LOCAL FABRICATION

While in Rwanda working on the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) campus I joined the MASS.Made team. MASS.Made, is MASS’s furniture design studio, which emerged through MASS’s work on RICA a project so connected to place, landscape, and sustainability that it seemed unjust to fill it with imported products. All the furniture was made with local materials and local craftspeople. Not only did this reduce the carbon footprint of the fixture but it also helped create a space for traditional craft to continue to flourish outside the tourism market.

I helped make the newly established MASS.Made studio a successful venture. I helped with the design, and fabrication of the lighting at RICA, as well as led the team operations ensuring makers were getting paid, while also facilitating the delivery and installation of the 85+ different custom made FFE products to the campus.

While in graduate school I took advantage of our shop facilities. I enjoy the process of turning the digital into the real. There is a myriad of possibilities when joining materials together. I love taking the concept idea and revealing it in the construction details of a piece. I believe that to truly understand a material it must be applied in a finished product. There is a stronger connection between the designer and the work when the project is brought into reality.