The master plan focuses on the rapid urban growth in Kigali in Rwanda and responds to the needs of the predominantly young population. The project establishes participatory processes with local cooperatives and stakeholders. Working with, rather than against the topography, the scheme includes a collective hill-farming program, community buildings, and a market. Existing wetlands will be improved with aquatic macrophyte plants and intercepted with a network of pedestrian bridges and pathways. Using local materials as well as empowering the local labor force, the Co-op Capacity Building offers cost effective, re-applicable solutions that respect the Rwandan tradition, improved by a contemporary sense of public space aesthetics.

Read project feature in 4th Holcim Awards 2014/2015 (flip-book)

Pamela Larocca of Urban Future organization / kaudesign studio, Italy won a Holcim Awards Acknowledgement prize for “Co-op Capacity Building: Community farming and market hub” in Kigali, Rwanda. She views the key to sustainability to be improving the lives of people while maintaining the opportunities for others.

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The twelve winning projects of the Holcim Awards 2014 Africa Middle East focus mainly on enhancing social and environmental resilience, as well as the economy of construction. The winning submissions show how multi-disciplinary responses to the challenges facing design and building are being developed. A green building in Turkey, an urban forest rehabilitation in Lebanon, and a low-cost housing plan in Ethiopia received the top prizes.

The jury was impressed by the idea of strengthening communities involved in food production through cooperative capacity building, combining social and economic programs in the very make-up of the community. The masterplan thus goes beyond the implementation of physical infrastructures, spaces, and buildings to include a range of measures to reinforce social interconnectedness – through communication and participation. The project is a small but nonetheless important step in nation building, in a country troubled by its past.

The master plan focuses on the rapid urban growth in Kigali, Rwanda and responds to the needs of the predominantly young population. The project establishes participatory processes with local cooperatives and stakeholders. Working with, rather than against the topography, the scheme includes a collective hill-farming program, community buildings, and a market. Existing wetlands will be improved with aquatic macrophyte plants and intercepted with a network of pedestrian bridges and pathways.