Stanbic Bank Botswana has on October 28, 2025 revealed the winner of the Sustainable Architecture Design Competition, an initiative aimed at inspiring innovation and sustainable housing design among Botswana’s architectural community.
The announcement was made during a press conference held at the Bank’s Executive Wing, where representatives from the architectural fraternity, academia, and media joined Stanbic Bank leadership to celebrate the creative minds behind Botswana’s next chapter of modern living.
The winner of the Sustainable Architecture Design Competition was announced as Gofaone Idah Mothoogare, founder and principal architect of IDA Architects. Her design stood out for its innovative integration of sustainability and community functionality. Launched earlier this year, the competition challenged architects and designers to re-imagine “Legae”, the Setswana word for home, and propose innovative, environmentally sustainable and community-centred housing concepts tailored for Botswana’s unique landscape.
Speaking at the event, Stanbic Bank Botswana Chief Executive, Chose Modise, emphasised the Bank’s ongoing commitment to driving inclusive growth and local creativity.
“Through the Sustainable Architecture Design Competition in partnership with Architects Registration Council (ARC) and Botswana Green Building Council (Bot GBC), we sought to merge imagination with impact, to show that banking can play a role in shaping the spaces where people grow and thrive. The winning designs reflect our collective aspiration for a sustainable and proudly Batswana future,” he said.
The winning concepts will form part of Stanbic Bank’s broader commitment to supporting sustainable development and affordable home-ownership solutions that align with Botswana’s national vision for inclusive growth and dignified living for all. Selected entries will be showcased across Stanbic Bank’s digital platforms and upcoming housing initiatives. The sustainability influenced and pre-designed home units are an offering of 1 bed, 2 beds and 3 beds.
The units were developed following a call to action to the architecture community to express interest to conceptualise design of green building concepts also known as sustainability designs that can be adopted for the rollout of the Bank’s housing initiative. A key aspect of this initiative is to achieve affordable, inclusive and access to housing outcomes.The Sustainable Architecture challenged designers to produce affordable and smart designs that consider Society, the Economy, and the Environment (SEE). The Bank’s sustainability strategy is built on these pillars.
Our purpose “Botswana is our home, we drive her growth” ensures that we facilitate and enable access to housing for everyone as a matter of basic human right, moreover in a way that considers sustainability as a key consideration that guides our products and service offering according to Chose Modise, Stanbic Chief Executive.
Embedding sustainability principles into housing development, Stanbic Bank Botswana is spearheading leadership in leveraging finance for sustainable development. This launch of this initiative marks an important moment for the Banking sector’s active role in leveraging finance for sustainable development and impactful outcomes and particularly underscores how Stanbic Bank Botswana’s purpose is brought to materiality in addressing social economic and environmental (SEE) impacts.
Sustainability underpinned by collective effort hence sustainable development goal 17 is known as “Partnership for the goals”. Our financing lever demonstrates how co-creation as demonstrated by collaboration between (ARC & Bot-GBC) could unlock and create substantial value.
