WATER EVER - TURKANA

Turkana Lake, Kenya

Now in its fourth iteration in Summer Semester 2025, Water Ever – Turkana continues the studio's ongoing exploration of designing with water at the core, a theme that has resurfaced and evolved over multiple semesters within the Chair of Architectural Design and Participation. Each iteration responds to new contexts, questions and issues, building a shared body of research and design enquiry.

Set in the arid borderlands of Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan, Lake Turkana is the world’s largest desert lake. This vast and fragile body of water faces unusual and pressing challenges due to rising levels and increasing salinity. Here, scarcity and abundance coexist, and the presence of water shapes every aspect of life.

During the Summer Semester 2025 , Bachelor students developed small-scale interventions along the lake's shores and in surrounding communities, including drinking water points, seasonal rainwater catchment systems, and methods for growing crops and supporting cattle in the harsh, semi-arid landscape. Master students worked in close relationship with the Startup Lions Campus, envisioning larger, interconnected systems ranging from desalination and aquaculture to productive rain-fed landscapes in the surrounding mountains.

Water Ever - Turkana builds on the series’ history of engaging with rainwater harvesting, resilient architecture, unconventional water sources and the social structures surrounding water, across scales. The project responds to the geographic, social and climatic realities of a place where water is simultaneously a resource, a threat and a driver of community resilience.