Kepler has engaged MASS to develop a 10-year expansion plan for their Kigali campus, aimed at equipping African youth with versatile work-management skills for the job of the future. This plan includes three housing buildings - including a new academic building to serve an additional 700 students annually in Phase 1 of the project. The design prioritizes adaptable, collaborative spaces that support a range of learning styles. From flexible classrooms to outdoor study areas, the campus layout encourages innovation, teamwork, and continuous engagement with the environment, enhancing the educational experience.
MASS Design Group
Architecture and Planning
Boston, MA 28,946 followers
Our mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity.
About us
MASS creates well-built environments using appropriate design, local investment, and innovation to break the cycle of poverty. We collaborate with governments, NGOs, private sector firms, and health care experts to advocate for the most underserved and provide scalable models of community-based development and training. MASS Design Group has shown that innovation, driven by interdisciplinary research and immersion in the field, can deliver well-built environments that are efficient, effective, and empowering. By addressing immediate infrastructural needs and simultaneously building systems to address the social determinants of failure, our work constructs agency, serves as an engine for economic growth, and assures long-term sustainability. We build capacity at all levels—from training unskilled laborers to assisting government ministries in writing policies that establish more holistic and appropriate project outcomes.
- Website
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http://www.massdesigngroup.org
External link for MASS Design Group
- Industry
- Architecture and Planning
- Company size
- 51-200 employees
- Headquarters
- Boston, MA
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2008
- Specialties
- Architecture, Design, Planning, Healthcare, Education, and Social Impact
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
334 Boylston Street, Suite 400
Boston, MA 02116, US
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Get directions
Kigali Heights Plot 772, KG 7 Ave
Kigali, RW
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Get directions
289 Main Street
Suite 101
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, US
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Get directions
1807 Second Street
#32
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505, US
Employees at MASS Design Group
Updates
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By improving one site at a time along the Fall Kill, a creek running through Poughkeepsie, NY- the waterway has the potential to become a community and ecological asset. The first stage is underway, with the environmental non-profit leader Scenic Hudson, Inc., reimagining an old brick factory as an engine for regenerative conservation work. This adaptive re-use of the building uses approximately 70% less energy than a building built only to code. All of this energy, and more, is generated on site- with the excess being delivered back to the grid. #abundantfutures
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Check out the latest Essential Conversations podcast, hosted by Andrea Dalton, featuring Patricia Gruits, Architect and Co-Executive Director at MASS Design Group, and Alejandra Cervantes Enriquez, Director and Design Researcher, for a discussion on Trauma Informed Caring in the built environment- speaking to ways design can either hurt or heal, and what it really means to engage the community that the space will ultimately serve. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/dGs74hJ9
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Design Director Bethel Abate has been named one of Wallpaper* Magazine’s USA 400, which honors the people defining America's creative landscape in 2024! Congrats to Bethel for being named in the Community Builders Category - recognizing designers and artists whose practice has become the basis for a larger scope, serving local networks and connecting people.
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MASS has been supporting United Tribes Technical College and a committee of Japanese American descendants of those wrongfully imprisoned during WWII, to create the Snow Country Prison Memorial in Bismarck, ND. Once completed, this memorial will honor the resilience of Japanese Americans interned at Ft. Lincoln, ND (now United Tribes) and build solidarity across cultures and communities. Now halfway through construction, our partner is crowdfunding $17,000 this summer to complete the etching of reclaimed roof slates with the names of nearly 1,920 men held at Ft. Lincoln as well as histories of Japanese-American internment and Native American resilience at this site. Learn more: https://shorturl.at/rGjBB
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Take a look at MASS Alum and collaborator Kelly Alvarez Doran's piece on the work of the Northeast Bio-based Materials Collective to forward access to regionally produced renewable building materials. Check out the link below to see the work and get in touch about being part of the five active working groups: https://lnkd.in/eDFDsWZW
Don't miss the latest Architecture 2030 Carbon Positive column in ARCHITECT Magazine by Kelly Alvarez Doran. "We need to retrain ourselves how to use these materials and work with builders, insurers, developers, local authorities, and vocational trainers to develop a literacy and familiarity with their use." MASS Design Group James Kitchin New Frameworks Jacob Racusin Ace McArleton https://lnkd.in/gX5jVv7a
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The Autodesk Foundation is dedicated to designing for a better world. They've just released their FY24 Impact Report and MASS is honored to be included within their portfolio. Their ongoing support has been crucial in our mission to advance design solutions that prioritize people, place, and planet. Explore more in the Report here: https://lnkd.in/ete9NhR9
📣 We're excited to announce our third annual Autodesk Foundation Impact Report! The FY24 report highlights the impact outcomes of our portfolio and the stories and innovators behind the impact, including: • Reaching 110 million people with resilient solutions in housing and infrastructure, energy access, agricultural productivity, and workforce development (cumulative); • Reducing 2.2 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions in 2023; • Supporting 12,900 people in obtaining new or improved jobs in 2023. Learn more about our portfolio's impact in this message from our Executive Director Christine Stoner and Managing Director Jean Shia ➡️ https://lnkd.in/g7uJUJ3J
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Check out our latest newsletter! https://lnkd.in/eV8B7Emr
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Congrats to Mtamu Kililo, former ADC fellow. The start of the mycelium revolution!
Could mushrooms be the key to transforming the building industry while also improving the environment In Kenya? A social enterprise called MycoTile is innovating insulation materials made from agricultural waste bonded with mushroom mycelium. Its carbon-negative product delivers stronger insulative properties at a lower price than traditional building materials. To learn more about MycoTile, a member of the 2023 Morgan Stanley Sustainable Solutions Collaborative, visit https://mgstn.ly/4bnFnp4
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MASS Design Group reposted this
A peek inside the first issue of the Future Observatory Journal 🔭 In her case study, Curatorial Director of Future Observatory Cher Potter looks at a new campus for conservation agriculture in Rwanda, created by non-profit architectural firm MASS Design Group. The group believes in building processes that restore people’s relationships with their environments and they have developed a design approach – some even call it a ‘movement’ – known as Lo-Fab. Tap the link to read the case study in full - https://bit.ly/3zhaplj #FutureObservatory #FOJournal
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