Kaira Looro Architecture Competition is a design contest open to students and young architects with aims to discover new talents and to adopt sustainable architecture models for humanitarian purpose to improve life conditions in developing countries. Prestigious prizes are provided for winners, selected by an international jury made up of pregistous firms and institutions.
The challenge of the competition is to design a women’s house that aims to promote gender equality as a key factor in rural development. The architecture must be a space dedicated to hosting activities which focus on education, raising awareness, and developing the village in the name of equality.
Director of Kengo Kuma & Associates Tokyo & Paris, Japan & France
Founder and Director of Kengo Kuma & Associates, he's Reccognized as one of the masters of contextual architecture, Kengo Kuma is also one of the most important representatives of Japan on contemporary architectural scene. Has been awarded with numerous prizes and awards including the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.
Benedetta Tagliabue
Director of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Barcelona & Shanghai, Spain & China
She acts as director of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, founded in 1994 in collaboration with Enric Miralles. Among her most notable projects built are the Edinburgh Parliament, the Santa Caterina market in Barcelona and the Spanish Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. She was awarded the prestigious RIBA International “Best International Building of 2011” award.
Oulimata Sarr
Director at UN Women West Central Africa Dakar, Senegal
Regional Director for West and Central Africa, covering 24 countries. Ms. Sarr with her team support Governments in adopting international standards to achieve gender equality and women empowerment in partnership with civil society organizations and partners. UN Women works to make the ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls.
Salimata Diop Dieng
Minister of Women, Family, Gender and Child Protection Dakar, Senegal
M.me Salimata DIOP DIENG is Minister of Women, Family and Gender of the Republic of Senegal and President of the National Movement of Republican Women. In 1979 obtained a University Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique de Dakar. Focal Point of African Women and Solidarity (FAS), she carried the advocacy of women victims of violence in the event of armed conflict.
Lehau Victoria Maloka
Director at WGDD of African Union Commission Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
She is Acting Director of the WGDD at AUC, lawyer by training with over 20 years collective international work experience. She joined the AUC in 2015, following an illustrious career in various sectors, particularly in the fields of human rights, gender equality, electoral democracy, constitutional practice, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
Agostino Ghiradelli
Studio Blengini Ghirardelli Architects Milan, Italy
He is founder and director of the SBGA studio. He deals with planning, environmental sustainability and inclusion. He collaborates with public institutions and superintendencies, and participates as a speaker at international meetings and university courses (MIPIM 2019, University of Vienna, Trieste and ULI, Europe Young Leaders Summer School in Milan).
Urko Sanchez
Director of Urko Sanchez Architects Nairobi & Madrid, Kenya & Spain
Urko Sanchez Architects is an award-¬winning Kenya and Spain-based boutique architectural firm renowned for excellence in design. He's is passionate about social improvement, contributing as often as possible to projects that target disadvantaged communities. The firm are working main in East Africa but the office has undertaken projects throughout the region and further afield.
Azzurra Muzzonigro
Waiting Posthuman Studio Sex & The City Milan, Italy
She holds a MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development from Bartlett UCL and a PhD in Urban Studies from Roma Tre University. She is currently curating for Urban Center of the Municipality of Milan and Triennale Milano a public program and research called Sex & the City, a gender perspective on urban space. In June 2015 she founded Waiting Posthuman Studio.
Project Site
The location of the project is southern Senegal, a country in north-west Africa on the Atlantic coast, bordering Mauritania, Mali, Gambia, and Guinea. The country has a population of 16 million people, concentrated primarily around the capital, Dakar. The southern region, south of Gambia, is known as Casamance due to the presence of the Casamance River, and is subdivided into three administrative regions: Ziguinchor, Sedhiou, and Kolda, with a total of 1.5 million inhabitants. The central region, where the project is to be developed, is Sedhiou. This region, created in 2008, is one of the least developed in the country, with an average rate of urbanisation equal to 10% and a poverty rate of 92%. This region is prevalently agricultural and the villages have, on average, 1500 inhabitants. The capital of Sedhiou has a population of approximately 200,000 people.
