Christelle Muhimpundu ’18 (MFA1) Designs for MASS Design Group in Rwanda

This citizen of Burundi once dreamed of studying in the US; now a graduate of NYSID, she’s brought her international design experience back to Africa, to the exciting, emerging market of Rwanda. As an associate at MASS Design Group, Muhimpundu is helping local artisans develop skills and livelihoods as she sources for interiors. 

Design should improve the lives of its users. MASS Design Group, the international, nonprofit architecture and design firm that employs Christelle Muhimpundu ’18 (MFA1), has taken this maxim to the next level. MASS approaches every building as an opportunity to promote justice, economic opportunity, and human dignity. Muhimpundu works in the MASS office in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali City. As an interior design associate for the FF&E (furniture, fixtures, and equipment) team, she’s tasked with sourcing high-quality materials and furnishings from local artisans and craftspeople, and in turn, developing the economic infrastructure and knowledge base of the communities in which she works.  

MASS researches a community’s needs and calculates how to have the greatest impact before embarking on a project. “At MASS, we view not only the client, but also the community, as our partner. A good example is the Butaro District Hospital,” Muhimpundu says of the state-of-the-art medical facility that opened in an impoverished district of the country in 2011. “You can see MASS’ impact in the lives of the women who learned how to be masons and later started their own businesses, or in the young men who learned how to build a wall out of volcanic stone and went on to become masters of the craft.” This Butaro hospital is now well-known by architects for its gorgeous stone walls of volcanic rock, a natural asset Rwandan farmers used to regard as a nuisance. Now, they view it as a valuable building material.  

Her Path to NYSID 

Muhimpundu grew up in Burundi. When the opportunity to come to the United States for her higher education arose, she took it. She was not sure about what she wanted to study. She got a bachelor’s degree in business and management from Drexel University in Philadelphia, but what she enjoyed most were the undergraduate courses she took in architecture. She worked in hospitality management, for Marriott, for several years, before she decided that if she was going to get a master’s degree, she was going to do it in something she loves—interior design. She found NYSID and decided to go for the MFA after conversations with some second-year MFA1 students. She says, “I loved the intimacy of the program and also the environment of the Graduate Center. For someone like me who was already working, it didn’t feel like I was going back to school but rather embarking on a new career in a context that felt professional.” 

At NYSID, she valued the cultural and professional diversity of her MFA1 cohort. She says, “We had bankers, doctors, stay-at-home moms, all kinds of people. Students were from Malaysia, China…Maryland, Iowa. Coming from different backgrounds, we all designed differently and that was very beautiful and inspiring for each one of us.” 

Choosing to Work in Rwanda 

NYSID’s MFA1 requires students to do experiential learning over the summers, so Muhimpundu happened to be looking for an internship when she went to Rwanda for a holiday. Most Americans know of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, but fewer know of the country’s comparatively successful truth and reconciliation process and rebuilding in its aftermath. Says Muhimpundu, “Rwanda’s economy is growing. There is so much opportunity, and the design sector is growing too. The government has invested in traditional craftsmanship, like weaving and pottery, so these arts won’t be lost…I realized after that holiday that I could live in Rwanda and be very happy.” She landed an internship at MASS in Kigali over the summer of 2017 and was hired full time upon her graduation in 2018. When she started, the interior design department of MASS was new, so Muhimpundu had a chance to develop along with it. 

Muhimpundu’s job is focused on craftspeople, rather than just the products they create. Everything she sources for MASS must be local. Part of her job is to train the weavers, the potters, the carvers, and other makers to expand beyond their traditions, to incorporate creativity and originality, and to collaborate with other artisans. She says, “Design is embedded in the culture, but the need to diversify and expand on traditional craftsmanship is there. We commission, for example, a fixture that involves weaving, woodwork, ceramics, and metalwork, and in doing so we teach artisans to collaborate with other makers to create high-quality products.” 

A Project that Could Change Rwanda’s Future  

Muhimpundu and her team are hard at work on an enormous project: the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture. The vision for the Institute is to create food security for Rwanda, a country whose young population is expected to double in the next 30 years. This huge university and research institution will encompass classrooms, student residences, faculty residences, farms, administrative offices, barn storage, food production facilities, and public spaces of many kinds.  

For Muhimpundu, it’s a challenge and a chance to work on almost every kind of space. Her mandate is that everything she sources for this project be produced locally and sustainably. The research and planning phase of the project was long, and now, in Phase 2, her FF&E team is meeting with more than 80 craftspeople to create beautiful, custom pieces that incorporate wood, weaving, ceramics, and metal smithing. For the interiors, Muhimpundu and her colleagues on the FF&E team designed custom lounge chairs and sofas made of wood frames and woven metal back frames. Different weaving techniques are used on the back of the chairs: traditional banana, palm, or papyrus weaving. The products are beautiful, durable, and sustainable, but it’s the people who make her job fulfilling. “We’re not only creating employment,” she says. “We’re exposing local people to the idea that they can be world-class artisans. This is a very good job.”