Early Childhood Development centers design in Rwanda and PhD on ECD in refugee camps

Designing and Building ECD centres - Rwanda - Initiative 1

From 2011 to 2014, I contributed as an architect, researcher and consultant to the design, prototyping and construction of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) centres, Early Childhood Development and Family (ECD&F) centres, and pre-primary schools across Rwanda. This work was carried out through my roles at ASA Studio and in collaboration with Creative Assemblages, in partnership with UNICEF, the Government of Rwanda, and international and local NGOs including PLAN International, CARE, ADRA and the Imbuto Foundation.

Across this period, our teams designed and implemented 10 pre-primary schools and 22 ECD and ECD&F centres across multiple districts, working in both rural communities and refugee camps. These projects were not conceived as isolated buildings, but as part of a broader research-driven effort to understand how spatial environments influence early childhood development, caregiving practices and community formation.

The initial phase of work, developed with PLAN Rwanda in districts such as Bugesera and Gatsibo, emerged from a two-year field-based research process combining spatial analysis, ethnographic observation and participatory engagement with caregivers, community leaders and children. This research led to the formulation of a “Rwandan-made” ECD model, grounded in local construction techniques, material ecologies, and socio-cultural practices around childcare, particularly the spatial relationship between children, caregivers and communal life.

Key architectural features, such as shaded verandas functioning as collective thresholds, kitchen gardens supporting nutrition programmes, and flexible indoor/outdoor learning environments, were deliberately designed to extend learning beyond the classroom and embed ECD centres within everyday community life.

Building on these initial prototypes, the collaboration with UNICEF Rwanda enabled the scaling, refinement and territorial deployment of ECD&F centres across nine districts. These centres introduced an expanded typology integrating early learning, nutrition, health monitoring, parental education and community gathering functions within a single spatial system. The work required not only architectural design, but also the development of new construction protocols, visual manuals and communication tools to enable implementation by semi-skilled community labour and diverse NGO partners.

A central innovation of this work was the translation of architectural design into replicable systems: adaptable layouts, incremental construction logics, and low-cost material assemblies capable of responding to different topographies, climates and resource constraints. These systems contributed to the standardisation of pre-primary classroom units and ECD facilities later adopted within national frameworks, including the development of child-friendly school environments and integrated ECD policies.

The pre-primary school typologies developed during this period, both in rural districts and refugee camps such as Kigeme and Mugombwa, further advanced the idea of space as an active pedagogical agent. Classrooms incorporated built-in furniture, varied openings, intermediate covered spaces and outdoor learning areas, enabling diverse forms of play, interaction and sensory stimulation.

Importantly, these projects were embedded in participatory design and construction processes, in which communities were not only beneficiaries but also active co-producers of space. This included the co-design of facilities, involvement in construction, and the gradual transfer of technical knowledge through visual documentation and on-site training.

The cumulative impact of this work extends beyond the 30+ centres directly realised. The design principles, typologies and participatory methodologies developed through these collaborations informed national ECD strategies and were subsequently replicated, adapted and scaled across Rwanda. Today, these approaches underpin a network of nearly 5,000 ECD and pre-primary centres serving close to one million children, positioning Rwanda as a global reference in integrated, community-based early childhood infrastructure.

This body of work has been widely disseminated through publications such as Modelling Early Childhood Development Centers in Rwanda (Africa Habitat Review, 2012), Early Childhood Development centres in the Bugesera district (SlumLab, 2014), and Rwamagana ECD&F Centre (Boundaries, 2015), as well as through international exhibitions including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity, 2015), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2014), and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (Afritecture: Building Social Change, 2013–14).

PhD studying the built environment as an added educator in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya - 1 initiative

During my PhD (2015–2018) at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, I investigated how the built environments of long-term refugee camps in East Africa shape early childhood development, with a particular focus on children’s spatial agency and participation.

The research examined seven refugee camps across Rwanda (Kiziba, Kigeme, Mugombwa), Uganda (Nakivale, Kyangwali, Kyaka II) and Kenya (Kakuma), analysing how young children (aged 3–6) and their—predominantly female—caregivers perceive, use and transform their everyday environments.

Rather than treating learning as confined to formal educational facilities, the research conceptualised refugee camps as “learning assemblages”, where cognitive, social and emotional development emerges through interactions across a wide range of spaces: ECD centres, primary schools, religious buildings, playgrounds, marketplaces, circulation routes and domestic environments.

Methodologically, the research combined architectural analysis with participatory and child-centred approaches, including drawing, mapping, model-making and co-design workshops. These tools enabled young children—often excluded from decision-making processes—to articulate their spatial experiences, preferences and imaginaries, positioning them as active knowledge producers rather than passive subjects.

A key contribution of this work is the notion of the built environment as an “added educator”, later developed in the monograph Architecture as a Way of Seeing and Learning (UCL Press, 2021). This concept reframes architecture not as a neutral backdrop, but as a dynamic agent that shapes learning processes, social relations and developmental outcomes.

The research also advanced the concept of “proximity of care”, developed in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Arup (2021), which emphasises the spatial distribution and accessibility of caregiving infrastructures—ECD centres, health services, safe play areas—as critical determinants of early childhood wellbeing in vulnerable contexts.

Importantly, the work foregrounded the gendered dimension of care, highlighting how women—mothers, caregivers and teachers—mediate children’s spatial experiences, and how spatial interventions can either reinforce or alleviate existing inequalities.

The findings were disseminated through a wide range of academic and professional outputs, including:

Learning in and through the Long-Term Refugee Camps in the East African Rift (UCL Press, 2020) The impact of humanitarian shelter and settlements on child protection (Forced Migration Review, 2017) Child’s Play: Designing for Early Childhood (Architectural Review, 2022) forthcoming chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Migrant Children (2024)

and presented at international conferences including the Child in the City World Conference (Vienna, 2018), the World Conference in Humanitarian Studies (Addis Ababa, 2016), and UCL’s Hospitality and Hostility in a Moving World conference (2016).

Parallel to the PhD, I developed and led participatory design studios in refugee camps (e.g. Kiziba and Kigeme, 2017), where architecture students, refugees and local stakeholders collaboratively analysed and redesigned learning environments. These studios served both as research platforms and as mechanisms for capacity building, reinforcing the role of participation as both a methodological and ethical imperative.

Overall, this body of research contributes to emerging debates at the intersection of architecture, early childhood development and forced migration by demonstrating that:

children’s learning is deeply embedded in spatial and social environments beyond formal education; participatory, child-centred design methodologies can produce new forms of knowledge and more responsive environments; and architectural design, when understood as a relational and situated practice, can play a critical role in supporting equitable early childhood development in contexts of displacement.