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Friends of Mustardseed
Mustardseed Junior School
The Mustardseed Junior School initiative emerged from a shared vision between Localworks and the organisation 'Friends of Mustardseed', seeking to create a nurturing, sustainable learning environment for Ugandan children. Inspired by the need for more holistic, hands-on education and environmentally responsible building practices, the project brought together architects, educators, and local artisans. Localworks led the design and construction, pioneering the use of earthbag technology to create safe, beautiful, and climate-responsive classrooms. This collaboration was driven by a belief that education spaces should inspire creativity, reflect local culture, and foster a deep connection to nature.
The Mustardseed Junior School adopts a context-responsive and sustainable design approach, emphasising the use of local materials, passive ventilation, and community-based construction methods. Unlike the "norm” in Uganda, where school buildings are often standardised concrete blocks with poor lighting, inadequate ventilation, and high maintenance costs, Localworks prioritises human comfort, environmental performance, and long-term affordability. A holistic approach to teaching is core to the overall concept of Mustardseed, which means learning from and with nature is of central importance. This objective is taken seriously in the design by literally creating a space for nature.
The Mustardseed Junior School improves the lives of the poor by providing access to quality education in a healthy, dignified, and inspiring environment. Its use of local labour and materials created employment and skills development opportunities within the surrounding community, directly supporting local livelihoods. The school’s energy-efficient design reduces long-term operational expenses, allowing more resources to be directed toward learning.
All building materials for Mustardseed Junior School are locally sourced and carefully chosen to reflect the project’s ambition to be holistically green. The foundations are built without concrete, using tightly packed sandstone blocks from a quarry less than 2 km away. The structural slab serves as the final floor finish, ground down to expose the natural stone aggregate. Walls are made from unstabilised earth harvested on site and formed using earthbag technology, then finished with local sandstone slates at the base and unpainted lime-earth render above. The roof structure uses eucalyptus trees cut and sawn on site, with eucalyptus offcuts and locally woven mats completing the natural finishes and creating a warm, comfortable interior.
The Mustardseed Junior School has received multiple design awards, including the Sustainable Building of the Year Award at the Dezeen Awards 2022. The project has also initiated fundraising for phase 2 of the project which includes the construction of dormitories in compressed earth blocks
Mustardseed Junior School delivers active/experiential learning (outdoor classrooms, an on-site eco-farm), dedicated performing-arts facilities, and an English-focused primary programme. These have been linked by the school and observers to have resulted in noticeable gains in student engagement, English fluency and overall learning quality.
One of the main challenges to the continuity and upscaling of the Mustardseed initiative is that earthbag construction, while faster and sustainable due to its in-situ method using local soil, remains labour- and space-intensive. Each wall is nearly half a metre thick, requiring significant manpower and workspace during construction. Additionally, the combined cost of the thick walls and lime earth plaster finish increases overall expenses, making it less affordable or practical for large-scale replication in high density contexts without additional funding.
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