Rwanda : Mass Design Group

At the end of 2017 we were approached by MASS Design Group, a non-profit architecture firm based in Africa and the US, to join a conversation around the use of clay and ceramic in a project they were embarking on in Bugesera, Rwanda.

MASS partnered with the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) to design and build their new campus in Bugesera, Rwanda. The project was conceived and funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and supported by the Government of Rwanda with MASS leading the master planning, architecture, landscape, engineering, and construction for the new campus.

The initial conversations centred around how MASS might be able to empower local makers and tradespeople to produce products for use in projects locally. Historically reliant on imported raw materials and products, MASS was keen to explore how, and indeed if, Rwandan design and manufacturing industries could be seeded. RICA was to be a test bed for some of these ideas.

Initially focussing on clay, early ideas were expanded upon to include other materials, processes, and designers. The Anchor team involved in the conversations included our creative director, Bruce Rowe, managing director, Claire Hatch, and our long-term production partner, and master potter, Michael Skewes.

Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda in August 2018, Anchor and a team of designers and makers from the US, Australia, The Netherlands, Rwanda and the UK convened to undertake a workshop exploring the nature of the local manufacturing capacity and local materials. In that workshop we examined what role design could play in kick-starting local design and manufacturing industries. Some of this early work played a role in seeding what has evolved to become Mass.made.

Anchor focused on key areas of local material supply, access to equipment, manufacturing within the local skills context and designing product guidelines that could work within this evolving framework.