BII Head Office
The Build It International Head Office was designed as both a workplace and a teaching building: an everyday demonstration that sustainable, economical construction can also be generous, contemporary and deeply responsive to place.
The site at the Centre for Excellence was already rich with trees and vegetation. The plan therefore began with retention, preserving as much existing ground as possible and concentrating the required programme within a reduced footprint.
Locally sourced materials, standard block and brick sizes, and modular construction worked with familiar building skills and established supply chains. Passive cooling, cross-ventilation and on-site solar generation reduce operational demand.
Completed in 2022, the building brought Build It International's administration and management from Woodlands onto the same site as its training programme. It is now in use, and its performance will be recorded against what was intended at the design stage.
Programme-wide figures describe the wider work supported by the Centre; they are not attributable to the head-office building alone. Source: Build It International's 2025 Annual Report and 2023 Impact Study.
The Ground the Building Did Not Take
The brief allowed a 200 m² ground-floor footprint. Roughly half was built at ground level; the remaining programme was raised above, leaving the rest as a planted courtyard.
The refusal was not of floor area, but of full ground coverage.
The Concept: Skewed
Skewing here is a response, not a gesture. The geometry follows the east-to-west fall of the land; the roof planes counter the slope to turn a larger surface towards the sun and extend over the courtyard as a timber-and-mesh framework for climbing plants.
The Design as Drawn
Built Through Training
Build It trains young Zambians in bricklaying, plastering and carpentry. Trainees helped construct the head office, so the building was made through the programme it now supports.
