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Monica
Miller Brown
Design

Engineering Ministries International · Jinja / Njeru, Uganda · 2014

The Amazima School — Uganda

Master planning a 67-acre school campus through an intensive on-site design charrette.

Amazima Academy master plan with site and building key
The Amazima Academy master plan developed during the 2014 EMI design charrette in Uganda.

Primary contribution: campus master planning + site planning

In 2014, I joined a global team of architects, engineers, and designers with Engineering Ministries International for an intensive two-week design charrette in Uganda.

My primary contribution was the campus master plan — organizing the 67-acre site around terrain, circulation, academic functions, housing, recreation, agriculture, gathering spaces, and phased growth.

The broader schematic-design package was developed collaboratively by the full EMI team.

Organizing a complex campus on a real site

  • Academic core
  • Dormitories
  • Staff housing
  • Primary + secondary access
  • Chapel + assembly
  • Athletics
  • Agriculture
  • Recreation
  • Service / maintenance
  • Landscape + open space

From site analysis to plan

  1. Terrain + existing conditions→
  2. Access + circulation→
  3. Program relationships→
  4. Campus master plan
Hand-annotated existing site survey for Amazima Secondary School
Access, circulation, vegetation, drainage and site relationships worked through by hand on the survey before being formalized digitally.
Hand-drawn slope analysis on trace paper
Rapid terrain studies helped the team understand buildable areas and organize the campus around the site's topography.

The master plan grew directly from field observation, topography, access, existing vegetation, program needs, and discussions with the broader design team and client.

My contribution

Primary contribution

Campus master planning + site planning

Collaborative contribution

Schematic-design coordination with the multidisciplinary EMI team

  • Site analysis and terrain response
  • Campus organization and circulation
  • Landscape / open-space structure
  • Integration of program elements into the overall master plan
  • Follow-up through construction documentation with the local team to continue to drive the design forward to completion

Architecture, engineering, utilities, grading, stormwater, and other technical disciplines were developed collaboratively across the EMI team.

Two weeks from field observation to schematic design

  1. Site walk→
  2. Field analysis→
  3. Program coordination→
  4. Master planning→
  5. Schematic design→
  6. Client presentation
Monica working over plans with the design team
Architects, engineers, site designers, local partners, and Amazima staff worked together in a compressed two-week design process.
The design team walking the site
Design decisions were grounded in direct observation of the land and conversation with the people who would operate and use the campus.

Designing with the site, not over it

  • Terrain
  • Access
  • Climate
  • Program
  • Infrastructure
  • Community
  • Phasing

The design had to reconcile an ambitious educational program with a real hillside site, local infrastructure, phased construction, and the practical realities of building and operating a campus in Uganda.

Then and now

2014 — Master plan

Amazima announced the new secondary-school initiative in July 2014 and stated that plans had been completed and construction fundraising was underway. The published brochure includes the master plan on page 15.

Amazima — 2014 school announcement ↗View the 2014 Amazima Academy brochure ↗

Built campus today

The 2014 planning work moved beyond concept. Amazima broke ground the following year, and The Amazima Secondary School opened in 2017. Today the campus serves more than 400 students, with classrooms, science and computer labs, a library, student housing, athletics, administration, and gathering spaces.

See the school today ↗Tour the built campus ↗

Public evidence

Engineering Ministries International project profile ↗

EMI documents its long-term work on the 67-acre Amazima campus, including site planning, architecture, engineering, and phased construction — later phases beyond the 2014 charrette scope.

The EMI design team with the local Amazima team in Uganda
The EMI design team with the local Amazima team in Uganda, 2014.

This project taught me early that good design starts by understanding the system already in front of you — the land, the people, the constraints, and the way the pieces have to work together.