Eco-village Hotel, Uganda

On land overlooking a beautiful lake in Uganda, we planned a hotel for long stays where guests can take part in field experiences such as natural farming, as a place to practise the idea of regeneration and share its potential with the world.

Our aim was neither to deny existing ways of life and values, nor to put regeneration forward as a banner and press its practice on anyone. First, guests spend a rich time away from the everyday, as in any resort. Within it, they encounter the land's nature and the people's work, and through natural farming and the restoration of ecosystems they look again at their relationship with nature and their daily lives. We sought an environment in which the stay itself becomes the occasion for realisation.

This thinking is also reflected in the building's composition and its water cycle.

The roof slopes down like a bowl toward the central hall to collect rainwater. The water is stored in an underground cistern and, after treatment suited to each use, reused. Greywater from the hotel is purified with means such as a biogeofilter and passed through a biotope, forming a water environment that draws on the work of plants and microorganisms. The treated water is returned underground, with care for the ground, the groundwater and the lake, aiming to circulate water resources and help regenerate the local ecosystem.

We see architecture not as something that merely takes and consumes resources from the natural environment, but as something that works on the land's water cycle and the life of its ecosystem, and supports their regeneration.

Rather than conveying regeneration as knowledge, guests experience it through their stay and come to realise it themselves. We believe that creating a comfortable place for this can, little by little, change the relationship between people and nature.