Ethiopian Satellite Preschools Competition

Walmara, Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Satellite Preschools Competition asked teams to think beyond one school site. Communities needed an affordable early-learning model that could be repeated, adjusted, and built with local participation across Walmara.

Ethiopian Satellite Preschools Competition architectural visualization with watercolor and blueprint details

The story

A preschool system designed to travel and adapt.

Ethiopian Satellite Preschools Competition in Walmara, Ethiopia, project image 2

The Ethiopian Satellite Preschools Competition asked teams to think beyond one school site. Communities needed an affordable early-learning model that could be repeated, adjusted, and built with local participation across Walmara. Journeyman International’s entry advanced to the third round with a modular concept organized around child-scaled rooms, protected outdoor learning, and a construction logic that could respond to different plots without losing its core. Scalability was not treated as sameness: orientation, courtyards, openings, and assembly could shift with climate, terrain, available materials, and community input.

The proposal sought to balance a recognizable educational environment with the economic discipline required for multiple small campuses. This was a competition submission, not a completed preschool network, and the archive’s final boards contain limited extractable text. Its architectural contribution is the repeatable framework—a kit of relationships and components designed to make quality early-childhood space more attainable while leaving room for each community to shape how the school sits on its land.