The Rwanda Housing Project is a critical spatial and visual survey of 370 self-built homes, documenting the material, infrastructural, and environmental systems shaped by the Masoro community through collective labor. By closely observing the formal strategies, local materials, and site-specific adaptations used by community members, the project emphasizes the knowledge embedded in autoconstruction practices—where architecture emerges from necessity, resourcefulness, and shared histories rather than from formalized expertise.

Also featured is a scroll-like drawing that traces the continuity of Rwandan flora, fauna, and architectural typologies from pre-colonial times to the present, underscoring how the colonial erasure of vernacular construction and land-based knowledge systems continues to inform perceptions of modernity and development, as discussed by Ambe J. Njoh (2009) and Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch (2005). Mapping these elements reveals the role of drawing not simply as a design tool, but as an ethnographic and spatial archive that helps both designers and local builders visualize relationships between environment, culture, and construction.

Since 2019, Syracuse University architecture students, under the guidance of Yutaka Sho, have collaborated with counterparts at the National University of Rwanda to digitize analog field sketches and on-site measurements collected in Masoro. This cross-institutional, transnational effort not only contributes to an architectural record of overlooked territories but also fosters a pedagogical framework where understanding indigenous materials and techniques empowers designers to advise and local communities to self-build with greater agency. As noted by John F. C. Turner (1968) and more recently Nezar AlSayyad (2011), supporting autoconstruction through contextual knowledge, rather than prescriptive design, leads to more resilient, affordable, and culturally relevant environments.