The Feilden Foundation partnered with local NGO, HYT Uganda* to construct a low-cost teacher’s house at St Mulumba Primary School. A common issue for many rural Ugandan schools is the long travel distances teachers have to make from other villages to get to work, especially during the raining seasons. Therefore availability of on-site accommodation greatly improves the teacher’s time in school, and therefore quality of education that the children receive. The house is made from ISSB (interlocking stabilised soil blocks) as part of HYT Uganda's training programme.

Sustainable features of the house design include:

• Natural light and cross-ventilation due to hit-and-miss brick screens and double height space

• Rainwater harvesting from the roof to an adjacent tank

• Overhanging roof for solar shading and rain protection

• Low-embodied energy from ISSB (walls) and locally-sourced timber (roof structure)

• Internal thermal comfort provided by thermal mass of ISSB walls

• Acoustic buffer by woven lining to ceiling

• Shared social spaces indoors and outdoors

• Solar powered interior lighting and charging point

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*HYT Uganda trains young Ugandans in an innovative, carbon-saving building technology, giving them construction skills that improve education, opportunity and livelihoods. As part of their training programme, trainee builders construct a range of educational buildings in their home villages using low-energy ISSB (Interlocking Stabilised Soil Block) technology.