A
Dean - Architecture
Chair, Nordic Baltic Academy of Architecture (NBAA)
Institute of Management
Jakob Brandtberg Knudsen
Can better housing prevent disease? I am an architect with a background in medicine, testing how architecture in Africa can protect health. In the Star Homes trial in Tanzania, a new house design cut childhood malaria by 44%. I lead the RISK project, which maps urban malaria risk with AI and satellites. In the MBD project, we help hospitals in Zanzibar protect patients from mosquito-borne diseases
Jakob Brandtberg Knudsen
Better housing protects health
Where we live shapes how healthy we are. Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, homes, hospitals and neighbourhoods let disease in: mosquitoes enter through open eaves, rooms overheat, and smoke and damp linger indoors. Good design can change that.
As an architect trained in medicine, I bring the methods of medical research into design: randomised trials and large field studies. I work with leading international universities, including the University of Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University, and with health researchers and communities in Africa. The goal is evidence strong enough to change how homes and hospitals are designed, financed and built.
A house is not just shelter. Designed well, it is a health intervention.
A better house cut childhood malaria by 44%
Can a well-designed house protect children from disease? We designed and built 110 prefabricated two-storey houses across 70 villages in Tanzania's Mtwara region and compared the health of the children living in them with a comparison group. The results, published in Nature Medicine in 2026: 44% less malaria, 30% less diarrhoea, 18% fewer respiratory infections, and the children grew faster. The next phase asks how the design can reach many more families.
Star Homes. With the University of Oxford and MORU, CSK Research Solutions and Durham University.
Satellites and AI can help African cities stay ahead of urban malaria
In Africa, malaria has mainly been a rural disease. Anopheles stephensi, a malaria mosquito that thrives in cities, could change that as it spreads into fast-growing urban areas. RISK studies how the physical form of the city shapes where this mosquito breeds and where people are most at risk, with Dar es Salaam as the case. By combining satellite imagery, deep learning and field data, we develop tools that help cities target planning and mosquito control before outbreaks take hold.
RISK. Led by me. Five years and about DKK 20 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. With the University of Copenhagen, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Ifakara Health Institute.
In the tropics, hospitals can become places where mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue spread, and a warmer climate raises the stakes. MBD-Free studies how hospitals in Zanzibar can become more resilient, examining how buildings and their surroundings contribute to transmission and developing practical adaptations together with staff and patients. The architecture matters: new wards with little natural ventilation and insufficient cooling can become almost unbearably hot for patients and staff.
MBD-Free. Funded by Danida, 2022 to 2027. Led by the University of Copenhagen with the State University of Zanzibar.
Highlights
Housing design improved child health, published in Nature Medicine
The Star Homes trial (2026) provides randomised evidence that the design of a house can measurably improve the health of children in rural Africa: children in the new houses had 44% less malaria.
A healthier house can also be cheaper and greener
Compared with conventional construction, the Star Homes house uses 69% less material mass, 73% less concrete and 57% less embodied carbon, and costs 24% less.
Built work on three continents
As head of Ingvartsen Architects in Copenhagen, I have realised buildings in Europe, Africa and Asia, bringing practice and research together.
Contributing to architecture education and research in the Nordic and Baltic region
Dean of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy and chair of the Nordic Baltic Academy of Architecture, a network of 19 schools of architecture in eight countries.
Star Homes (C) Lorenz von Seidlein
