MASS Design Group is serving as a project partner for the Soul of Nations Foundation’s Indigenous International: Green Architecture Project in Rwanda. Through this partnership, MASS will lead workshops, provide design and materials support, and lead site visits for our project participants in Rwanda.
The Indigenous International: Green Architecture Project presents the opportunity for three young Indigenous female artists/architects from the Americas to connect with 10 young Rwandan female artists/architects living in Kigali through a two-week cultural exchange that has virtual and in-person components and an artist residency that will result in one collaborative exhibition in Kigali.
MASS plans to conduct two workshops with the participants and join one virtual workshop linking their Santa Fe Office, provide two design reviews with the participants, give the participants a visit to one of their existing construction sites called the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) located in Bugesera, and leverage the existing knowledge of project participants by providing recommendations and contact information to locate supplies for creating architectural design models necessary for the exhibition.
MASS is a mission-driven organization that researches, builds, and advocates for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. With over 120+ architects, landscape architects, engineers, builders, furniture designers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers, their team represents 20 countries across the globe. In 2017, MASS was awarded the National Design Award in Architecture, given each year by Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Museum for Design. In 2019, Architect Magazine ranked MASS 4th in Design. Their work has been featured in over 4,000 publications.
MASS believes that helping to build a climate positive future is imperative for expanding access to design that is purposeful, healing, and hopeful. By partnering with MASS Design Group for the Indigenous International: Green Architecture Project in Rwanda, the Soul of Nations Foundation’s Native American and Rwandan participants will be presented with creative time and space to discuss and depict their viewpoints on Pan-Indigenous contemporary society and work towards gaining a better sense environmental stability through architectural and artistic prisms.
