Women’s Opportunity Center in Rwanda / Sharon Davis Design
Women for Women International (WfWI) is a global NGO that has supported the construction of the Women’s Opportunity Center, to be opened shortly, in Kayonza Rwanda. The Center, design by Sharon Davis Design, is an environmentally friendly, multi-use facility that will become a support mechanism for the education of women and the support and advancement of the community in the region. The WOC is an element of WfWI’s mission to address poverty and the effects of genocide through education and self-empowerment. The facility is part community gathering space, part education center where women can attain job training and learn new skills, and use services to find employment or start their own businesses.
Join us after the break for more on this project.
Umubano Primary School / MASS Design Group
Architects: MASS Design Group
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Architect In Charge: MASS Design Group
Design Team: Michael Murphy, Alan Ricks, Sierra Bainbridge, Ebberly Strathairn, Branden Collins, Andrew Brose, Marika Shioiri-Clark, Ryan Leidner, Eric Mutabazi
Area: 900 sqm
Year: 2010
Photographs: Iwan Baan
Butaro Doctors’ Housing / MASS Design Group
Architects: MASS Design Group
Location: Butaro, Rwanda
Architect In Charge: MASS Design Group
Area: 500 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Iwan Baan
SEEDoc: Nyanza Maternity Hospital / MASS Design Group
Since June, we’ve been reporting on the Design Corps and SEED (Social Economic Environmental Design)‘s, SEEDocs, a series of mini-documentaries that highlight the stories of award-winning public interest design projects. As each mini-doc has been an excellent, inspiring exploration of the challenges and benefits of community-oriented design, we are pleased (and not a little sad!) to announce that the final seed-doc has just been released.
This month’s mini-doc, probably the series’ best, focuses on the Nyanza Maternity Hospital, designed by MASS Design Group. MASS of course garnered much attention for their Butaro Hospital, also in Rwanda (for an interesting inside-look at the construction of Butaro, read this excellent article by MASS co-founder Marika Shiori-Clark). Should this hospital be funded and realized, it will no doubt make more headlines for the innovative public-interest design firm.
Read more about MASS Design Group’s lastest project in Rwanda, after the break…
How to Balance Local Traditions and New Solutions in Public-Interest Design
Marika Shioiri-Clark is an architect who uses design to empower global change and battle inequality. While attending Harvard for her Masters in Architecture, she co-founded the non-profit MASS Design Group and began working on what would become the the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. In this article, which originally appeared on GOOD as “Building a Rwandan Wall”, she explains the process by which the hospital was built and defends claims that the project, led by a group of Western architects, was somehow colonialist in nature.
As she puts it: “In a place like Rwanda, it’s not neo-colonialist to work on high-quality design projects as long as you’re deeply and authentically engaged with the community. In today’s world, it’s more neo-colonialist to assume that African people don’t want well-designed buildings and spaces.”
Read about Ms. Shiori-Clark’s experiences, and the delicate balance that must be struck between local knowledge and innovative techniques, after the break…
Kimisagara Football for Hope Centre / KDAP with Architecture for Humanity
Architects: Killian Doherty | Architectural Practice with Architecture for Humanity
Location: Kimisagara, Kigali, Rwanda
Project Year: 2009
Project Area: 200.0 sqm
Photographs: Killian Doherty
Bumbogo Project / Guillaume Sardin
Africa is currently building its urban culture, in a global context of clusterized cities, of insularized space. Urbanism shouldn’t be just about numbers. Although Africa is currently strongly lacking infrastructure, its needs cannot always be quantified. Urbanism should reflect culture, history and create a sense of belonging. Guillaume Sardin‘s Bumbogo Project in Kigali, Rwanda, which won second place in a competition, will be a manifest, a pragmatic utopia. By using the meaning of Rwanda and Kigali as a matrix, this project generates an ultra site-specific master plan setting an example of fair urbanism. More images and architects’ description after the break.
In Progress: Women’s Opportunity Center / Sharon Davis Design
Sharon Davis Design was recently awarded 2nd place among all categories of Future Projects at the World Architectural Festival; in their subcategory, Future Projects: Education, they placed first. The New York City design firm competed against over 70 shortlisted projects to achieve this international distinction for their Women’s Opportunity Center in Kayonza, Rwanda. Women for Women International, a Washington, DC based non-profit which seeks to empower female survivors of war and genocide commissioned the firm to build an educational campus in rural Rwanda in late 2008. Construction on the two-acre site began this summer. More images and project description after the break.
Butaro Hospital / MASS Design Group
Architects: MASS Design Group
Location: Burera District, Rwanda
Client: Rwandan Ministry of Health; Partners In Health / Inshuti Mu Buzima
Sewage Plant Engineering: EcoProtection
Landscape Design: Sierra Bainbridge and Maura Rockcastle
Design Team: Michael Murphy, Alan Ricks, Sierra Bainbridge, Marika Clark, Ryan Leidner, Garret Gantner, Cody Birkey, Ebbe Strathairn, Maura Rockcastle, Dave Saladik, Alda Ly, Robert Harris, Commode Dushimimana, Nicolas Rutikanga
Structural Engineering: ICON
Project Year: 2011
Project Area: 6,040 sqm
Photographs: Iwan Baan, MASS Design Group
Video: Football for Hope
Architecture for Humanity’s Kimisagra Football for Hope Center in Kigali, Rwanda has broken ground. This video by Killian Doherty and music by Sophie Nzayisenga features the site location, renderings, and most importantly the communities excitement for the new center.
Pediatric Clinic / 4of7 Architecture
4of7 Architecture‘s competition proposal for a pediatric clinic in East Africa is a modular configuration that will expand to accommodate more people when necessary. The proposal was an entry for the “Design for the Children“ competition which asks designers from around the world to develop a sustainable, culturally responsive, pediatric clinic model for Rwanda. This modular configuration is a “spatial solution” that will connect a major network of health care.
More about the project and more images after the break.
Children’s Hospital Prototype / Visiondivision
Visiondivision, an international young practice, shared with us their competition entry for a children’s hospital prototype for Rwanda. The competition, entitled “Design for the Children”, asks architects and designers to develop a sustainable, culturally responsive, pediatric clinic model for East Africa.
More images and further project description after the break.
