The Green City Kigali project in the Rwandan capital has won a prestigious award at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF).
Judges awarded it Best Future Project in the MASTERPLANNING category. The announcement was made during the festival, which was held in Singapore.
Simon Doody, partner at acclaimed UK headquartered architectural firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS), presented the project at WAF, which took place at the end of November.
The WAF awards celebrate international proposals which embrace cutting-edge design addressing major world issues. They recognise projects that best use design and architecture to tackle those major issues, including health, climate change, technology, ethics and values.
FCBS won the international design competition to create Green City Kigali last year. It has been appointed urban and architectural design consultant on the project and has brought together an international team tasked with delivering the development.
FBW Group has been appointed to be the local team on the ground, providing the key services of architecture, structural and civil engineering and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering (MEP).
FBW’s initial roles will include overseeing local compliance, suggestions on local material supply, environmental standards and stakeholder engagement and submissions.
As the project develops the FBW team will be involved in the preparations for the construction phase of the 16Ha pilot scheme.
Green City Kigali will also be presented at the COP28 global climate summit in Dubai in early December at an event looking at delivering climate action in cities.
The project is being hailed as is an important milestone on the road to creating more sustainable green cities.
Its aim is to demonstrate that building green is “a necessity, not a luxury” and it will feature a range of initiatives, including the use renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, wastewater management, recycling and reuse of water and sustainable transport solutions.
The development will also deliver much needed quality homes for people in the lower-to-middle-income brackets.
Green City Kigali has been envisaged to cover the full 600ha Kinyinya Hill, a suburb of Kigali. The pilot phase of the project should see the construction of around 2,000 homes.
The project is being delivered for FONERWA. Rwanda’s Green Fund is a ground-breaking environment and climate change investment fund and the engine of green growth in Rwanda.
Rwanda, located at the heart, of Africa has taken leading steps to achieving NDCs to limit global warming by cutting down GHG emissions by 38 per cent.
The development is being backed by €30m of funding from Germany’s KfW Development Bank, which is investing in local infrastructure in Rwanda.