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Green City Kigali

Kigali, Rwanda

º£½ÇÊÓƵ is playing a key role in the delivery of a transformational development that will provide much-needed affordable and sustainable new homes, commercial and communal facilities to the city of Kigali in Rwanda.

Known as the land of a thousand hills, this small East African country is entering a new phase of development, with green growth at the heart of its ambitious goals.

Over the next thirty years, Rwanda will see significant population growth and rapid urbanisation, mirroring trends across the African continent. This growth, combined with climate change, will put pressure on land, water, food, and energy resources. As a small, landlocked nation heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture for both rural livelihoods and its tea and coffee exports, Rwanda is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Challenge

African cities become the new home to more than 40,000 people every day, many of whom find themselves without adequate housing and basic infrastructure. Sustainable urban development means contributing to a more equitable, environmentally just world. Kigali itself has a population now standing at 1.7 million and increasing every year.

The United Nations expect the continent’s population to double by 2050, most of which will be concentrated in urban areas. Addressing this tendency is both a challenge and an opportunity as many move to the city in the hope of finding employment and better living conditions. It is vital that these trends do not lead to further growing inequalities, poverty and environmental degradation.

Green City Kigali is a groundbreaking initiative of the Government of Rwanda piloting sustainable urbanisation on a 600-hectare Kinyinya hill. The neighbourhood will feature residential, mixed-use developments in Kigali; Rwanda’s rapidly growing and urbanising capital. The development aims to become a pioneering new neighbourhood, setting new standards on sustainable, green and affordable living in Rwanda.

The Green City Kigali Company, a special-purpose vehicle has been established by the Rwanda Green Fund, the country’s environment and climate change investment fund as well as the Rwanda Social Security Board to oversee the design, development of the masterplan and procurement of private developers for the 16-hectare pilot site.

The project team engaged Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, an international urban and architectural design firm, to develop a masterplan focusing on sustainability, affordability, and viability, with culturally sensitive solutions at the heart of its vision.

The urban plan is born from a deep understanding of Rwandese social structures and living patterns. This will nurture community and locality, whilst promoting opportunities for new activities and livelihoods. The project is built on four key pillars: affordable and socially equitable development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, resource efficiency, and culturally sensitive urban development.

The key challenge for the development is to provide affordable and sustainable urban housing for the maximum number of people, with an awareness of cultural sensitivities within the Rwandan context. In doing so, it will need to engage with the challenges of housing affordability and supply, vulnerability to climate change, and mitigation against increasing urban sprawl. Seismic risks will also need to be taken into consideration and factored into the building designs.

KFW, the Federal German development bank, is leading the funding for the project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through a grant agreement of €30m.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ was initially engaged to provide technical advisory and quality assurance to KFW on the project.

Solution

Our team of infrastructure, mobility, sustainability, energy and structural engineers, consultants and planners provided advisory and guidance to KFW’s project team, ensuring that the client’s expectations of the design were met in line with quality, sustainability, community benefit, cost and time.

While being a central sparring partner for the client in reviewing designs provided by the urban designer, º£½ÇÊÓƵ engaged with KFW and all relevant stakeholders in regular workshops and meetings, bringing in our expertise from large scale projects around the world, highlighting critical issues and crucial decision-making points.

Following this initial scope, we were further engaged by the Green City Kigali Company, to deliver project management consultancy (PMC) – ensuring the smooth coordination of the wider design team, with a focus on enabling the project through approvals to final delivery.

The project starts with the development of a prototype neighbourhood for around 8,000 people on the western slope of Kinyinya Hill. It is based on a framework of walkable neighbourhood centres connected by a main road that provides a focus for commercial development. A full detailed design is underway for this first 16-hectare phase, which is expected to be completed by 2027.

Residents will have access to new community infrastructure across the site – including schools, doctors’ surgeries, shops, community centres and public transport hubs.

Sloping hillsides are typically underutilised in Rwanda in both urban and rural contexts. For Kinyinya Hill, green space is woven into the urban development, giving space for food production and breathing space within the city.

Circular economy interventions will be delivered across the project. The development will be characterised by the use of local building materials like bricks, which will be sourced and made on site from the area’s own rich clay. The design team is also exploring ways to reduce the amount of concrete through the choice of housing typology.

The project will deliver a broad sustainability focus, including the integration of water recycling technologies, with greywater reused for toilet flushing and rainwater harvested for irrigation across the site. The development will target EDGE-ready sustainability certification.

Value

º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s input to project planning and strategy is critical to realising the project vision of social and economic benefits while minimising ecological impact.

The wider implementation of the masterplan is structured into 18 Local Area Plans and is progressing in parallel through partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders. The ultimate goal is to create a carbon-neutral neighbourhood by 2050 that can be home to up to 200,000 people.

This project demonstrates our ability to realise sustainability and environmental benefits, as well as contributing to a liveable, affordable and accessible development, which will play an important role in mitigating against urban sprawl and the rise of informal housing.