​Can a brick become a healing force? In 2011, Butaro Hospital | MAG Landscape

​Can a brick become a healing force?
In 2011, Butaro Hospital opened a 150-bed medical facility that serves nearly 350,000 people in this region of Rwanda. The solution came in the form of these charming doctor`s homes, which give foreign staff a permanent residence just five minutes from the hospital. In building the homes, architects took a truly holistic view of the community`s needs and used the project as an opportunity to teach new skilled trades to the local community. On-site workshops taught local teams to make compressed stabilized earth blocks – bricks that are earthquake-safe and sustainable. These teams also learned to make the hospital`s custom furniture and light fixtures, as well as the earth-stabilizing landscaping techniques crucial to bringing agriculture to the region. With a total of nine hundred skilled laborers trained during the construction process, the effort brought better building practices, not to mention better medicine, to Rwanda for generations to come.
(Butaro Doctor`s Housing. Burato, Rwanda)

Buildings build futures.