Local Materials, Global Ambitions: Self-Building Practices in Rwandan Housing Projects

Abstract

Rwanda imports most construction materials including petroleum, cement, steel, wood, plastic, and equipment from neighboring nations, and increasing from China. Transportation cost in the land-locked country, in addition to the tariff, makes the cost of construction 30-40% more than the neighboring Kenya. Our survey in one rural village shows that 75% of the homes were self-build with soil with help from family members and friends. In parallel, in capital Kigali where most materials are relatively easy to access and contractors are available, people still self-build, to various degrees. Whether it is because people want to save on the cost and time, or they want to bypass legal constraints, Rwandans take charge of creating their own built environment. The Rwandan practice attests that self-building is not the last resort for the poor, but an active choice.

What Rwandans build when they self-build shows a mix of practical economic reasoning, and an ambition to achieve the global development standard. Landlords add extra space to existing rental structures, resulting in grafted layers or stacked volumes. Also popular among the middle class are gabled roofs that mimic those from the global North, but much taller and steeper. Adobe walls cannot support the second floor that the tall roof has made space for, so the purpose of the roof is for meeting the global standard of what a house for a developed nation should look like.

The paper investigates the multitude of desires expressed in the material limitations and building forms in Rwandan self-build practices.