Boston-based MASS Design Group rethinks the design of a struggling Rwandan Primary School

 

Classrooms were positioned to minimize direct sunlight, helping keep them cool.

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.

  The MASS group’s most recent successes came after it was tapped by the San Francisco–based education nonprofit M² Foundation to enlarge and renovate a typical primary school in the Musanze district of Rwanda called Mubuga, that institution was housed in a long, rectangular structure set at the edge of its site. Classrooms were situated without regard to the path of the sun, making them so hot as to be unusable at times, according to Murphy. The MASS team not only repaired the existing structure but also added classrooms, positioning them to minimize direct sunlight while creating a series of small courtyards and outdoor play areas. These spaces can simultaneously accommodate separate groups—boys, girls, young kids, older kids—and also serve specific functions. One contains a maze, another a volleyball court. Some are just for sitting. Says the project’s lead designer, Patricia Gruits, “Seeing how many children are enjoying the equipment that was created for them is an overwhelming and joyous experience.”

Students play in the timber maze that MASS Design Group devised for one of the school’s many outdoor spaces.