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On a two-hectare site in Rwanda, the most densely populated country in Africa, the Women’s Opportunity Center is empowering one small community and, in turn, rewriting our role as designers.
One hour from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Kayonza is like much of this strife-torn nation: a place with few means but great promise. In this semi-rural setting, women dedicate their days to small subsistence farms, fetching fresh water, and scavenging wood for fuel. The site of the new Women’s Opportunity Center, located at a crossroads above a fertile valley, is an ideal arena for architecture that opens a new world of opportunity.
We chose the idea of a vernacular Rwandan village as our organizing principle: a series of human-scaled pavilions clustered to create security and community for up to 300 women. Designed in collaboration with Women for Women International-a humanitarian organization that helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives—this mini-village transforms urban agglomeration and subsistence farming with an architectural agenda to create economic opportunity, rebuild social infrastructure, and restore African heritage.
Our design revives a lost Rwandan design tradition with deep spatial and social layers. Its circular forms radiate outward, from intimate classrooms at the center of the site to a community space, farmer’s market, and the civic realm beyond. The center’s circular structures are modeled after the historic King’s Palace in southern Rwanda, whose woven-reed dwellings were part of an indigenous tradition that the region had all but lost. Our design draws on the delicacy of this vernacular Rwandan construction method with rounded, perforated brick walls that allow for passive cooling and solar shading, while maintaining a sense of privacy. All the bricks that comprise these buildings are made from clay found in the adjacent valley by a co-op of WfWI graduates. Roughly half a million hand-pressed bricks were used to construct
the buildings, perimeter fence, and other site infrastructure. The high quality bricks, bonding patterns, and curved walls allowed for the removal of concrete columns and beams in the buildings. The perforated brick walls provide diffuse lighting and natural ventilation to the interior spaces. The paving tiles are made by WfWI graduates in The Democratic Republic of Congo.
We partnered with local enterprises to create water purification, biogas, and other sustainable systems that can be produced and maintained by the inhabitants themselves. For example, in place of pit latrines typically found in Rwanda – which pollute groundwater aquifers and are vectors for disease – we have designed simple, hygienic composting toilets that reduce water use while capturing nitrogen-rich solid and liquid waste. Our easily managed system naturally produces fertilizer that can nourish the farm or be sold as part of the site’s revenue-generating strategies.
The site’s water requirements are satisfied by the buildings themselves; the shape and orientation of the roofs are designed to optimally collect and funnel water to two buried 40,000-liter cisterns. Rainwater stored in the cisterns is moved to an elevated tank via a solar pump where it is then distributed. Potable water is provided by an ultraviolet filtration system. Grey water from sinks and showers is reused to irrigate gardens.
The design builds support for Rwanda’s social infrastructure through guest lodging facilities that allow donors and partner organizations to experience the Opportunity Center first-hand. These lodges serve as a conduit for initiatives that build one-to-one relationships between women in Kayonza and sponsors around the world, expanding the center’s social footprint through a sustaining global network.
The project also includes a demonstration farm that helps women produce and market their own goods. This Commercial Integrated Farming Initiative teaches women to produce income from the land through organic techniques geared toward commercial production. Through compact, easily maintained animal pens and classrooms— cooled by green roofs and retained earth walls—women learn to raise pigs, cows, goats, and rabbits, along with food storage and processing methods that can be used to run their own food cooperatives profitably.
Set around an inviting plaza easily reached by motorists and public transit, a market showcases the center’s economic potential. Here, women sell food, textiles, baskets, and other products produced on site, as well as potable water harvested from the center’s rooftops. Market spaces can be rented to generate additional income, building a self-sufficient community network in Kayonza.
The Women’s Opportunity Center empowers 300 women annually to transcend a legacy of conflict. As designers, it has empowered us to create an ethic of global collaboration-one that’s rapidly reshaping our practice. In the lives and stories of these women, we have found the locally inspired grounds for a globally resonant architecture of optimism.
Sharon Davis Design - Since its founding in 2007, Sharon Davis Design has developed innovative and sustainable design solutions that better people’s lives and their surroundings. The firm is committed to creating environments that improve the way individuals live, and that bolster the regeneration of the natural world. Sharon and her team conceptualize designs that both harmonize with the existing environment—natural and constructed—and develop solutions that are cost‐effective, environmentally conscious, and exquisitely sensitive to the demands and possibilities of local materials, light, heat, and water.
Sharon Davis Design has been recognized by a range of publications and websites, including Architectural Record, The Architectural Review, GOOD, Metropolis, Architectural Digest, Earthworks Magazine, and Architizer. Sharon Davis Design works with a broad range of clients including NGO’s, nonprofits, public agencies and private individuals; it is also a certified woman‐owned business.
