trades perspective helps connect the many specialties of design and building to strike a balance between visionary and pragmatic. A stubborn critic of plutocratic architecture, he looks for opportunity in places others have dismissed or neglected.
Just 10 years after they were originally built, the modest classroom blocks that made up the Shiyala Primary School in Zambia, stood derelict. Despite the village’s local workforce, skilled in both earth-brick production and masonry work, both structures suffered from under-engineering, poor maintenance and lack of financial support. With a minimal budget, the existing structures are converted into a colorful primary school using inventive construction techniques that make the most of locally sourced and lowcarbon materials.
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