Architecture of music: My journey to the Global health equity movement
Tthroughout Rwandan society, science education had been perceived as the gateway to a successful career. Arts, on the other hand, was considered a secondary option, dismissed as a profession. In the late 90’s There were significantly fewer number of Art schools compared to science schools. The first music school was not opened until 2014.
At the time, children were encouraged at an early age to start learning to read and to love sciences. I remember when I told my mother that I dreamed of becoming a reggae star like Bob Marley. She said, “Son, music cannot make you the doctor.” She believed that being a doctor or an engineer would be the best way to build my name in the society.
During my childhood, parents discouraged their children to love music because they did not believe in the correlation between success and a music profession. Waking up every morning wondering when our dreams would come true was all in vain because my friends and I had nowhere to learn music. We struggled to convince our parents that through developing our talents we could overcome our challenges. We couldn’t make choice of what to pursue at school; we had to pursue our parents’ ideas of a successful career.
In my neighborhood, many youth were passionate about music. Many were incredibly talented. However, resources were limited- with only a training club specialized in guitar and dancing.
Upon going to university, I chose to study architecture; as both a technical and artistic profession, I believed it was an opportune profession. Beginning my studies, I only imagined design as that of beautiful buildings. Over time, I began to see the potential marriage between music and design. Architecture, if designed responsibly and responsively, represents a piece of music, well-composed and inspiring. It serves as therapy to the end-user, just as music serves as therapy to the listener. Building upon this, I believed architecture will heal our wounds and provide us with what many of youth at my neighborhood looked for; That is “Architecture of Music”, my final thesis project.
Aarchitecture of music seeks to design a modular musical school that can be replicated elsewhere in the country to provide equitable education for the talented musicians who did not have the opportunity to purse the arts at secondary schools. The music school will provide resources necessary to inspire art in children and to curate opportunities for music careers to grow.
This music school is a solution for talented musicians; it strategically aims at creating a stimulating learning journey and provides performance opportunities to music students. The main goals of the school are:
- Providing an architectural setting which will serve to promote a qualitative music education and practice for a musical life of Rwanda.
- Establishing a path from musical education to the experience of performance.
- Creating a design that influences and inspires creativity and encourages an exploration habit through architectural elements.
This experience became my way of expressing the challenges we face and strategies to overcome them by providing the opportunity for musicians to showcase their talents and grow their passions. This project promotes the idea that fair education should be provided to all, whether in sports, music, sciences or other arts education in order to improve young peoples’ talents; hence improving social life of the people. Additionally, it illustrates that through architecture, we can improve the social life of the community.
Learning Architecture: The journey of my dream; my way of becoming a solution provider.
Learning architecture became my ways of expression. I believe architecture is music in itself when design elements are articulated in manner that inspire and motivate the space user.
Through the journey of learning architecture I found that architecture was not only about designing buildings but a discipline of understanding current social problems and finding sustainable solutions to the current and future needs of society. This is how, according to my beliefs, architecture falls into the global health equity sphere.
Fulfilling the Journey of My Dream with Global Health Corps
Being a Global Health Corps Fellow at MASS Design has opened the gate to my dream of fighting to health equity. My role is providing health and education facilities that dignify lives through architectural design. My main design focus is in health and education facilities, where I mostly work in strategic master planning and project design developments. I am proud that my love of music led me to architecture, which has allowed me to contribute to the movement for health equity.
