Size

Build: 900 sq. m. / 9,688 sq. ft.

Year

2011

Status

Completed

Client

A Partner in Education (APIE)

Photo of Michael Murphy, Co-founder and CEO of MASS Design Group.

Michael Murphy

Founding Principal & CEO — Boston

Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, is the Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, an architecture and design collective that leverages buildings, as well as the design and construction process, to become catalysts for economic growth, social change, and justice. Since MASS's beginnings, their portfolio of work has expanded to over a dozen countries and span the areas of healthcare, education, housing, urban development. MASS’s work has been published in over 900 publications and awarded globally. Most recently, MASS has been recognized as the winners of the national Arts and Letters Award for 2017 and the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Michael’s 2016 TED talk has reached over a million views, and was awarded the Al Filipov Medal for Peace and Justice in 2017. MASS's project, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice was named the single greatest work of American architecture in the 21st century. Michael has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Michigan, and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Michael is from Poughkeepsie, NY, and holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago.

Project Team

Sierra Bainbridge, Andrew Brose, Branden Collins, Garret Gantner, Michael Murphy, Eric Mutabazi, Alan Ricks, Ebberly Strathairn

Collaborators

Landscape Design: MASS Design Group
General Contractor and Civil/Structural Engineering: Ujenge Construction and Engineering
Design Consultant: Killian Doherty
Engineering Consultant: Patrick Sebatagita

In 2007, UK-based charity A Partner In Education committed to building a new school campus in the Kigali neighborhood of Kabeza for three hundred vulnerable or orphaned children and to replace the dilapidated existing facilities.

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, View of Tiered Landscape and School Children Playing

© Iwan Baan

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, Early Childhood Education Classroom

© Iwan Baan

Umubano Primary School Classroom

MASS was brought on board to select the site, design the educational facility, and assist in building the organizational structure to support the educational programs for the Kabeza neighborhood.

Umubano Primary School Classroom
Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, Primary School Classroom

© Iwan Baan

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, Benches Intergrated into the Tiered Landscape with Children

© Iwan Baan

The design includes seven buildings with nine classrooms and a library. The site plan and circulation take inspiration from the hilly landscape of the neighborhood and region, where switchbacks traverse the hillsides.

Photo of the Umubkano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, View of Custom Brick Wall with Gaps for Ventilation into Primary School Classroom

© Iwan Baan

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, View of Shared Library and Classroom Space

© Iwan Baan

The Umubano Primary School 10

Each room utilizes natural ventilation with screen walls and operable glazing, while a glazed Vierendeel truss in the roof structure provides sufficient diffuse daylighting.

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, Photo of Surrounding Landscape and Boy on his Bike

© Iwan Baan

Photo of the Umubano Primary School, Photo by Iwan Baan, an aerial view of the school

© Iwan Baan

Umubano Primary School Classroom

Local materials such as brick and papyrus reeds were used and local craftspeople were engaged throughout.