Site Visit Leads Team To Dig Deeper Into Design Process For The Kigali International Community School

Back in NYC, Assemblage is now deeply immersed in our findings from our time spent on the ground in Kigali, Rwanda. The process of discovery that came with meeting with the KICS school board, teachers and students, as well as exploring local nurseries and construction sites has shed unexpected and valuable light on how to turn innovative ideas into a practical reality in Rwanda. 

What has emerged is a two-fold focus right now: the uniqueness of the site’s hillside topography, geomorphology, and landscape history and what this means for water, drainage, and siting the structures that will make up the campus architecture. From discoveries made in Rwanda about local construction, materials, and resources, we are aiming for a design that is truly site specific as well as cost sensitive in the best sense. Secondly, ongoing conversations with teachers and administrators have us begging the question: How will we provide teachers with a built environment in which curriculum and landscape are in working relationship to one another? 

Critical questions now drive our design process as a result of these ongoing findings. We are not simply introducing our ideas and concepts on a blank slate but responding to the physical, social and cultural context of the school and site. There are big changes ahead for the KICS school and part of our challenge is to work with sensitivity and awareness as to how those changes will impact both the physical and social environment. 

written by Lori Ball Horton for Assemblage Landscape Architecture