Kao La Amani Children’s Village Wins AIA UK Award for Excellence in Environmental Stewardship
We are thrilled to announce that the Kao La Amani Children’s Village has been awarded an AIA UK 2026 Citation in Urban Design and Environmental Stewardship at the AIA UK Awards Gala. This is a huge recognition of the entire team - Article 25, our partners and the Kao La Amani community in Boma Ng’ombe, Tanzania - whose dedication brought this project to life.
Children and the gardener, Ali, at Kao La Amani Children’s Village, Tanzania.
About the project
Nestled in the shadow of Kilimanjaro in Boma Ng’ombe, Tanzania, the Kao La Amani Children’s Village is a safe, nurturing home for 60 orphaned children. In a country where approximately eight per cent of children are orphaned, the village offers an alternative model of care rooted in everyday domestic life, designed to transform lives and create hope for the future.
The village comprises six family cottages, each with its own live-in Mama, alongside study spaces and expansive areas for sport and play. Rather than an institutional facility, it is conceived as a genuine small settlement - one that prioritises dignity, stability and a sense of belonging.
Sustainability at the heart of the design
Sustainability sits at the heart of the design, from its inventive use of local materials to its fully off-grid systems. The dining hall features a timber truss structure, while walls are clad in locally sourced sisal poles from the Agave Sisalana plant. Solar hot water heating and rainwater harvesting for laundry and irrigation complement a fully off-grid power, water, and drainage system - ensuring this village can serve children in the region for generations to come.
Notable construction techniques include timbrel vaults laid without formwork - a skilled craft approach that demonstrates how environmentally responsible design grows most powerfully from the place it serves.
What the Jury said
“This project demonstrates how place-based design, when grounded in local knowledge and environmental responsibility, can shape a genuinely resilient and inclusive future for its community.
Its ambition is expressed not through grand gesture but through careful decisions - a sensitive layout, generous shared spaces, and an integrated approach to off-grid systems for power, water, and waste that speaks to long-term self-sufficiency.
The inventive use of local materials and craft, from timbrel vaults laid without formwork to sisal pole cladding, affirms that environmentally responsible urbanism is most powerful when it grows directly from the place it serves.”
AIA UK Awards Jury comments, 2026.
Our team and partners at the AIA UK Awards Gala, June 2026.
About the AIA UK Awards
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is the largest and most influential network of architects in the United States. The AIA UK Excellence in Design Awards programme has been recognising outstanding UK-based architects, designers and projects for 30 years, judged on design achievements, design intentions, distinguishing aspects of the design resolution, and sustainability.
Our team and partners accepting the award at the AIA UK Gala, June 2026.
A huge congratulations to all of our project partners:
Client: Tír na nÓg Children’s Foundation CLG
Structural Engineers: MHA Structural Design
M&E Engineers: Hoare Lea, WSP
Tanzania team:
Engineers: Estate Care
Quantity Surveyors: MK Arch & Plan
Architects: Multiphase
Contractor: Mosha Building Works
A special thank you to Toby Pear, Bea Sennewald and Paulina-Shari Stanley for your dedication to this project, and to every person at Article 25 and among our local partners and community who gave their time, expertise and heart to bringing this vision to life.
Read more about the project here.
Pamoja tumeweza- in Swahili, this means: together we did it.
Selection of images from the Kao La Amani Children’s Village project over the years.
