MASS DESIGN

MASS Design Group is a nonprofit architecture firm founded in 2008 by a group of Harvard Graduate School of Design students who believed that buildings could do more than shelter—they could heal, empower, and transform. What began with a single hospital in rural Rwanda has grown into a 250-person global practice spanning healthcare, education, memorialization, and community development across Africa and the Americas. MASS's work—from the Butaro District Hospital that sparked a regional healthcare revolution, to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice that confronts America's history of racial terror—demonstrates that architecture can be a vehicle for justice, dignity, and systemic change. Operating from offices in Boston and Kigali, MASS has become the largest architecture firm in Rwanda while pioneering a model that prioritizes local labor, local materials, and lasting community impact over imported solutions and quick builds.