This short communication explores the challenges and opportunities of nurturing architectural development in economically marginalized regions through volunteer initiatives, with insights drawn from the Bandar-e-Tang Fishing Village experience. It synthesizes existing literature to address critical issues such as cost control, priority setting, underestimating local aspirations, and the sensitivity of actions, all of which significantly influence the success and sustainability of architectural projects in these areas. This study highlights the efficacy of community-centric architectural development models that integrate participatory methodologies, capacity-building frameworks, and deliberative decision-making structures. The Bandar-e-Tang case study demonstrates that volunteer initiatives allocating financial resources while transferring operational agency to local stakeholders yield measurably higher project efficacy compared to externally managed interventions. This strategy not only tailors initiatives to the community’s specific needs but also cultivates a sense of ownership and sustainability. This preliminary study based on quantitative and qualitative questionnaires from overseas donors, experts, and villagers involved in a school reconstruction project indicates that approximately 85% believe that allocating funds to local execution yields more effective outcomes than when outsider volunteers managed construction efforts. This underscores the importance of local involvement in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of architectural initiatives in marginalized regions. By filling the gap in empirical evidence on the comparative impact of local versus external management in volunteer-led architectural projects, this paper offers timely insights crucial for optimizing future development efforts in similar communities.

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