The story
A place of refuge is renewed around dignity, memory, and choice.
Gisimba Memorial Center has served Kigali since 1980 and sheltered hundreds of children and families during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Today, its work has evolved from orphanage care into a trauma-informed community program centered on education, creative expression, and resilience. The renovation responds in three connected phases: an educational hub, an administration and memory hub, and an arts and music hub. Rather than erase the existing campus, the design repairs dampness, leaking windows, heat, glare, and confusing circulation while adding daylight, ventilation, calm acoustics, clear wayfinding, restorative landscapes, and flexible rooms.
Research with Yale public-health and nursing collaborators informs spaces intended to increase safety, agency, and belonging without turning trauma into spectacle. The 2026 competition brief documents a phased proposal; construction completion is not verified. The architecture's task is careful continuity: honor what happened here, improve the conditions children experience now, and give the center room to keep changing with the people it serves.
