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About this Event

Established in 1986, the biennial Green Prize recognizes projects that make an exemplary contribution to the public realm of a city, improve the quality of life in that context, and demonstrate a humane and worthwhile direction for the design of urban environments. Eligible projects must include more than one building or open space constructed in the last 10 years.

The 15th Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded to the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) campus in Bugesera, Rwanda. With this award, the GSD acknowledges excellence in not just design but also process. Demonstrating a commitment to experimentation, the RICA project sets a new standard for evaluating innovation in the field of urban design. The project was realized through constant negotiation between city officials, motivated designers, and mobilized citizens. This process now serves as a model to educate other cities about implementation pathways. MASS  led the master planning, architecture, landscape, engineering, furniture design and fabrication, and construction for the project.

This year’s jury includes GSD faculty members Jungyoon Kim, associate professor in practice of Landscape Architecture; Dan Stubbergaard, professor in practice of Urban Design; and Hanif Kara, professor in practice of Architectural Technology. Also on the jury was GSD alumnus Kongjian Yu (1963-2025), professor and founding dean of Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape, and founder and design principal of Turenscape. The jury was chaired by Joan Busquets, Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at the GSD.

Urban Design as a Development Strategy: The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture Campus by MASS, an exhibition coinciding with the prize, will be on display in the Druker Design Gallery from October 27–December 21, 2025. Curated by Joan Busquets, Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design, the exhibition showcases models, renderings, documentary photographs, and video footage of this vast and ambitious urban design project. 

A public event and reception for the exhibition will occur on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at 6:30 PM in Piper Auditorium. Workshops will take place on Thursday, November 6, 2025, in Stubbins (Gund 112). Detailed schedule to be released soon.

For more information about the Prize and to see a list of previously awarded projects, please visit the Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design  website.

Speakers

Christian Benimana is a senior principal and co-executive director overseeing the Africa studio. He also founded the African Design Centre, a field-based training program within MASS, supporting designers to leapfrog past the mistakes of unsustainable industrialization so that Africa can become a global leader in equitable, regenerative development.

He has worked on a wide range of projects at MASS’s Africa Studio including: the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the African Leadership University, Ruhehe Primary School, the Nyarugenge District Hospital, Munini Hospital, the Maternity Waiting Village, and the Regional Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and eHealth. 

In 2023, he curated an exhibition at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. He was recognized as a Quartz Africa Innovator and has been named among 10 architects and designers who are championing Afrofuturism. Benimana’s TED talk has garnered over one million views to date. 

Benimana is a Van Leer Foundation Fellow and serves on the board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction and the education advisory board of the African Futures Institute.

He has taught at the University of Rwanda’s Architecture School of the College of Science and Technology and authored articles and book chapters, including “An African Theory of Architecture” in the Architectural Guide to Sub-Saharan Africa, “Re-Thinking the Future of African Cities” in The African Perspective Magazine, and “Creating Design Leaders: The African Design Centre” in the Public Interest Design Education Guidebook. 

Benimana holds a bachelor of science in architecture from Tongji University’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He has also served as the secretary general of the East Africa Institute of Architects.

Alan Ricks is a founding principal and co-executive director at MASS. Under his leadership, MASS has garnered international acclaim for its innovative approach to addressing global challenges through design. He continues to collaborate on and lead a diverse range of projects and oversees a group of interdisciplinary teams that support design and research across the practice. 

Ricks regularly teaches advanced architecture studios, including at Harvard University and Yale University, where he was most recently the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor. Ricks has presented at universities, conferences, and events around the globe. He has written and produced films focused on the role of architecture in catalyzing social change. 

Ricks was honored with an International Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects in appreciation of his significant contributions to the field. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, and the governor of Massachusetts appointed him to the Designer Selection Board to select firms for state-funded work, and during his two terms, he also served as chair. He is also a member of the Harvard University Design Advisory Council.

Ricks holds a master of architecture from Harvard GSD. He earned his bachelor of arts from Colorado College, where he was also bestowed an honorary doctor of fine arts degree.

Jean Paul Sebuhayi Uwase is committed to architecture that drives social impact. He envisions a world where everyone has access to architecture that promotes dignity. Since joining MASS in 2011 as an intern, Sebuhayi Uwase’s role has continuously expanded in scope. He currently serves as a design principal at the Africa Studio, where he guides design projects from conception to construction while managing client relations and ensuring effective collaboration. 

Sebuhayi Uwase’s portfolio spans domains such as maternal and newborn health, healthcare, public memory and higher education. Notable projects include the Maternity Waiting Village in Malawi, the National Heroes Mausoleum in Kigali, and the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture in Bugesera. His leadership has guided projects such as the Kigali Genocide Memorial/Isooko Peace Institute, the Center of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering & E-Health in Rwanda, and the Samajik Health Science Institute & Research Centre in Bangladesh. Sebuhayi Uwase supervised the construction of Munini Hospital and Nyarugenge Hospital, marking the first implementation of national design standards designed by MASS for Rwanda’s Ministry of Health in 2014. 

Sebuhayi Uwase is a member of the Rwanda Institute of Architects and is committed to advancing the professional standards in Rwanda. Holding a bachelor of architecture with honors from the University of Rwanda, he graduated in the first class of architecture in Rwanda’s history. He was awarded top marks for his thesis focused on natural ventilation in hospital design, reflecting his commitment to creating safe and healing environments. 

Sebuhayi Uwase’s professional journey is characterized by the pursuit of excellence, social responsibility, and a vision for architecture that transcends boundaries. His work underscores a dedication to universal access to quality design that will make a lasting impact on communities around the world. 

Sierra Bainbridge seeks to create spaces of research, engagement, and collaboration where context-driven, impactful design solutions can emerge, supporting communities, institutions, and thought leaders working to address our most urgent challenges and inequities. Her practice is grounded in openness, curiosity, and optimism, shaped by deep interdisciplinary experience, and focused on delivering projects that demonstrate what is possible.

As a founder and senior principal at MASS Design Group, Bainbridge directs the Landscape Studio and Abundant Futures Lab. With a background in landscape architecture, ecology, and regional planning, she advances holistic, comprehensive, cross-disciplinary approaches to design regeneratively. From early work on the High Line and Fresh Kills Park to the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture and the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, her projects reveal the power of design to catalyze ecological and societal abundance. Her work has been recognized for design excellence, research and analysis, and sustainability by the ASLA, AIA, COTE, and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Awards.

Bainbridge also works to evolve the design professions through teaching and service. She served on the Landscape Architecture Foundation Board and continues as Board Emeritus. She received the Berkeley Rupp Prize for career achievement, serving as practitioner in residence 2023–2025. Sierra is a creative educator, teaching landscape, architecture, and interdisciplinary graduate studios & seminars at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, UC Berkeley, the Boston Architectural College, and the University of Rwanda. Bainbridge has also developed innovative curricula for programs such as the University of Rwanda’s Faculty of Architecture, the African Design Center’s Graduate Design Program, and RICA’s One Health & Food Systems curriculum. She holds dual master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in landscape architecture and architecture, and a BA in architectural history and fine arts from Smith College.

Joan Busquets is the first Martin Bucksbaum Professor in Practice of Urban Planning and Design at the GSD. Prior to joining the GSD faculty, Busquets was chair-professor of Town Planning and Urban Design in the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona from 1979 until 2002. A world-renowned urban planner, urban designer, and architect, Busquets served as head of Urban Planning for the Barcelona City Council during the formative years, from 1983 to 1989, and in the preparations for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, including the New Downtowns program for the city and the improvement process for existing neighborhoods. In 1969, he was a founding member of the Laboratorio de Urbanismo of Barcelona (LUB) and undertook a long-term study of squatter settlements in Barcelona and other Southern European cities as his PhD, for which he received the Spanish National Award for Town Planning in 1981, winning the award again in 1985 for his masterplan for Lerida’s old town. His urban rehabilitation strategy for Toledo, Spain and the publication Toledo y su futuro was recognized as Gubbio European Prize by ANCSA in 2000. He was awarded in 2011 with the International Erasmus prize (The Netherlands); in 2012 with Grand Prix Spécial de l’Urbanisme, Paris (France), and the Catalonian National prize for Architecture and Open Space. He was elected full member of the Académie d’Architecture de France in 2016 and, in 2021, won the Patrick Abercrombie Prize of UIA.

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

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