BRIGHTBOX

Healthcare / Service Design / Modular Architecture

Location: Bidibidi Refugee Settlement, Yumbe, Uganda (Phase 1)
Status: Phase 1 Completed, Phase 2 Ongoing • 2019 - Present
Team: Unknown Works, Simbi, CRADLE, Price & Myers, Max Fordham
Sponsors: UNHCR
Role: Visualisation, Post-Occupancy, Conceptual Design
Awards: AJ Small Projects People’s Choice Award

An off grid interconnected classroom, clinic and community hub for communities without vital infrastructure.

Brightbox is a prototype of a new system of community infrastructure designed for areas such as refugee camps, ad-hoc and remote settlements and alongside disaster zones. Phase 1 is currently in use at the Bidibidi refugee settlement in North Uganda, with future phases planned for a number of international locations. Equipped with solar panels, rain water collection, pre-natal medical equipment and much more, it serves as a swiss army knife of a building in the ways it enables and empowers the community.

The development of the Brighbox project looks at how a piece of community infrastructure can help educate, empower and connect overlooked sections of society in places of resource scarcity and need. Unknown Works collaborated with several NGOs, local fabricators and community groups and Phase 1 was completed in late 2019.
I produced much of the Phase 1 press/media material, such as the axonometrics here, as well as potential proposals for a more flexible design in Phase 2. Additionally, stage 7 post-occupancy work proved to be instrumental in learning from and improving the original design.