Housing for a Changing Planet

Traditional huts with thatched roofs and a chicken walking on the reddish dirt ground in a rural setting.

Citizen Architects favour long-term partnerships over short-term interventions, and reciprocal exchange over “skills transfer”. Our teaching reflects these values, positioning architectural education as a form of collective action embedded in real social, institutional and environmental contexts.

Housing in Botswana is an ongoing teaching and research collaboration that explores how architectural education can support more just and climate-resilient forms of urbanisation. It prepares students for the international cooperation their generation will require to address housing inequality, climate change and biodiversity loss - challenges to which the built environment is a major contributor.

The project brings together BASEhabitat at the Arts University Linz, the Department of Architecture at the University of Botswana (UB), and the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC), a parastatal body responsible for affordable housing delivery. A Master’s-level design module acts as a catalyst, leveraging academic resources to create sustained exchange between universities, public institutions and local building cultures.

Since 2018, Citizen Architects have coordinated a series of shared initiatives with teaching partners in Austria and Botswana, involving students, academics, housing practitioners and crafts people. These have included jointly delivered lectures on Tswana placemaking, ethics and climate-responsive design, collaborative neighbourhood studies and reciprocal staff and student exchanges. A cornerstone of the program have been hands-on workshops in earth construction and thatching led by academics and craftspeople working form an oral tradition, highlighting the parity of these two different knowledge systems. Students developed housing proposals that were reviewed by both academic critics and BHC project partners, grounding design speculation in lived realities and institutional constraints.

Housing for a Changing Planet operates as a laboratory for progressive practice, where trust is built through sustained engagement, and where long-term relationships, not short-term outcomes, form the basis for more just housing futures.


A traditional hut with a thatched roof, mud walls, a wooden door, and a small window, located in a dry, rural area.
View looking up at a small, rectangular opening with a metal grate. Behind the grate, a white cat is peeking through, and part of a green object is visible inside.
A woman with long dreadlocks, wearing a headscarf, white tank top, and overalls, is applying mud or clay to a wall outdoors. A man in a hat and casual clothes stands nearby, holding a tool, with a container placed on the ground.
A woman with short hair, wearing a black T-shirt and khaki pants, is smiling and raising her arms, while a man in a blue jacket and green T-shirt pours a substance into a tall transparent cylinder during a science demonstration.
Group of diverse people gathered under a thatched roof outdoor space, listening to a man in a white shirt talking and gesturing, with everyone seated on chairs and sofas, surrounded by plants and rustic decor.
Three young people working together outdoors on a thatched roof, smiling and using tools, with a blue sky and clouds in the background.
Two women having a conversation near a stone and concrete wall in a neighborhood with trees and modest houses.
Three cats lying on the ground next to a mud wall and tree trunks in a rural setting with dry dirt ground and a fence in the background.
Four people are outside a small, rustic house made of bricks. One person is seated on a plastic chair wearing a blue dress and sunglasses. Two others are standing and looking at a phone, with one holding a black bucket. Another person is in the doorw
Group of young people participating in a community planning event. Some are sitting on white tiered blocks, while others are standing and discussing. The background features large sheets of paper and posters with colorful sticky notes and handwritten
A group of people are gathered in a circle, digging and working together in a hole in the dirt.
A group of people sitting outdoors, engaged in conversation, with a woman in a black t-shirt and headscarf speaking while others listen, surrounded by green plants and a brick building in the background.
Group of people gathered outside a building with thatched roofs, listening to a speaker standing on a wooden platform, with a firefighter in uniform helping.
Two women inside a room with a thatched roof, one woman is raising her hand towards the ceiling while the other woman stands nearby looking up.
Two people standing outside a traditional round mud and thatch hut, surrounded by greenery and blue sky with clouds. One person is using a phone, and the other is near the door of the hut. In the foreground, there is a water tank, a small pile of dir
Person excavating red dirt with their hand, with a plastic container nearby.
Two women engaged in a conversation outside a rustic mud wall. One woman, with dark skin, wearing a black T-shirt and a headscarf, is speaking passionately. The other woman, with light skin, wearing sunglasses on her head and a white T-shirt, is list
A woman wearing a headscarf, glasses, a pink tank top, and jeans is smoothing mud on a wall made of earthen material with her hands.
Close-up view of a thatched roof made from dried grass or reeds. The roof shows some parts tied with wire, and there is a brick placed on top. The background includes a cloudy sky and part of a large tree trunk.
Entrance to a room with a wooden door, estimate of sunlight coming in, concrete floor, and a stack of cement bags on the right side.
Traditional round hut with a thatched roof, surrounded by desert plants and trees, under a cloudy sky.
Two people standing and talking in front of large posters about housing options at the University of Austria. The posters contain handwritten notes, post-it notes, and diagrams related to current housing situation, future housing dream home, and opin
Traditional mud house with thatched roof in a dry, rural landscape.
Traditional thatched-roof huts in a dry, rural area with bare trees and clear blue sky.
Two cats resting on a dirt ledge beside a rustic wooden support and a small red radio, with a yellow mug and pliers nearby, against a background of reddish-brown textured wall with painted scallops.
Two people standing next to a large, rectangular, mud-brick structure outdoors with a partly cloudy sky and some trees in the background.
A woman is sitting on a step with a notebook, and a young boy in a yellow shirt is sitting on the same step, raising his hand. They are outside a house with a red door and two windows. A red chair and a bag are nearby.