Star Homes
The Star Homes project consists of 110 identical, single-family homes constructed across 60 different villages in rural Mtwara, one of the more underdeveloped regions of Tanzania, with a high incidence of malaria, respiratory tract infections, and diarrhea. These houses combine a series of design interventions to improve family health into a single house and form the basis of a randomised clinical trial, which aims to provide robust data to show whether improved housing can improve family health. Preliminary results from Year 1 and 2 interim analyses indicate that malaria and diarrhoeal diseases have been reduced by one third, under-five children have shown improved growth, and indoor mosquito abundance has been reduced by half.
For its third edition, the LABÒ Cultural Project invites Star Homes to showcase their project and research following the construction of 110 Star Homes in Mtwara, Tanzania, during Milan Design Week 2025. Designed by the Danish Royal Academy, the exhibition showcases the architectural, clinical, and social studies led by Jakob Knudsen, Salum Mshamu, and Lorenz von Seidlein, while also shedding light on the human story behind the Star Homes through data-driven findings and firsthand narratives, and photography by Julien Lanoo.
The Star Homes* have been designed to be easily scalable, and to optimize resource use to reduce their environmental impact and build cost. Unlike most rural Tanzanian housing, their prototype house is two stories high. This reduces the area of the foundation and roof, which are typically the most expensive and material-intensive components of a house. Many houses in rural Tanzania collapse in the rainy seasons, which is often as a result of the poor quality of their foundations. Each Star Home* is built on a raised concrete plinth, cast in a single pour to improve strength, and backfilled with compacted earth from the latrine pit to reduce concrete use and the need for hardcore. The structural frame of each house is built using 0.75mm thick prefabricated light gauge steel (LGS) members, bent in two directions for extra strength and assembled into panels that can be erected in under 2 days by a local team. Walls appear solid but are, in fact, hollow, consisting of two thin layers of cement render on a wire mesh. The result is a home that uses 70% less concrete compared with a typical concrete block design and has 40% less embodied energy.
Reducing operational energy is a key aspect of the design due to the off-grid nature of the sites and the limited financial resources of the new house owners. A custom-designed, prefabricated stove uses a third less fuel compared with traditional cooking methods, while expelling smoke outside. Replaceable shadenet facade panels prevent mosquito entry and allow the building to be passively ventilated and cooled, resulting in, on average, a 2.5 degree drop in indoor temperature at night compared with a local mud house. A 40W solar panel provides lights in each room and USB charging. Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored in a 2000L tank via a first flush system made from off-the-shelf components, which provides free, clean drinking water.
The project aims to build capacity in some of the poorest communities in the world by providing robust and affordable housing and teaching new construction skills. All components and labour have been sourced from within Tanzania and constructed by a local team. Beyond the building’s lifespan, the foundation can be reused, and the LGS frame and facade panels can be reused or recycled. The Star Home is designed by an interdisciplinary team of architects, public health specialists, and entomologists, and combines a series of design interventions to improve family health into a single house.
A detailed process was undertaken to select the recipients and location of the Star Homes. In 2019, prior to the start of the construction, a survey of the rural villages in Mtwara was conducted. Households that wanted to participate and met the study inclusion criteria (such as having children under 13 years of age in the household) could enter a lottery to win a Star Home built on their land. The lottery was conducted in an open and transparent manner to select the recipients. Following the construction of all 110 Star Homes in June 2021, families moved in and began participating in the trial, in which children under 13 years sleeping in the Star Homes and neighbouring traditional homes will be followed over a three-year period to detect episodes of malaria, acute respiratory infections, and diarrhea. Alongside the trial, a team of architects, entomologists, and social scientists will assess the performance and acceptability of the house design, using mixed methods involving in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, house walk-throughs, and questionnaire-based surveys. Light traps will be used to collect mosquitoes and flies in the Star Homes and the control homes to assess the number of malaria-carrying mosquitos entering the houses.
Team
Jakob Brandtberg Knudsen, Lorenz von Seidlein, Salum Mshamu, Otis Sloan Wood, Hannah Sloan Wood, Steven Lindsay, Jacqueline Deen, Arnold Mbando, Thomas Chevalier Bøjstrup
