Located in the heart of Kamwokya, a poor urban district on the margins of Kampala, Uganda, the new playground by Pritzker Prize winner architect Francis Kéré, is a pocket of public space cut out from a thick urban tissue of dilapidated houses and chaotic alleys.

Completed this summer, the project has grown including open-air areas for gathering, multipurpose rooms for workshops and night classes, a small gym, an internet café, a music studio, a multisport pitch, and restrooms. Kamwokya Christian Caring Community, a local nonprofit that partnered with Ameropa Foundation, will oversee the management of the site. Kéré donated design services.

Growing up in the village of Gando, in Burkina Faso, Kéré, who now is based in Berlin, developed an ear for listening to others’ needs, and for him, every commission starts with a conversation. In 2016 open meetings were organized in Kamwokya and after four years of planning and two years of construction, the complex appears today as a sensitive infrastructure that influences local life at different levels.

Although enclosed on all sides by walls, the space and the playing field still have an open atmosphere. The camp is flanked by low pavilions, with slightly raised sheet metal canopies, which provide a barrier against the sun, improving ventilation. On the west side of the field, a covered area provides shade for resting, watching matches, eating, or dancing. A brick building, beyond the field, houses spaces dedicated to learning and exercise.

Kéré, talking about its idea of architecture, recalls the figure of the traditional palaver tree, usually a baobab. In West African communities, in fact, villagers convene under the palaver, an egalitarian institution to discuss public matters, do business, or maintain social links. The tree, with its shade, is an essential architecture for village life: a place that welcomes everyone and where there is room for everyone.