Joelho - Journal of Architectural Culture

Adaptive Architecture in Rwanda: Thermal Comfort and Spatial Balance Using the Clay Brick

Manlio Michieletto

Amid the urgent push for environmental sustainability, home climate control—covering heating and cooling—has become a vital aspect of architectural design worldwide. In the country of a thousand hills, Rwanda, especially in the rapidly expanding capital, Kigali, this challenge intersects with goals of affordable housing, environmental resilience, and local economic growth. Here, the traditional use of clay bricks—valued for their thermal efficiency—has been revitalised through technological advances and policy changes. This paper investigates recent housing projects built with improved clay bricks, developed through SKAT's technological partnership and incorporated into Rwanda's national building standards. SKAT, a Swiss company specialised in international cooperation, is committed to providing essential services and ensuring dignified living conditions and a healthy environment for all social income classes. Once common in vernacular architecture, clay bricks are now a key element in modern construction due to their availability, affordability, and climate adaptability. As a thermally stable material, they help regulate indoor temperatures by absorbing heat during the day and releasing it at night, reducing reliance on mechanical heating and cooling. The research adopts a comparative approach, including fieldwork and architectural analysis of selected case studies such as the Gahanga Affordable Housing project in Kigali and rural settlements in Muhanga and Rwamagana. On-site observations, architectural surveys, and typology analyses inform a critical assessment of how material choices, spatial layouts, and orientation influence energy efficiency. Particular attention is given to the design of housing units following the Existenzminimum principle, noting that larger homes tend to require more climate control. As a result, these projects favour compact living spaces, shared courtyards, and shaded walkways that enhance climate performance and social interaction. Overall, they offer a strong alternative to imported, high-carbon urban housing models and materials. The paper ultimately advocates redefining housing quality not through technological escalation, but through material and spatial efficiency, alongside climate-conscious design.

Rethinking home: Forms of urban co-living

Sana Ahrar

In the context of rising urban housing costs, shrinking household sizes, changing family structures, and growing social isolation, co-living serves as an alternative to conventional housing models. This paper examines resident intent and motivations that drive people to live together as a basis for categorizing co-living arrangements. It draws on case studies, architectural reports, the websites of architecture and urban firms, and scholarly literature from the United States, Europe, and Asia. It engages with the broader cultural shifts that have made collective living appealing and, in some cases, necessary for some urban residents. It identifies three forms of co-living based on resident intent. First are affordability-oriented models, including student and worker co-housing, developer-led micro-units, and cooperative living in high-rent urban centers. Next are care-oriented arrangements, such as intergenerational housing to facilitate mutual support, women-only communities, and senior co-living models that focus on aging in place. The third is based on value-driven cohabitation, which includes communities formed around shared lifestyle practices and social or environmental commitments. The study examines how these co-living arrangements function in negotiating privacy, mutual responsibility, and shared domestic work. It views these models as an experiment in reimagining the boundaries between individuals, household units, and the community as a collective. By focusing on resident intent as an analytical lens, this paper contributes to an understanding of contemporary co-living practices.

Designing for Identity: Community-Centric Approaches to Public Spaces in Pakistan

Dr.Aman Ullah

Public spaces are crucial in promoting community interaction, preserving cultural heritage, and promoting social unity. In Pakistan, with its rich cultural diversity and historical depth, public spaces often fall short of signifying the identities and aspirations of local populations. This research proposes a quantitative study to investigate how architectural designs can better reveal the cultural, historical, and social identities of communities across Pakistan. Using a survey questionnaire, the study will inspect community perceptions, preferences, and priorities for public space design, focusing on how these elements contribute to a sense of belonging and cultural identity.

The research aims to evaluate the current situation of public spaces in Pakistan, assess the gap between community expectations and existing designs, and suggest evidence-based recommendations for architects and urban planners. By focusing on diverse urban and semi-urban areas, including Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, and Peshawar, the study will capture the local variations in cultural expression and public space utilization.

Specific questions explored the degree to which public spaces fit in cultural motifs, historical narratives, and community-specific needs. Additional questions evaluated the intensity of public engagement in the design process and the willingness of communities to participate in future initiatives.

To Understand the Territory to Be Part of It

Jaume Mayol

This essay delves into the course programme of the Atelier Mayol at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio 2023-24. The atelier focused on the topic of summer house. Understanding summer as a moment where daily routine is temporary suspended and conventional domestic spaces are questioned.

The semester was an occasion to collectively discuss about living and to re-think the way we approach the theme of habitation. Learning to doubt. To think the building as an ecosystem. To approach the house as part of a territory. To observe, understand and interpret the local tradition and identity of a place. To work locally. To make responsible use of local resources. To value the logic of construction. To understand that form follows climate. Learning from tradition to revert the global warming tendency.

The atelier worked in three different places located in three distinct areas of Mallorca. Banyalbufar, a terraced landscape in the north of the Island. Sant Joan, a flat landscape in the center of the Island. Es Salobrar de Campos, a salines next to the sea in the south of the Island. Three locations that already explain the Island.

Is There a New De Re Aedificatoria in Our Dystopian Epoch of the Anthropocene?

Viriato Soromenho Marques

The utopian essence of Modernity was centred on a triumvirate - built on the congruence between the sovereign state, the techno-science establishment and the globalised market economy. This triangle of power has commodified nature and created a fragmented, pragmatic and operative world culture, which has led us to the crossroads we are collectively facing. The Anthropocene, from a philosophical point of view, is thus the time of the emergence of a dystopia that was born, not from any piecemeal feature of modern history, but from the uncritical and disproportionate fulfillment of modern utopian agendas.