Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre: A Stage for Healing and Resilience, Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, Uganda
A beacon of hope within Africa's largest refugee settlement, the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre serves as a vital creative sanctuary for displaced communities seeking solace and connection. Designed as an elliptical amphitheatre, the structure straddles the border of a neighboring Ugandan village, deliberately blurring boundaries to foster unity through music, dance, and shared experience. By prioritizing locally sourced soil and community-led construction over imported industrial materials, this gathering space beautifully embodies our belief that context and humanity must always precede a rigid architectural concept.
The Vision
Initiated by the creative platform To.org, the project was conceived as a much-needed cultural outlet for a rapidly growing, youthful population that has endured profound trauma. Recognizing that cultural expression is inextricably linked to community resilience, the design team at Hassell, Localworks, and Arup centered the architecture entirely around gathering. Strategically positioned along existing pathways between the settlement and the adjacent village, the center acts as a shared threshold and welcoming common ground. It provides a formal stage for local performances and a dedicated recording studio for large groups, creating an environment that actively helps refugees heal and rebuild their collective identity.
Tectonics
The building’s elliptical form takes its cues from traditional amphitheatres but modernizes the typology with a dynamic, openable back wall that reveals the central auditorium to the surrounding landscape, effectively doubling its capacity for large events. Moving away from industrially processed components, the envelope is constructed entirely using hand-compressed earth bricks cured under the Ugandan sun. These earth-based walls are arranged in specific, textured geometric patterns to naturally diffuse and absorb sound, eliminating the need for synthetic acoustic treatments. The sweeping, lightweight roof structure is realized in corrugated metal and polycarbonate, cleverly elevated above the earth walls to allow natural daylight to flood the interior alongside inserted perspex skylights.
The Living Building
This architecture acts as a true living machine that directly sustains both its people and its immediate environment. The expansive, overhanging roof functions as a massive funnel, actively harvesting rainwater through a central oculus. This system collects an estimated 1.2 million liters of water annually into a 200,000-liter capacity tank, piping clean water down the sloped site for the community to drink, feeding a biodigester toilet, and irrigating the landscape. Designed by The Landscape Studio, the surrounding grounds are planted with drought-tolerant trees, a guava orchard, and a community vegetable garden, cultivating food security and boosting local biodiversity while anchoring the building firmly to the earth.
Data Sheet
Project Name: Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre
Location: Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, Uganda
Architect: Hassell & Localworks
Completion Year: 2023
Key Materials: Hand-compressed earth bricks, corrugated metal, polycarbonate, perspex
Typology: Cultural / Performing Arts Centre
Client: To.org
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