Young people who grow up in Mathare, a slum district in the north of Nairobi, have little chance of obtaining professional training. To provide them with an opportunity to learn a trade, the German institution Promoting Africa, in collaboration with the Kenyan organization Youth Support Kenya, planned a new craft training school. Students of the Univer-sity of Technology in Munich drew up architectural schemes in the context of their term work. One of these designs was selected for further development, and working drawings were prepared by six students for the first of three construction stages. The complex consists of four buildings that define various outdoor spaces. The stone outer walls are in accordance with local building traditions, whereas the use of fast-growing native bamboo represents an unusual and environmentally friendly alternative to wood and metal. Building engineers in Munich and Nairobi tested this material initially for its effectiveness and the scope it offered in the context of construction. It was subsequently used for the load-bearing roof structure, which was designed as a series of prefabricated elements. In the meantime, in Kenya, local workers had begun with the construction of the foundations, and the first group of German and Kenyan students to arrive on site acted as assistants to native people who executed the stone walls. Only the second group of students was able to apply itself in greater depth to the concrete and bamboo construction.