Leadership

Christian Benimana, Founding Director

Christian Benimana dreamed of becoming an architect, but—in 2002—there were no design schools in his home country of Rwanda, so he applied and was accepted to Tongji University in Shanghai, China. Not letting his inability to speak Mandarin stand in his way, he spent a year gaining fluency before pursuing his degree in architecture.

When he returned to Rwanda in 2010, Christian joined MASS Design Group as a Global Health Corps Design Fellow. Five years later, he presented the idea for the African Design Centre at the UN Solutions Summit in New York.

His TED Talk, “The next generation of African architects and designers” has been viewed almost a million times, and MASS’s vision for the fellowship has been featured in venues like Design Indaba and the Public Interest Design Education Guidebook publication. In an interview with CNN, Iain Low, professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Cape Town, South Africa reflected on the fellowship, saying, “This initiative could contribute an exceptionally valuable dimension to architectural discourse and education on the African continent.” For Christian, the holistic vision of the center prepares designers to respond to the critical need for high-quality infrastructure that Africa will face as it experiences rapid population growth and urbanization in the coming decades.