Logya, Afar Region, Ethiopia
A compound for education and culture was planned in Logya, where APDA has its headquarters.
Archive · Project / Afar Region, Ethiopia
A house
for nomads.
The archive of the Afar Kindergarten Project — a built and documented education compound in Logya, shaped around student hostels, a kindergarten, earth-construction workshops, and APDA as the operating partner.
By 2019 the communal building, three of the four student houses, and the sanitary block were complete and in use — built from locally produced adobe through hands-on earth-construction workshops. The project is finished; this page is its record.
2015archive2019
Story / place
Education infrastructure shaped by Afar life, climate, and local knowledge.
APDA built student hostels and a kindergarten in the town of Logya so children from nomadic families could continue their schooling without leaving the region — using local earth, local labour, and locally taught construction.
One of the hottest, driest regions on Earth
The Danakil Depression sits up to 155 m below sea level with summer temperatures near 48 °C. The archive describes Afar pastoral life, portable dome architecture, and mounting pressure on nomadic livelihoods.
Afar Pastoralist Development Association
APDA owned and operated the hostels and kindergarten, and had already trained more than 230 mobile teachers to reach nomadic communities.
Why it mattered
The project was not only about buildings. It was about making education reachable for rural Afar students who needed a safe place to live while attending school in town.
Afar children must learn Amharic, the highland-governed official language, on top of reading and writing their own. Continuing school beyond the settlements meant leaving home — so the hostels gave rural students a place to stay in town.
Place / environment
The Afar region — one of the hottest, driest places on Earth.
The Danakil Depression, formed where three tectonic plates meet, holds sand and stone deserts, desert shrubland, and — despite the heat — a surprising range of wildlife. The Afar have lived here as semi-nomadic pastoralists for generations.
People, building, pressure
Afar life follows livestock — camels, goats, sheep, and cattle — and the knowledge of water, weather, and pasture passed down through generations.
Traditional dwellings are portable dome structures: the mat-covered deboita can be loaded onto a camel and moved, while a grass-covered guest house stays put. In towns like Logya, imported timber-pole building has displaced this lighter, locally suited construction.
The pressures are real: literacy below 9% in 1994, scarce schools and clinics, and recurring droughts — four since 1999 — that have killed much of the livestock the region depends on.
Project / architecture
A compound for education and culture.
The whole compound was planned as one place: four student hostels, a kindergarten, a sanitary block, staff housing, a communal kitchen, a garden, and livestock — built from local earth rather than imported timber.
rural students in supervised hostels
children from Logya
28 girls and 28 boys
Education compound
Four student hostels, kindergarten units, sanitary block, staff housing, communal space, kitchen, garden, and livestock areas were planned as one compound.
Student hostels
The hostels were meant to give motivated rural students a place to live in town while continuing school toward higher education.
Kindergarten
The nursery school was planned to help Afar children bridge language and literacy barriers while supporting local culture and identity.
Construction archive
From clay tests and workshops to student houses in use.
From the first clay tests in January 2015 to student houses in everyday use by 2019 — built season by season through hands-on earth-construction workshops.
Site measured
The sites in Logya were measured and the first clay tests run on the ground.
Workshops begin
Clay tested on site and in the lab, the team formed, earth-construction workshops started, and the shadow roof was built.
Foundation and first bricks
The hole for the first building was excavated, the foundation laid, and loam brick production began.
Walls rise
Adobe production continued and the first masonry walls went up alongside workshops.
Communal roof completed
Roofing over the communal area was finished, with the kitchen placed alongside; adobe production and workshops continued.
Adobe and masonry
Masonry walls and loam adobe production continued through the construction workshops.
Lintels, ring beam, shutters
Masonry progressed with window and door lintels, ring beams, and window shutters.
First student home completed
The first student home was finished, followed by houses two and three.
Houses in use
A visit documented the student houses inhabited and in everyday use.
Photo essay
From planned compound to inhabited place.
Rooms, doorways, study corners, and the garden — the finished compound as it was lived in.
Communal roofing
The communal area roofing was finished, with the kitchen placed nearby.
Student houses 1–3
The first three student houses were listed as finished, ready, or inhabited by students.
Sanitary block
Two showers, two toilets, and a washing place were marked completed.
Student house 4, staff residence, guard house, kindergarten
At the close of the archive these remained unbuilt for lack of funding, while the three student houses, sanitary block, and communal roof were complete.
Workshops / knowledge transfer
Loam construction was not just a material choice. It was a teaching system.
Earth construction was taught as much as built. Local participants learned adobe brick production, masonry, earthquake-resistant detailing, timber and concrete basics, and methods that cut the timber use of imported highland building — so the knowledge could stay and spread.
Adobe brick productionLoam floor, plaster, and mortarMasonry and wall interconnectionLintels, corner reinforcement, ring beamsTimber statics, pole construction, and jointsStone, concrete, and foundation principlesHumidity protection, roof construction, vermin protectionEcological and social aspects of building materials
Media / publications
Research, lectures, publications, and video documentation.
The project was documented in lectures, press, film, and two TU Wien master theses between 2014 and 2017.
Adobe in Ethiopia
2017 - A film by Denise Kießling.
ArchitekturDokumentation
2016 - Showing the Progress
OKTO-TV report
2016 - Report & Interview.
Shaping desert soil — Matthias Krassnitzer, TU Wien
2018Institut für vergleichende Architekturforschung
12 Nov 2017“Adobe in Ethiopia” — Denise Kießling
11 Nov 2017ArchDiploma 2017, TU Wien
11 Nov 2017TU Wien
14 Jun 2016Austrian-Ethiopian Society
09 Jul 2016“ArchitekturDokumentation”
02 Aug 2016Vinschger Wind
08 Sep 2016Zoll+
“The Afarkindergarden Project” — 29/2016 Dez
OKTO-TV report
2016“A house for nomads” — Katharina Schönher, TU Wien
2015“Afar architecture in transition” — Alice Eigner, TU Wien
2014People / Partners / Family
APDA, basecamp-architecture, and the complete workshop portrait archive.
The project was a collaboration between APDA, the architecture team basecamp-architecture, and the local participants who built and learned on site.
APDA
The Afar Pastoralist Development Association owned and operated the student hostels and kindergarten in Logya. It is led by Valerie Browning and Ismael Ali Gardo, and had trained more than 230 mobile teachers for nomadic communities.
basecamp-architecture
The architecture collective cooperated with APDA, ran construction workshops, and supported the construction of the houses.
Local workshop participants
Local participants and skilled workers who learned and shared earth-building techniques through the on-site workshops.
NGO - Afar Pastoralist development association (APDA)
The project owner and operator on the ground in the Afar Region.
APDA
Afar Pastoralist Development Association
Valerie Browning
APDA leadership
Ismael Ali Gardo
APDA leadership
basecamp-architecture
The architecture team that cooperated with APDA, ran the construction workshops, and supported the building of the houses.
Katharina Schönher
basecamp-architecture
Mark Ortler
basecamp-architecture
Matthias Kraßnitzer
basecamp-architecture
Alice Eigner
basecamp-architecture
Denise Kießling
basecamp-architecture · film
Jasmin Radwan
basecamp-architecture
Lisa Pitscheider
basecamp-architecture
Valerie Berger
basecamp-architecture
Jürgen Schrottenbaum
basecamp-architecture
Mathias Veits
basecamp-architecture
Local Family
Local participants and skilled personnel who built and learned alongside the project in Logya.
Ahmed
Workshop participant
Imam
Workshop participant
Maserat
Workshop participant
Bared
Workshop participant
Abukar
Workshop participant
Ali Argewe
Workshop participant
Ibrahim
Workshop participant
Ali Mohammed
Workshop participant
Mohammed
Workshop participant
Abdu
Workshop participant
Idris
Workshop participant
Abdu
Workshop participant
Ali
Workshop participant
Ibrahim Mohammed
Workshop participant
Awal
Workshop participant
Ahmed Abdu
Workshop participant
Ibrahim Ali
Workshop participant
Mayram
Workshop participant
Abokar
Workshop participant
Omer
Workshop participant
Ibrahim Feysal
Workshop participant
Luubak
Workshop participant
Buule Mohammed
Workshop participant
Adu
Workshop participant
Ali
Workshop participant
Ali Katar
Workshop participant
Thanks
A house for nomads.
Thanks to everyone whose intellectual, organisational, and practical work made the compound real — APDA, the architecture team, and the local builders and workshop participants in Logya.
Open original archiveThe boring bits
Impressum
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