PEACE Zanzibar Villages by Assalam
Earth-built wall with reused glass bottles beneath a Makuti roof at Assalam

01 · Living PEACE Village

Earth House

Built environment

Where earth-based materials, reused glass and a Makuti canopy turn a working office into a lesson in regenerative architecture.

From an idea to a lived experience.

Home to the Hi Sky Permaculture office, the Earth House makes Assalam's architectural ideas tangible. Its earth-based walls, reused glass details and Makuti roof bring circular material thinking into an everyday place for work, learning and conversation.

  • Place-responsive design
  • Natural ventilation and shade
  • Local material knowledge
  • A learning space for regenerative construction

Each figure keeps its own scope so programme totals, site facts and future ambitions are not confused.

24
Acres in the Living PEACE Village
Foundation-provided site figure
Kizimkazi
Place and design context
Zanzibar

Evidence noteThe 24-acre site figure is organization-provided. Construction dates, material specifications, thermal performance, cost and environmental impact still require a technical building record.

Knowledge made visible.

Three ways this part of the village connects inherited knowledge, practical learning and community life.

Editorial narrative supplied by Assalam in July 2026. Material composition and performance language remains subject to technical confirmation.

01

Materials and innovation

From discarded material to shelter.

Assalam describes the walls as an earth-based mixture incorporating organic compost, local clay and reused glass bottles. The bottles bring points of filtered light into the interior while making reuse visible rather than hiding it.

The result is intended as a practical demonstration of circular construction: materials normally treated as waste are reconsidered as part of a useful, inhabited space.

The precise wall mix, structural method, embodied-carbon result and lifecycle performance have not yet been independently documented on this website.

Hand-shaped Earth House wall with reused glass bottles and irregular windows
Reused glass and sculpted openings make circular material thinking visible.

02

A living ecosystem

Architecture that welcomes life.

Deep, hand-shaped window openings create shaded edges where light, air and daily campus life meet. The supplied page story even follows the animals that rest in these spaces, treating the building as part of a wider living environment.

This is less a claim of perfected ecological performance than a way of seeing: buildings can be designed to participate in their surroundings rather than separate people from them.

Cat sitting in an octagonal Earth House window
A shaded opening becomes a small threshold between shelter and garden.
Cat resting in a window within the earth-built wall
The building's edges are used by more than people.

03

The canopy of collaboration

Where ideas take root.

Beneath the Makuti canopy, Assalam staff, local youth, community members and visiting collaborators meet close to the ground in a shared working space.

The Earth House therefore functions as more than a construction exhibit. It is an active office and meeting place where regenerative projects are discussed, designed and carried into practice.

Look closer.

Authentic Assalam imagery and the supplied annual-report record keep the experience connected to real work.

Before and after aerial views of the Assalam site
The wider Assalam site before and after regeneration.
Assalam buildings and landscape in Kizimkazi
The Living PEACE Village is designed as one connected learning environment.

All 12 experiences, one connected village.

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