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<\/p>\nBig windows flooded the interiors of Noella Nibakuze\u2019s childhood home in Kigali, Rwanda with sunlight. She remembers those bright, sunny days spent in the living room or on the veranda of the house her parents designed and built themselves. Made from earth bricks and stone, the material palette was simple but \u201cI loved it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The youngest of seven, Nibakuze was a quiet and curious child who often joined her father\u2014a contractor who also sculpted and built furniture\u2014in his workshop after school. Her mother was an entrepreneur in her own right, leaving her teaching job to open a hardware store in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Nibakuze assumed she would follow her father into the construction industry or pursue a career in civil engineering, which was a popular path in the country at the time as there was no school of architecture in Rwanda. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what architecture was,\u201d she admits, \u201cbut being young, independent, and curious, I didn\u2019t want to do what everyone else was doing. I wanted something different. That\u2019s why I decided to study architecture even though I didn\u2019t know what it was or what I was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The figure eight-shaped Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA)<\/p>\n
While studying in South Africa, she began to dream big, envisioning herself crafting eye-catching skyscrapers in her hometown. Initially, she was drawn to the practical part of putting a building together, but \u201cwhat really attracted me to the field was realizing that architecture can solve people\u2019s problems,\u201d she points out. \u201cI could see how it could make life better for people, especially back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she returned to Rwanda in 2012\u2014becoming only the 48th registered architect in the country\u2014she brought a clear mission: to educate people about the profession and to celebrate Rwanda\u2019s design vernacular. In school, she had learned mostly about Western design ideas, but \u201cI couldn\u2019t relate,\u201d she says. Feeling disheartened, she began researching Vernacular South African houses\u2014traditional round, single-room structures made from wattle-and-daub in rural Black South African neighborhoods\u2014which revealed to her how indigenous building language could inspire modern architecture rooted in a local identity.<\/p>\n
For one, she rejected the trend of importing large glass buildings from abroad for something more of its place. \u201cI realized I could do something that is from my culture and heritage that is also beautiful and elevated,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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Locally crafted terracotta roof tiles, fired using coffee bean husks, exemplify RICA\u2019s context-driven design<\/p>\n
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