GA Collaborative, the non-profit design organization of Zaneta Hong (lecturer in landscape architecture and MLA ’07), Michael Leighton Beaman (MArch ’03), James Setzler (MArch ’05), and Yutaka Sho (MArch ’05) is EDRA’s 2014 Place Design Award recipient for the “Masoro Village Project.”
GA Collaborative conceived the Masoro Village Project as a way to bring design thinking to Masoro, Rwanda in the form of new housing. The first house built in 2013 used low-impact building materials, engaged both skilled and unskilled local labor, and was a vehicle to test and teach building techniques new to the country. To sustain the newly gained knowledge within the country, GA Collaborative worked closely with local architecture students from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (University of Rwanda) who were involved with the project at each stage, working side-by-side with the villagers. The Masoro Village Project will be on display during the 45th Annual Conference of the Environmental Design Research Association, May 28-31, 2014.
The EDRA Great Places Awards recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design and pay special attention to the relationship between physical form and human activity or experience. Now in its 16th year, EDRA’s Great Places Awards seek to recognize work that combines expertise in design, research, and practice, and contributes to the creation of dynamic, humane places that engage our attention and imagination. Award-winning projects reflect an interdisciplinary approach that is enduring, human-centered, sustainable, and concerned with the experiential relationship between people and their environment (built and natural) over time. View the Masoro Village Project from GA Collaborative on the EDRA website.