Deadline for GC2025 submissions in 

search
×
menu
login
donate
Masoro Village Project
Masoro, Rwanda
follow
share on:mail linkcopy link to clipboardShare via LinkedInShare via TwitterShare via FacebookShare via Facebook
A pilot housing project aims to empower the local communities

image: Yutaka Sho | © all rights reserved
i
Category:
housing
Phase:
under construction
Design:
GA|C Collaborative, design team: Yutaka Sho, James Setzler, Michael Beaman, Zaneta Hong; Student partners from University of Rwanda: Theophile Uwayezu, Doreen Ingabire, Rene Isabane, Patrice Ndababonye
Updated:
12 March 2014
introduction

As a designer it is often very easy to impose an idea of what techniques, forms and spaces should be built without really involving the users in the design process. The Masoro Village Project by GA|Collaborative is an example of a different approach that led to a completely collaborative design. In September 2013 the first prototype was finished. The project gave the villagers of Masoro not only a completely new skillset, they even started their own cooperative that supports new construction plans for their community.

The US-based non-profit organization GA|Collaborative aims to bring quality design and construction to disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. For the Masoro Village project they partnered with Dushygikirane, a women’s association founded and operated by women who survived the Rwandan genocide. The genocide and the following villagization (replacement of civilians to concentrated villages) left many people without a home and without the means to built a new one. In this project GA|C set out to find a cost-effective and sustainable building practice for the community and the country. To understand the specific culture and needs of Masoro, the people of GA|C have stayed in Masoro for five years, researching and developing possible design solutions with the villagers, transferring new skills and techniques.

read more >
< read less
cultural and social context

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, around 800,000 people were killed. Set of by the assassination of president Juvenal Habyarimana thousands of Hutus went into the streets and started a killing spree that went on for 100 days. Most of the violence was directed at the Tutsis, an ethnic minority that had been made the scapegoat for the many economic and social problems in Rwanda. After the genocide, Rwanda counted an enormous increase of HIV infections due to war rape, including babies born of rape to newly-infected mothers.

read more >
< read less
materials and building techniques

The main construction feature used in the construction of the EB House 01 is the EarthBag system. These woven polypropylene bags were originally developed as a military bunker construction technique but were adapted for civil purposes by Johnny Anderton of Eternally Solar, a South African agency. The bags are filled with earth from the location and can be used to form the bearing walls of the building. Being a waste product of oil production, polypropylene is a very affordable material that also helps in diminishing the carbon emission of the country. Protected from the sun polypropylene is nearly indestructible and will last a very long time.

read more >
< read less
image gallery
The first finished house

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
The making of the model

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Building process

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Pattern weaving

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Dancing Rwandan women

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
technical drawings
Design process

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Floorplan Masoro House

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Section Masoro House

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Concept Development

image: GA|Collaborative | © all rights reserved
i
Location
show earth plate boundarieshide earth plate boundaries
Explore more inspirations
Keyword:
crowdfunding (19)
community practice (113)
empowerment (70)
student participation (47)
prev
  •  housing
    Rural Bayview Village
    Bayview, U.S.A.
  •  housing
    vrijburcht
    Amsterdam, IJburg, Netherlands
  •  meeting place
    Palomino Border
    Palomino, Guajira, Colombia
  •  housing
    Incremental collective housing
    Neak Loeang, Cambodia
  •  housing
    E.V.A. Self build eco-village
    Pescomaggiore, Italy
  •  education
    Play-doh : Early years education in rural India
    Bhiwandi, India
  •  religion & memorial
    Bamboo chapels
    Jama, Ecuador
  •  housing
    Community led housing design in Munting Nayon
    Muntinlupa City, Philippines
  •  housing
    Project Suitcase - Manchenahalli
    Rayanakkalu village, Manchenahalli Gram Panchayat, India
  •  housing
    Black Bamboo Community Center
    Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  •  education
    Gando Primary School
    Gando, Burkina Faso
  •  education
    PLAYSCAPE
    Koh Rong Island, Cambodia
  •  meeting place
    Farmers' Innovation Center (BLF)
    Angangba (Nagaland), India
  •  meeting place
    LOCAL COMUNITARIO A.F. 10 DE JULIO
    LIMA, Peru
  •  education
    El jardin de Adele
    Encañada, Peru
  •  recreation & sport
    Rural Sports Center
    San Pedro Apóstol, Oaxaca, Mexico
  • play
     religion & memorial
    Iglesia de Coquí
    Coquí, Chocó, Colombia
  •  meeting place
    Community Center in Jatimulyo
    Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • GC2021 finalist
     education
    Rebuilding the Haadibadi Community library
    Bengaluru City, India
next