This Nonprofit Architecture Firm Transformed a Rwandan School
Text by Fred A. Bernstein, Photography by Iwan Baan
Rwanda is trying to put its history of war and genocide behind it. Landlocked and without substantial natural resources, the country is investing in its people, turning to education as a force for change. Recent reforms have included raising the standards for advancing from primary to secondary school. That’s a good thing. But it has increased the number of older primary-school students, creating social tensions as well as a predictable shortage of classrooms.
Enter MASS Design Group, a nonprofit architecture firm based in Boston. Founded in 2008 by Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks, MASS is known for devising a striking hospital in northern Rwanda and a serene cholera clinic in Haiti, among other philanthropically and aesthetically ambitious projects.