'Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda' Wins Award From Design Research Group

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda: Architectural Inquiries and Prospects for a Developing African City by Korydon H. Smith and Tomà Berlanda has been named the winner of the 2019 Great Places Award by the Environmental Design Research Association.

The Environmental Design Research Association is dedicated to promoting research, teaching and practice that furthers the understanding between people, their built environments, and natural eco-systems. The award will be presented at the association's 50th anniversary celebration at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering on May 23.

Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda explores the pressing challenges and opportunities to be found in planning, designing and constructing a healthy, equitable and sustainable city. It presents principles and proposals for neighborhood development in the challenging context of Kigali's informal settlements.

With 1 billion people living in informal settlements worldwide, a number expected to double by 2030, the lessons learned in Rwanda provide a complex, fascinating and urgent study for scholars and practitioners across disciplines and around the world.

Interpreting Kigali, Rwanda, published in August 2018, is part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture/University of Arkansas Press Collaborative Series, a venture that pursues projects that document and celebrate creative achievements in various forms of environmental design, design preservation and design history.

The collaboration has produced eight projects thus far, including Shadow Patterns: Reflections on Fay Jones and His Architecture, edited by Jeff Shannon.

Korydon Smith is professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo, New York, and Tomà Berlanda is professor of architecture at University of Cape Town, South Africa.

About the University of Arkansas Press: The University of Arkansas Press advances the mission of the University of Arkansas by publishing peer-reviewed scholarship and literature of enduring value. The Press publishes books by authors of diverse backgrounds writing for specialty as well as general audiences in Arkansas and throughout the world.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.