In Kyotera District, southern Uganda, there's a church held up by columns of light. Our Lady of Victoria Monastery was built for a growing community of Trappist monks, and almost all of it is fired clay brick. The bricks were fired with coffee husks, an agricultural waste, so even the fuel came from the farms around it. Four buildings, about 2,000 square metres, in one material. The brick is the structure and the finish. There is no plaster and no ornament. The perforated brick screens carry the walkway roofs and ventilate the rooms at the same time. Plinths sit on stacked clay tile strips so water doesn't sit against the walls on a site that floods. The church's brick arches and buttresses carry the load, with glass bottles set into the arches to let sunlight in. Every technique here is masonry: arches, a vault, buttresses, screens. A mason who learns one on this site can use it on the next one. This is a template, and it can be built in any region with clay and a kiln. 📍 Kijonjo, Kyotera District, Uganda 🇺🇬
🏛️ Localworks
📷 Will Boase Photography