Photo: Hassell
Outside the Ugandan town of Yumbe, architects are building the first performance and arts space of its kind for Bidi Bidi, which has grown from a camp for South Sudanese refugees to a permanent settlement of almost 200,000. The Bidi Bidi Music & Arts Centre is a rare example of a project dedicated to the arts in a displaced community. Residents wanted "a place for dance, music and performance," and Nachson Mimran of to.org, which conceived the idea, says "music, art, dance and theater are firmly established as meaningful forms of therapy for people with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)." The building will be low maintenance. Sunlight will perforate the brick building through openings and light wells. Its water system uses gravity, and will provide another source of clean water to Bidi Bidi. The prefabricated steel roof, made in Kampala, avoids use of local wood, and hand-pressed bricks are made from local soil.
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