christian benimana

Christian Benimana joined MASS Design Group as a Global Health Corps Design Fellow in 2010. Today, Christian works as one of the firm's Co-Executive Directors and Senior Principals, and has been involved as an operational and administrative leader. Christian’s significant portfolio at the Rwanda office includes the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, African Leadership University, the Ruhehe Primary School, and the Regional Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and eHealth. Christian also acts as the Founding Director of the African Design Centre, a field-based apprenticeship that is set to empower leaders who will design a more equitable, just, and sustainable world.

Christian has extensive knowledge of the architectural industry in Rwanda, and East Africa at large. He was recognized as a 2017 Quartz Africa Innovator, and has been named among 10 architects and designers that are championing Afrofuturism. He was a speaker at the 2017 TED Global conference, and his talk about the next generation of African architects to date has garnered over one million views. Christian’s publications include An African Theory of Architecture in the Architectural Guide to Subsaharan Africa, Re-Thinking the Future of African Cities, and Creating Design Leaders: The African Design Centre.

Christian has taught at the Architecture School of the former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and his goal is to develop the next generation of African designers with socially-focused design principles. Christian holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning CAUP of Tongji University in Shanghai, China 2008, and has served as the Secretary General of the East Africa Institute of Architects.