Rwanda, Africa In celebration of International Women’s Day, we revisit the Women’s Opportunity Center, an inspiring project by Sharon Davis Design that highlights the transformative power of architecture. 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 the role of designers. One hour from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Kayaonza is a semi-rural setting. The site of the Women’s Opportunity Center, located at a crossroads above a fertile valley, was an ideal arena for architecture that opens a new world of opportunity. The architects chose the idea of a vernacular Rwandan village as their 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. The 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 […]
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