Model of Architecture Serving Society

For over a decade, Moving Windmills has been proving what is possible in rural Malawi, working alongside communities to turn creativity and resilience into real livelihoods. Now, it is scaling that work. “Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.” — William Kamkwamba The Moving Windmills Innovation Center is the next step. A living platform in Kasungu where farming, training, and enterprise come together. Hundreds of farmers employed each day. Young people learning by doing. Tools, businesses, and futures built locally. Co-founded by William, whose story has reached millions through the book and stage musical The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, this is about more than one story. It is about building what comes next for thousands. 🔗 Learn more and watch William’s talk in bio #ted #tedfellow #movingwindmills

As part of our submission for Swords into Plowshares, our team developed a physical model as an opportunity to understand the memorial not just as an idea, but as a space you can move through, gather within, and experience from every angle. The model helped us study how the seven structural elements shape the central clearing, how the passageways invite entry, and how the form holds space for both everyday use and collective moments. This process mirrors the intention behind ROOTED: not a singular object, but a shared, inhabitable place. Read our latest newsletter to learn more, linked in bio.

How quickly can we repair lost ecologies and landscapes? In less than two years. At the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s campus in Rwanda, we witnessed a tripling of biodiversity on land once degraded by agriculture overuse. We developed an ecological regeneration plan to demonstrate climate adaptation, biodiversity restoration, and resilience, adjacent to Volcanoes National Park. By propagating and planting more than 250,000 native species, an ecosystem was created where wildlife could return and thrive, alongside humans. The community helped plant distinct ecosystems, including forests, wetland and meadows, for teaching and valuation. Fifty-two bird species were observed onsite, a significant increase, as well as sightings of the Stuhlmann’s Sunbird, previously only spotted in the nearby national park. Abundance isn’t theoretical, it’s measurable. Even modest interventions, grounded in place and shaped by community, can ripple into profound ecological abundance. We can build these more abundant futures together. 🌎 Learn more about these efforts in MASS’s new book, “Seeking Abundance: Design, ecology, and a flourishing planet.” #seekingabundance #abundantfutures

For too long, there has been a disconnect between people, places, and the impact of our built environment. At the Bio-Based Materials Collective (BBMC) 2026 Summit in the Hudson Valley, home to the MASS Fringe Cities Design Lab and office in Poughkeepsie, our goal was to strengthen those relationships. Bound by a culture of collaboration and generosity, 150+ leaders across agriculture, forestry, finance, and design gathered to bridge the gap between fields and finished buildings. The BBMC 2026 Summit just wrapped, and the momentum is palpable. We spent our days: Learning on-site at organic farms, within experimental forests and inside wonderful architecture. Listening to a dozen organizations share their latest insights. Contributing to ongoing initiatives to scale up the use of bio-based materials in North America. A huge thank you to Scenic Hudson for hosting us at the newly opened Northside Hub, and our speakers and attendees for contributing their collective intelligence. We aren’t just talking about a plant-based building industry; we’re growing it. Ready to be part of the solution? 👉 biobasedcollective.org/about Cover Image: @iwanbaan Summit Imagery: @katiehan_

This Mother’s Day, we’re honoring the spaces where life begins. This year, MASS launched a new Maternal & Newborn Health Lab centered around a very personal and universal question: How can we design spaces that save lives and honor life? Led by Principal and mother Amie Shao, MASS’s maternal and newborn health work is not just a collection of projects — it’s part of a broader movement to reimagine spaces that support safer, more respectful, and more human experiences of care. From Malawi to Massachusetts, we are working alongside healthcare providers, governments, midwives, and communities to design birth environments that support evidence-based care grounded in dignity, trust, and cultural belonging. Through initiatives like Delivering More, developed with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, we’re helping translate lessons from real-world projects into tools that can improve maternal and newborn care at scale. On a podcast episode of Play with Matches, Amie shares a perspective that’s hard to ignore: design isn’t a backdrop to care—it’s part of care itself. Listen now to hear how we are working together with global partners to reshape maternal health—and what happens when systems start to move together. Link to the podcast and the Delivering More Toolkit in bio.

Join us for the launch of Seeking Abundance: Design, Ecology and a Flourishing Planet, co-edited by Sierra Bainbridge (@sierralakinbainbridge ) and Alan Ricks (@alanricks ). We are delighted to welcome Alan Ricks, founding principal and co-executive director of MASS (@massdesigngroup ), and Kelly Alvarez Doran (@knelsond ), co-founder of Ha/f Climate Design (@halfclimatedesign ), to the AA Bookshop to celebrate the launch of Seeking Abundance. 🗓️ Wednesday 20 May, 6–8pm 🗣️ Talk begins at 6.15pm 📓 Launch price £45 (RRP £55) 🏛️ AA Bookshop, 33 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EE Regenerative design is a way of building that heals our planet and our communities by halting biodiversity loss, reversing climate change and improving social equity. Seeking Abundance argues for reducing the harm our building activities wage in our environments and insists that we can – and must – help people and the planet thrive together. The proof? Over the last decade, the non-profit practice Model of Architecture Serving Society (MASS) has undertaken projects in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo that attest to the positive social, environmental and economic impacts of regenerative design. These projects represent a coherent and replicable philosophy that respond to local ecologies and transform lives. This groundbreaking new book, published by Oro Editions (@oro_editions ), examines how the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, regenerative practices and community engagement can actively contribute to a healthier, more harmonious world. - Our events are usually a combination of seated and standing, with seating available on a first come first served basis. If you need to reserve a seat, request ramp access or have any questions about the accessibility of the bookshop, please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected] or call us on 020 7887 4041.

In a conversation on Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED podcast, Alan Ricks and Sierra Bainbridge share MASS’s approach to practice—one rooted in listening first, designing with community, and committing to outcomes you measure in decades. From rethinking healthcare delivery alongside Partners in Health (@partnersinhealth ) in the world’s most resource-constrained communities to building the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (@savinggorillas ), they unpack what it takes to let go of preconceived ideas; build local supply chains and economies; integrate landscape and architecture as one interconnected system; and use design to restore biodiversity, reduce carbon, and strengthen communities. The work provides hope and proof that we can create meaningful change faster than we created the problems. Alan and Sierra share more on how more action, partnership and collaboration and less critique and competition is a means to beat worsening climate impacts and policies that will further hurt humans, agriculture and animals in a world already challenged with food insecurity. Influences of New York’s Highline, Toshiko Mori, SCAPE Landscape Architects (@scape_studio ), Grace Farms (@gracefarmsct ), “Father of the Natural World” Ian McHarg, and Bernie Krause are discussed. If you’re feeling stuck between what’s possible and impact, this will help shift your perspective. 🎧 Listen to the episode + explore MASS’s new book, Seeking Abundance. Photo 1: Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Photo 2: Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture Photo 3: Ilima Primary School

MASS, in partnership with the City of Poughkeepsie, is hosting a special Open House for the public at the Cistern in College Hill Park, Poughkeepsie, on Saturday, May 9th, from 1-8:30 pm. The Cistern is a massive underground space with a 14-second reverberation time. Because the echo lasts so long, the space functions as its own instrument—allowing you to harmonize with your own voice or instrument in real-time. A lineup of performers will partake in an improvised experiment in reverberation within this unique space using both acoustic and electronic instrumentation, with a focus on long sustaining tones and resonant frequencies. Between sets, the floor is yours, and we invite you to “play the Cistern,” to experiment with the acoustics. The official line up will be announced May 7th. Stay tuned! Photos by @iwanbaan , from “Dance Fragments” a November 2024 performance by @sitespecificdances , music by @domenic_salerni and @milessalerni , lighting by @stubblefield.studio and @ethanrainbolt

Architect Alan Ricks and landscape architect Sierra Bainbridge of Model of Architecture Serving Society (MASS) join Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED podcast to discuss the impacts on community through design, their Rwanda campus for the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and the firm’s new book, Seeking Abundance . 📸 Iwan Baan, MASS . @archrecordmag @massdesigngroup #architecture #architect #design #designpodcast #architecturepodcast

Solimine House, an affordable senior housing development in Lynn, Massachusetts, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2027. When North Shore Medical Center closed the former Union Hospital, the Solimine family purchased the property to meet the need for affordable senior housing in the community. In partnership with 2Life, MASS designed Solimine House as senior social housing integrated with a PACE healthcare center to form a trauma-informed, community-focused ecosystem, supporting aging in community through connected living, care, and therapeutic environments.

April 29th, Boston, MA 🌱 Join MASS for an evening of film, sound, and conversation at the intersection of architecture, ecology, and design—marking the launch of Seeking Abundance. Featuring a plant soundscape by Skooby Laposky and a conversation with Alan Ricks and Sierra Bainbridge on designing through systems, relationships, and ecologies. Check out the link in our bio to RSVP

What does a thatched façade look like in practice? Sundby School has been featured as a case study in the Bio & Mineral-Based Materials Primer — a new guide for architects and designers working on larger buildings across North America, developed by @massdesigngroup , the Bio-Based Materials Collective, and @perkinswill . Located on the edge of Nykøbing Falster, Denmark, the design takes advantage of the school’s proximity to nature and aims to bring the outdoors in. Its thatched façade is made of reeds, a renewable biomass material. The school blends with the land, its sloped roof touching down to ground level to facilitate public access at all hours. Sundby School will be the first in Denmark to be awarded the Nordic Ecolabel, the region’s official sustainability certification based on a range of parameters for energy consumption, indoor climate, chemical exposure, and material use. Check out the full primer and learn more about Sundby School in our bio. Photos by @rasmus_hjortshoj .