“The construction of a small single-family home twenty kilometers north of Kigali, Rwanda is now complete. The building is demure: three small bedrooms, a modest living room, and a space for cooking. Poor material availability and financial limitations meant that practicality was its primary design muse.
The house is the prototype for a series of homes that the designers, GA Collaborative, will build in Masoro for members of the women’s cooperative l’Association Dushyigikirane. With the project’s uncommon building method —earthbag construction, the first of its kind in Rwanda—GA Collaborative intends to empower its clients with knowledge of an inexpensive and speedy construction technique that requires little training and no prior construction experience.
A South African earthbag consultant, Riaan Hough, led an initial three-week training session for the construction crew, but the dissemination of earthbag building techniques to the general public was an important goal for the designers. They envision an open-source construction manual (currently under development) that describes the method step-by-step. The document is another architectural tool for engaging the public, and another indication of the pedagogical current that runs through the entire Masoro Village Project. The manual will feature both Kinyarwanda and English, but rely heavily on photographs because many of the women of l’Association Dushyigikirane do not read or write.”
More at the source: Masoro Village Project