The Board of Directors and the Strategic Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) today honored MASS Design Group with the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm Award.
The annual AIA Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor the AIA bestows on an architecture practice. The award recognizes a firm that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.
Since its founding in 2008, MASS Design Group has worked tirelessly to ignite systemic change in the built environment through its mission-driven process. As a nonprofit interdisciplinary collective comprising more than 200 architects, engineers, researchers, and even filmmakers, MASS has provided millions of dollars’ worth of design services for projects around the world. Always committed to ensuring its architecture addresses the world’s most pressing social issues, MASS continually demonstrates that a healthy built environment is crucial for supporting communities as they confront history, heal, and explore new possibilities for the future.
MASS’ mission is embedded in its name, an acronym for Model of Architecture Serving Society. It was founded during the design and construction of Rwanda’s Butaro District Hospital. The small team has grown considerably since then, evolving to include MASS.Made, a furniture design and fabrication team, and MASS.Build, a construction company that employs more than 2,000 people. Throughout all of its work, MASS leverages the lessons it learned in Rwanda to shape a framework that allows the firm to inform policy development, emerging research, and projects that address inequality. MASS’ unusual model, which includes discrete governance and leadership groups, ensures the firm can adhere to its core mission of delivering architecture that serves society.
MASS’ work throughout the world is perhaps best characterized as a portfolio of beautiful and functional buildings that expand the idea of what conventional architecture is. In the U.S., projects such as The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and the traveling Gun Violence Memorial Project are physical manifestations of the firm’s design philosophy: Justice is Beauty. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors more than 4,400 historical victims of lynching in the American south was heralded as “the single greatest work of 21st century American architecture that will break your heart” by the Dallas Morning News.
In addition to the dignified environments it creates, MASS is deeply invested in the local communities it serves. When the firm began in Rwanda, there was an extremely limited community of professional architects in the country. Today, MASS’ Rwanda office comprises 80 design professionals, more than 72 percent of which are from Rwanda. MASS is now the largest architecture firm there, and its team continues to design and build critical infrastructure throughout the country. Among its members are the first female Rwandan landscape architect, the top graduate of the Kigali Institute of Science and Design, built in 2009, and a growing body of female architects and engineers.
Additionally, MASS has established two fellowship programs that seek to elevate the next generation of design leadership in Rwanda and the U.S.: the African Design Center and Space and Society Fellowship. These two opportunities provide pathways for young architects in search of a practice that will allow them to harness their design skills for the betterment of society. MASS also hopes that this vital training will imbue the profession with an enhanced culture of optimism.
Visit AIA’s website to learn more about MASS Design Group’s selection as the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient.
Related Stories
| Jun 11, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: How advanced digital fabrication techniques are driving design innovation
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), SOM’s Lucas Tryggestad and Kyle Vansice present the firm’s 3D-printed building project and explore how digital fabrication is pushing design innovation.
| Jun 11, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: AEC + Data + AI — Poison for some, elixir for others
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), predictive analytics expert David Morgareidge offers steps that AE firms can take today if they want to survive AECO digital transformation.
Education Facilities | Jun 8, 2018
Data is driving design for education
In gathering this constant flow of data and recognizing the shifting trends, how can educational institutions make informed choices and smart design decisions that lead to higher efficiency and improved control over capital budgets?
Architects | Jun 6, 2018
Chief of Staff of the Army honors SmithGroupJJR’s Philip Tobey with Outstanding Civilian Service Award
Tobey began his career as a captain and military architect at Headquarters, U.S. Air Force Office of the Surgeon General, with review responsibility for medical projects worldwide.
Architects | Jun 6, 2018
A modest boost in licensed architects in 2017
NCARB’s annual survey shows California and New York leading the pack.
Healthcare Facilities | Jun 6, 2018
French 'Alzheimer’s Village' designed to resemble a medieval bastide
The new facility will provide research on a new way of treating Alzheimer’s patients.
Architects | Jun 5, 2018
Michael Green Architecture joins Katerra
Michael green architecture is a globally recognized leader in mass timber architecture.
Architects | Jun 4, 2018
Changing the way we think about water and design
We have several gaps between the need and desire to have abundant, accessible, clean water and the reality of dealing with on-going and increasing water shortage crises.
Libraries | Jun 1, 2018
New library offers a one-stop shop for what society is craving: hands-on learning
Beyond lending books and DVDs, the Elkridge (Md.) branch library loans household tools like ladders, wheelbarrows, and sewing machines.
| May 30, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: Seven technologies that restore glory to the master builder
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), AEC technophile Rohit Arora outlines emerging innovations that are poised to transform how we design and build structures in the near future.