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
Performing Arts Centers | Dec 23, 2022
Diller Scofidio + Renfro's renovation of Dallas theater to be ‘faithful reinterpretation’ of Frank Lloyd Wright design
Diller Scofidio + Renfro recently presented plans to restore the Kalita Humphreys Theater at the Dallas Theater Center (DTC) in Dallas. Originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, this theater is the only freestanding theater in Wright’s body of work.
University Buildings | Dec 22, 2022
Loyola Marymount University completes a new home for its acclaimed School of Film and Television
California’s Loyola Marymount University (LMU) has completed two new buildings for arts and media education at its Westchester campus. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Howard B. Fitzpatrick Pavilion is the new home of the undergraduate School of Film and Television, which is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 10 film schools. Also designed by SOM, the open-air Drollinger Family Stage is an outdoor lecture and performance space.
Adaptive Reuse | Dec 21, 2022
University of Pittsburgh reinvents century-old Model-T building as a life sciences research facility
After opening earlier this year, The Assembly recently achieved LEED Gold certification, aligning with the school’s and community’s larger sustainability efforts.
Multifamily Housing | Dec 20, 2022
Brooks + Scarpa-designed apartment provides affordable housing to young people aging out of support facilities
In Venice, Calif., the recently completed Rose Apartments provides affordable housing to young people who age out of youth facilities and often end up living on the street. Designed by Brooks + Scarpa, the four-story, 35-unit mixed-use apartment building will house transitional aged youths.
Coatings | Dec 20, 2022
The Pier Condominiums — What's old is new again!
When word was out that the condominium association was planning to carry out a refresh of the Pier Condominiums on Fort Norfolk, Hanbury jumped at the chance to remake what had become a tired, faded project.
Cladding and Facade Systems | Dec 20, 2022
Acoustic design considerations at the building envelope
Acentech's Ben Markham identifies the primary concerns with acoustic performance at the building envelope and offers proven solutions for mitigating acoustic issues.
Sponsored | Resiliency | Dec 14, 2022
Flood protection: What building owners need to know to protect their properties
This course from Walter P Moore examines numerous flood protection approaches and building owner needs before delving into the flood protection process. Determining the flood resilience of a property can provide a good understanding of risk associated costs.
Architects | Dec 14, 2022
Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, named 2023 AIA Gold Medal honoree
The Board of Directors and the Strategic Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) are honoring Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, with the 2023 Gold Medal. The Gold Medal honors an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture.
Healthcare Facilities | Dec 14, 2022
In Flint, Mich., a new health center brings together children’s mental and physical health services
Families with children who experience behavioral health issues often have to travel to multiple care facilities to see multiple teams of specialists. In Flint, Mich., the new Center for Children’s Integrated Services at Genesee Health System (GHS), a public mental health provider, brings together all of the GHS children’s programs, including its behavioral health programs, under one roof. It provides families a single destination for their children’s mental healthcare.
Sponsored | Multifamily Housing | Dec 14, 2022
Urban housing revival: 3 creative multifamily housing renovations
This continuing education course from Bruner/Cott & Associates highlights three compelling projects that involve reimagining unlikely buildings for compelling multifamily housing developments.