The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund
The campus is anchored by three main buildings: the Sandy and Harold Price Research Center, which expands laboratory capacity fivefold to advance scientific research and teaching; the Rob and Melani Walton Education Center, which houses classrooms, a computer lab, and a library; and the Cindy Broder Conservation Gallery, which offers an interactive timeline of mountain gorilla research and conservation from Fossey’s time to today.
Together, these facilities create a hub for cutting-edge research, training, and public engagement. On-site housing for 30 students and visiting researchers further strengthens access to campus resources and the park.
The design draws inspiration from Dian Fossey’s original tent at the Karisoke Research Center, reinterpreting her immersion in the forest.
Building footprints follow the natural topography, with green roofs blending into the landscape and patios and paths encouraging seamless movement between indoors and outdoors. Central atria admit clerestory light and echo the intimacy of Fossey’s cabin, while gathering spaces modeled on Karisoke campfires foster interaction among visitors, staff, and researchers. Designed to maximize daylight, natural ventilation, and views of the surrounding volcanoes, the campus embodies Fossey’s ethos of living and working in close relationship with the environment.
Contextually responsive strategies and locally sourced materials conserve resources and minimize environmental impact. MASS partnered with Transsolar to integrate systems that maximize daylight and ventilation while ensuring comfort and performance. Green roof canopies rest above thick volcanic stone walls, separated by continuous glass clerestories that channel light deep into interiors.
Located at the base of the seismically active Virunga Mountains, the campus required robust structural solutions: Rwanda-based engineers designed ductile reinforced concrete cores, while volcanic stone uncovered during excavation was reused for grout, gravel, and cladding. Regionally sourced pinewood warms soffits and ceilings, and clay tiles top student housing.
Transforming a heavily degraded agricultural plot into a reforested landscape, the campus supports native ecologies while serving as a model of climate adaptation, biodiversity restoration, and resilience.
MASS and TENxTEN worked with the Fossey Fund to design the landscape as a living laboratory for ecological research, demonstration, and teaching. More than 250,000 native plants were propagated and planted, extending the park’s habitats and creating a research site that informs regional reforestation strategies. Native plantings on green roofs enhance biodiversity, sequester carbon, and enable ecological studies. Trails immerse visitors in conservation, from the Gorilla Trail tracing daily gorilla movements to the Biodiversity Trail mapping vegetation zones of Volcanoes National Park, and the Wetland Trail showing how natural systems filter and return water to the environment.
Water conservation was also prioritized. Rainwater harvested from building roofs is reused for functions such as toilet flushing, while effluent wastewater is naturally treated in a constructed wetland below the conservation gallery. A gravity-fed system—the first of its kind in Rwanda—filters water through a series of ponds before returning it to the ground, reducing energy use.
Gaël Vande Weghe
Gaël Vande Weghe
Gaël Vande Weghe
MASS and the Fossey Fund collaborated on every detail of the project, from large-scale site planning to exhibition design, furniture, and media.
This included developing an immersive exhibit that traces mountain gorilla research and conservation from Dian Fossey’s pioneering work to the present. As the campus’s public face, the Conservation Gallery communicates Fossey’s legacy, the story of gorilla habitat protection, and the role each visitor can play in sustaining it. Featuring original artifacts, a 360-degree theater, and interactive digital experiences supported by generous donors, the Gallery welcomes international tourists, students, scientists, and local Rwandans.
Inspired by Fossey’s method of “breaking the boundary,” the exhibition guides visitors from observer to participant through three chapters: Dian’s World, Gorillas and You, and Modern Conservation. Dense scrims and photomurals recreate Fossey’s cabin, while interactive elements move audiences from curiosity to engagement, culminating in today’s frontline conservationists. Locally sourced Rwandan wood and other natural materials reinforce the gallery’s sense of place.
MASS also designed all of the campus furniture, working with artisans and cooperatives to produce over 1,600 items—including tables, desks, chairs, stools, benches, shelves, credenzas, beds, pendant lights, rugs, pillows, handles, and hooks. These pieces celebrate craft, leverage regional materials, reduce carbon footprint, and strengthen the local economy. Embedded details connect directly to the Fossey Fund’s work, such as batik throw pillows patterned with the nose prints of seven gorillas featured in the exhibition.
Storytelling was integral to the project. Building on the Fossey Fund’s legacy of conservation storytelling, MASS established an in-house film team in Rwanda with support from the Ellen Fund. Filmmakers spent more than one hundred days on-site, documenting mountain gorillas, community members, researchers, and park rangers. Their films, photos, and essays illustrated the campus’s impact and helped partners leverage stories for continued support. Many team members have since advanced their careers in conservation media, extending the project’s influence across Rwanda and beyond.
The campus was also the first project completed by MASS’s construction company, MASS.Build.
Acting as general contractor gave MASS agency over resource deployment, aligning construction with social, environmental, and economic goals. MASS.Build also developed a measurement framework tailored to the campus, evaluating mission-driven outcomes alongside broader impacts in environment, education, equity, economy, and emotion.
The project employed more than 2,400 Rwandans—99% of the total workforce, including 23% women—and invested $13.4 million into the region. MASS.Build partnered with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC) Musanze to provide training in masonry, carpentry, steel fixing, plumbing, green roof installation, electrical systems, and health, safety, and environmental practices.
The Fossey Fund campus is more than a headquarters. It is a catalyst for ecological and social transformation in Rwanda. By reclaiming degraded farmland, restoring native ecologies, and creating new pathways for research, education, and gorilla-centered tourism, the campus extends the park boundary while strengthening local economies and reinforcing Rwanda’s global leadership in conservation. It translates the mission of conservation activism into a tangible, participatory place—making stewardship accessible and inspiring action.
Just as Dian Fossey pioneered conservation in this region, the campus embodies her ethos of testing, learning, and sharing, offering a living model of how design can restore land and regenerate community. Already influencing national park expansion and regional regeneration efforts, MASS and the Fossey Fund are now collaborating on a visionary Land Use Plan for Volcanoes National Park—setting a precedent for sustainable conservation and community resilience at scale.
