Every project begins somewhere small.
HSCA is a design-and-build practice based primarily in Kampala, with partners and collaborators in Milan and Nairobi. We specialise in design and building residentially. We have a soft spot for renovations as well, however, every room is measured, drawn and costed before anything is broken, so you see the finished room, and the bill, before work begins.
Research and Material Testing
Send us a message with a sketch, an idea or a moodboard of whatever interests you. We will set up a meeting to brainstorm together, then you get drawings and an itemised price before you commit to anything. Sounds good? Let's get started!
See the five stagesYour project is a series of expensive decisions. We make those decisions on paper first, with you, where changing your mind costs an eraser instead of a wall.
We survey the room to the millimetre and record every pipe, socket, beam and fall in the floor. The design starts from the room you actually have.
Our drawings list every material and fitting. The quote is built from that list, so you can see what each choice costs and change it before work starts.
We have our ear to the ground for all the latest design trends. You can sit back and rest assured of excellence.
Renovation
A full redesign of how the room works: where you cook, wash, store and sit. We draw it, cost it and build it, including joinery, plumbing, electrics, gas, tiling and finishes.
Renovation
Layouts that work with the drains you have, waterproofing done before the tiles, ventilation that keeps mould away, and fittings you can actually get spares for in Kampala.
Architecture
Houses, extensions and interiors drawn from first principles: site, climate, budget and the way you live. Available as a design-only service or as the first stage of a build.
Construction
We regularly participate in design competitions and handle full new-build projects. Are you planning one? Reach out today
We visit, listen and measure. You tell us how the room should work; we tell you what the room allows.
You get:a measured survey and written notes.
We draw options in plan, elevation and 3D, with a materials board you can hold.
You get:drawings you keep, whoever builds.
An itemised quote taken straight from the drawings. Swap a tile or a tap and see the price move.
You decide:nothing starts until you sign off.
Our team builds to the drawings, in order: services first, finishes last. You get photo updates on WhatsApp.
You see:progress without standing on site.
A walk-through, a closed snag list, and care notes for every finish we used.
Guarantee:A finished space that starts to feel like home from day one.
This family house was a successful renovation of an existing and incomplete one of a similar footprint. We deliberately kept as much of the previous fabric as was necessary and transformed it beyond the client's original design into a contemporary and tranquil space for a family house with a large front yard.
The extension of this kitchen involved collapsing an existing bedroom into the original smaller kitchen resulting in a more spacious and better lit working area and second meeting point for family members beyond the living room.
This boutique hotel reactivates an underused suburban plot within a residential complex. Ideal for both short term and long term occupancy, it is an elegant mix of traditional clay brick with contemporary form and precision.
This disused backyard garden was completely transformed into a more usable space for summer parties, a cheeky pint and BBQs. Importantly as well, it provides room for the clients' pets to make the most of the great outdoors.
Not every drawing is commissioned. We design houses, public rooms and competition entries to test ideas about building in East Africa. They are shown with the same care as built work, and labelled for what they are.
The WSC is a mixed use complex with co-working spaces, a gym, bar and restaurant, and apartments among many others situated round a shared courtyard. It is overall a space for women to meet, network, rest, recharge, and socialise. Terracotta and clay lend it a well deserved blend of familiar tradition and elegance.
The wellness centre lies below ground level of the WSC. It comprises a similar formal composition, with water at its core, and the specialised massage rooms, spa etc. set out around this central pool.
A kitchen is mostly small decisions: how far the hob sits from the window, whether the fridge door clears the counter, where the gas cylinder lives. At 1:100 these decisions disappear. At 1:20 they are visible, and they get made on paper instead of on site.
Every kitchen we design gets a plan and elevations at 1:20. It takes longer, and it saves the most expensive kind of change: the one made after the tiles are on the wall.
In most Kampala renovations the cheapest bathroom is the one that keeps its drains where they are. Moving a WC can mean breaking a slab; moving a basin usually does not.
So we draw the existing plumbing first, mark what can move freely and what cannot, and design the room around the wall that carries the water. Good layouts often come from that constraint.
Kampala gets two rainy seasons a year and a lot of red dust in between. Both reach inside the house. A finish that looks right in a showroom can stain, swell or mould within a year here.
We choose materials for the room they will actually live in: sealed timber near water, tiles that hide dust in the joints, ventilation that works when the windows are shut against the rain.
Workshop and research
We are planning a workshop in Uganda to build physical models and test materials before they reach a client's house: local timbers, compressed earth blocks, terrazzo and plaster mixes, finishes that have to survive a wet bathroom. This sheet will hold that work when it begins.