2026 Annual Report · The year so far
Good places begin with people. Follow the partnerships shaping spaces for learning, care, and community—country by country.
January 1–October 19, 2026
Begin with a letter Browse all country updatesA letter from the president
Draft letter for Daniel’s review
Dear friends,
Before anything else, thank you. Your generosity makes Journeyman possible, and your trust means a great deal to me. Whether you give each month, volunteer your skills, introduce us to a partner, or send a note of encouragement, you are helping this work move forward. I don’t take that for granted.
Journeyman began as my senior project at Cal Poly. The idea was simple: connect people with design and construction skills to organizations doing important work around the world. That connection is still at the heart of what we do.
One project I’m especially encouraged by this year is the community center taking shape beside Sunzu’s library in Rwanda. There is still work ahead, but seeing a long-held community vision become a real building is a meaningful milestone. At ASFA, neighbors and volunteers worked together on paths for the sensory garden. And our bamboo workshop brought students in Rwanda and Indonesia together to learn from one another and design around a real community need.
Projects take patience. Funding, permits, site conditions, and construction details all need attention. Your support gives our team the consistency to stay alongside partners through those steps—to keep listening, work through problems, and help the next phase move forward.
To our donors and sponsors: thank you for investing in the people behind these projects. To our volunteers, students, local partners, and builders: thank you for the care and skill you bring. I’m proud of this team and grateful to be part of it.
There is plenty left to do, and I’m hopeful about what we can accomplish together. Thank you for believing in Journeyman and helping us continue to say yes to communities around the world.
Beyond the buildings
Our mission has two outcomes: places that support community life, and designers prepared to serve it. This year, lectures, studios, mentoring, field visits, and new connections advanced both.
Symposium + knowledge series · July
More than 180 people joined the global symposium and workshop series, according to our September supporter update. Guest-led sessions explored bamboo construction, community-led design, and emerging tools such as augmented reality. The exchange brought students and practicing architects into the same conversation.
Design workshop · July–September
Universitas Warmadewa and INES-Ruhengeri connected Indonesian and Rwandan students around a firefly conservation pavilion for Bring Back the Light. At the September 3 final critique, seven teams presented proposals and received feedback on habitat, spatial experience, bamboo detailing, and buildability.
EAIA President’s Award collaboration
Journeyman contributed the Gisimba Memorial Center brief and project resources to the East African Institute of Architects’ student competition. Staff supported the jury process, bringing questions of care, memory, and community life into architectural education. Participation is documented; final award outcomes are still being confirmed.
Field reviews · Peru + Rwanda
Garrett’s visit to Iquitos helped Lacitos de Luz reassess scope, cost, and adapting an existing property. In Rwanda, visiting Lake Flato designers supported Graine d’Or school planning. An October Sunzu walkthrough informed technical follow-up; visits also connected the team with Handspun Hope and INES-Ruhengeri.
University partnerships in development
Conversations with the University of Catania and an Italian academic network explored service learning on real humanitarian briefs. Introductions to architecture schools in Kenya opened another avenue. These are developing relationships, alongside the active Warmadewa–INES workshop collaboration.
Website + shared project knowledge
Journeyman launched a rebuilt website with a searchable project portfolio, richer stories, clearer ways to volunteer or request design, and accessible design guidance. Better documentation helps partners explain their vision and helps volunteers understand where their skills can contribute.
Knowledge shared across the network
Universitas Warmadewa · INES-Ruhengeri · Bring Back the Light
Featured knowledge-series contributors: Dr. Garvin Goepel, The University of Hong Kong · Luis Echeverría, Bamboo U · Harry Thorpe, CAUKIN Studio
The 2026 project atlas
Follow work in 15 countries, from new project briefs to designs delivered and partnerships carried forward. As you scroll, the map moves with the story.
Start in Costa Rica01 / Central America
In Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, El Puente connects Indigenous communities with meals, essential supplies, and practical support. This year, a modest housing proposal gave that work another way to sustain itself.
Design complete
The proposal creates two to four small rooms with private bathrooms and a shared kitchen. Visiting volunteers can stay close to the work, while the accommodation also offers temporary refuge for families in crisis. Local materials, security, and a close connection to nature shape the design.
Explore the project02 / South America
In Iquitos, Lacitos de Luz is planning a children's home around safety, dignity, and daily care. On-site consultation in 2026 helped the partner reconsider the scope and explore adapting an existing property.
Design and local review
Journeyman supported planning, cost review, and coordination with local professionals. By September, plans had been handed over for local inspection. Residential rooms, counseling, learning, dining, and support spaces remain part of the brief; construction completion has not been confirmed.
Explore the project03 / West Africa
Sport Grounds 4 Future brings sport, wellbeing, and community life into one brief. Journeyman's 2026 work explored how a sports campus could become a shared local resource.
Scope under review
Early studies combined courts and pitches with first aid, changing facilities, gathering areas, and future community uses. The work has explored different site and program possibilities. The location and next design phase are being clarified before the final annual report.
04 / West Africa
The ICLDN Impactivate Hub in Lagos brings skills, mentorship, enterprise, and creative exchange into one place. In August, the team reached a clear milestone: the design handoff.
Design complete
The August 14 closeout delivered the design brochure, visualizations, and preliminary construction drawings. The proposal brings together a multipurpose hall, coworking, counseling, digital learning, a library, and incubator offices. A Nigerian architect must review and prepare the package for local approvals before construction.
Explore the project05 / Central Africa
Near Ngoumu, the Wandusoa Ecological Learning Centre connects ecological recovery with practical learning for farmers and young people.
Design complete · tracker record
Discussed in the January project updates and now recorded as design complete, the proposal supports training in agroforestry, composting, and climate-resilient agriculture. It brings Indigenous knowledge and agroecology into the same learning environment. Construction and operating outcomes remain to be confirmed.
Explore the project06 / East Africa
Rwanda's work spans community sport, early learning, therapy, and construction support. The common task is practical: turn a partner's priorities into spaces that can be reviewed, built, and cared for locally.
Design in progress
A football pitch anchors proposed education, health, changing, and gathering spaces. The team is working through drainage, wetland edges, accessibility, and a phased plan.
Explore the projectConstruction phase closeout
The upper slab was placed during 2026. The October 12 phase closeout request records roofing and other finishing work still to be funded and completed, alongside technical review and handover. An opening has not been confirmed.
Explore the projectIn construction · tracker record
An accessible outdoor landscape complements physiotherapy with sensory exploration, movement, and play for children with disabilities.
Design in progress
After an earlier pause, work resumed around an early-childhood campus in Rusororo. September records note a Lake Flato team visit.
Launching
A new brief in Nduba connects nursery education with vocational learning, mentoring, and community support.
Permitting to be resubmitted
The proposed multipurpose facility supports dialogue, learning, and gathering. The next step remains permitting.
Fiscal stewardship
Agreements with the EAR Diocese of Nyaruguru and Elsa Miller Foundation formalized Journeyman's fiscal role. The tracker now records the project as built; completion evidence is still needed for the final report.
Design complete
Renovation studies progressed alongside an East African student design competition. The team reviewed submissions and supported the jury process during 2026.
Construction permit approved · tracker record
Technical coordination and permit follow-up continued through 2026 for the early-learning center. The latest tracker records permit approval; funding and implementation are the next questions to confirm.
07 / East Africa
A coffee and learning space in Lyantonde and a hospital brief in Tororo address very different needs. Both begin with local organizations building pathways to skills, care, and opportunity.
Design complete
A container-based coffee and bakery proposal pairs hospitality training for young mothers with an internet-enabled place to work, learn, and meet.
Launching · scope being defined
Jungle Medical Missions Uganda is planning a teaching hospital and College of Health Sciences. October discussions focused on agreeing a manageable design scope and the local technical team's responsibilities.
08 / East Africa
In Tanzania, design work connects the everyday conditions of a classroom with the longer path toward employment and independence.
Design in progress
With Vision Changer Organization, the team is developing safer classrooms and support facilities in Arusha. Daylight, natural ventilation, sanitation, durable local materials, and phased delivery guide the proposal.
Explore the projectDesign complete
The July 22 closeout shared the architectural proposal and material guidance for a vocational campus. Local technical development, costing, and fundraising remain the steps toward construction.
Explore the project09 / Southern Africa
Mayamiko Childcare Centre in Blantyre provides emergency care. Its new campus brief asks how architecture can support the steady, ordinary moments through which children feel safe and at home.
Design in progress
The proposed campus connects living, learning, play, nutrition, and caregiver support. The work began in 2026 with an emphasis on a home-like setting, clear supervision, and indoor-outdoor spaces that support choice and everyday independence. This remains a design proposal.
10 / Eastern Europe
In Trostyanets, a former bank offers a starting point for renewed youth learning and community life. Journeyman continued working with the municipality on its next chapter.
Design complete · tracker record
Design reviews continued during 2026 for the adaptation of a city-center building into a place for learning, creativity, and youth programs. The proposal prioritizes accessibility and energy independence. The current tracker records design completion; construction has not been confirmed.
Explore the project11 / Southeast Asia
On Ko Mak, Coral Gardeners Thailand is developing a place where restoration, research, and public learning can support each other.
Design in progress
A proof-of-concept phase tests wet-lab tanks and life-support systems while planning continues for a broader campus. The proposed program connects coral farming, wet and dry labs, classrooms, staff space, and visitor learning. These are design and testing milestones, with the larger facility still in development.
Explore the project12 / Southeast Asia
From Papuan-led reef restoration to bamboo learning in Bali and school rebuilding in East Nusa Tenggara, this year's work connects architecture with the environments and communities around it.
Design in progress
With The Sea People, Journeyman is developing a land-based hub for conservation, training, and shared living. Site and program changes continued during 2026, with water, energy, and island logistics shaping the design.
Explore the projectDesign workshop completed
Students in Indonesia and Rwanda presented firefly conservation pavilion proposals at the September 3 final critique. The workshop connected cultural context, habitat protection, bamboo detailing, and buildability; a completed pavilion is not claimed.
Launching
A new partnership with Humanies Project supports planning for MI Al-Hidayah after an earthquake left students in temporary classrooms.
Design complete · tracker record
The classroom and library proposal on Sumbawa links nature-based education with ecobricks and environmental stewardship. Closeout work continued into 2026.
Construction and design support
April updates reported completion of the girls' dormitory and director's housing. The team continued coordinating later expansion work, including gymnasium design and construction questions. Each phase is being tracked separately.
13 / Pacific Islands
Koroipita's long-running housing initiative pairs safe homes with the services and shared places that help a township work. Journeyman joined the next stage of that effort in 2026.
Design consultation in progress
With Involvement Volunteers International and local partners, Journeyman supported architectural consultation, planning, and visualization for community and educational spaces. The wider township expansion aims for additional cyclone-safe homes; that is the partner's planned program, rather than a count of homes delivered by Journeyman this year.
14 / Southeast Asia
The DYP Learning Centre continued to develop through 2026 as the team tested the program against access, infrastructure, and local approval requirements.
Design revision and technical coordination
Spring updates recorded additional land for road access and utilities. Later reviews focused on adjusting the program and layout to meet local zoning requirements. Journeyman's work connects the learning brief with the practical conditions needed to carry it into construction; a completed campus is not claimed.
15 / North America
Journeyman's design and construction advice also supports partners closer to home. This year, YMCA project coordination focused on the approvals and site questions that shape a realistic path forward.
Planning and permitting coordination
2026 team records describe architectural coordination alongside wetland, zoning, and permitting requirements. These steps are part of project delivery: establishing what a site can support and which local reviews are needed before construction. Completion and opening dates remain unconfirmed.
From drawings to the ground
Construction rarely fits inside a calendar year. These updates follow work on site in 2026, including projects whose design began earlier.
Rwanda · Construction phase
A flexible hall is taking shape beside the village library, with space intended for worship, early learning, music, play, and gathering. Foundations gave way to masonry and reinforced-concrete work; July and August photographs show the upper slab being placed.
Latest closeout request: October 12. Completion and opening have not been confirmed.
Follow the Sunzu storyRwanda · In construction
The sensory garden extends the existing rehabilitation center into an accessible landscape. An October update records two days of Umuganda community work, with young neighbors, local workers, and volunteers shaping pathways together. The garden remains in construction.
Explore the gardenIndonesia · Continuing campus work
April team updates reported the girls’ dormitory and director’s housing complete. Later work continued on the gymnasium and campus expansion. A finished phase and an evolving next phase are recorded separately, keeping the partner’s longer vision in view.
Explore the schoolWhat a place makes possible
Some of this year’s most meaningful stories began years ago. These connect the design decisions to the people, routines, and local organizations they are meant to support.
Muganza, Rwanda
A waterlogged exercise path was a small piece of a much larger rehabilitation campus, but it shaped how people could move outside. The sensory garden proposal answers with drainage, a wheelchair-friendly loop, shaded rest, planting, and places for assisted movement and play. In 2026, neighbors and volunteers began helping turn that plan into a place. The story is one of care extending beyond a treatment room—and of a community taking part in making it happen.
2026 story · work in progress
Read the project story
Sawinggrai, Raja Ampat
In a remote island setting, a school needs more than classrooms. Child Aid Papua’s Blue Ocean School brings learning together with places to live, teacher support, solar power, and rainwater systems. Opened in 2025, it remained part of Journeyman’s work in 2026 as housing phases were completed and the team supported the next expansion. Its significance lies in the everyday infrastructure around education: making it more practical for a school community to stay, teach, and learn in the place it calls home.
Continuing impact · earlier-year project
Read the project story
Musanze, Rwanda
Handspun Hope’s work begins with women’s skill. Its campus expansion places wool production alongside counseling, healthcare, education, and childcare, making those services part of a connected daily environment. The completed, operating campus shows how architecture can support a social enterprise without reducing people to production alone. During the team’s 2026 Rwanda visit, that partnership was part of the field story again. This is an enduring outcome from earlier work, rather than a new 2026 opening.
Places in use · earlier-year project
Read the project storyTo the people who stay with the work
A donated hour needs coordination. A promising brief needs patient review. A project on site needs follow-through. Our sponsors, funders, and recurring donors help make that continuity possible. Thank you.
2026 professional partnership
Thank you for combining a sponsorship commitment with hands-on design partnership and a visit to Rwanda in support of the Graine d’Or school project.
Project funding + stewardship
Thank you for supporting the Ndago Health Post partnership, with the EAR Diocese of Nyaruguru and a shared commitment to responsible stewardship.
Month after month
Your steady support helps our team stay alongside partners between the milestones. The handwritten notes, quiet encouragement, and dependable gifts matter more than a logo wall can show.
With gratitude to the organizations recognized in Journeyman’s public sponsor and partner record across the years. This is a shared history of support; the final 2026 donor honor roll is still being reconciled.
Columbia Builders
PBK
iFixit
Vance Brown Builders
Arris Studio Architects
Green Dinosaur
Environmental Building Strategies (now Stok)
Brady
DLM Architecture (now HED)
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Project Management Institute
Domum
BAR Architects & Interiors
Studio E Architects
Integral Group (now Introba)
HGA
Mithun
LSW Architects
Phantom Services
KPFF
RRM Design Group
Specialty Construction
CH2M (now Jacobs)
MVE + Partners
Studio 2G Architects
Ten Over Studio
International Living Future Institute
HMC Architects
A Complete Unknown
mr2 Architecture
Cell Signaling Technology
SmithGroup
Porcelanosa
Azizi Life
Suwandi Foundation
Chambliss Law
Gensler
Kalisher
Metroflor
Rottet Studio
Shannon Specialty Floors (now Teknoflor)
Studio 11 Design
TEKMAK DevelopmentLake Flato ArchitectsTo the individuals and families who give quietly, and everyone who shares time, expertise, materials, and introductions: you belong in this thank-you, too.
Financial stewardship · framework
This framework is ready for the final 2026 figures. It will show where support came from, how it was used, and which funds remain committed to specific projects.
January 1–December 31, 2026
Figures pending year-end reconciliation and review
| Category | USD |
|---|---|
| Individual and recurring gifts | To be added |
| Corporate and foundation support | To be added |
| Project administration and other earned income | To be added |
| Other income | To be added |
| Total support and income | To be added |
| Category | USD |
|---|---|
| Program delivery, design, and education | To be added |
| Management and administration | To be added |
| Fundraising and communications | To be added |
| Total expenses | To be added |
| Category | USD |
|---|---|
| Cash and investments at year-end | To be added |
| Funds designated or restricted for projects | To be added |
| Funds available for general operations | To be added |
The final edition will include the reporting basis, treatment of project-specific funds, significant noncash contributions where applicable, and the review status of the figures. Published totals will be added together with their context.
Approved 2026 income and expenses, reconciled year-end balances, the split between project funds and general operations, and a link to the final financial statement. No budget estimates or prior-year figures are presented as 2026 results.
