The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Kinigi, Rwanda, is a purpose-built facility designed by MASS Design Group in collaboration with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

The campus serves the dual mission of gorilla conservation and community empowerment: it provides world-class research facilities for gorilla science, training for future conservationists, and a public education venue for visitors and local residents. In doing so it reclaims formerly agricultural land, rebuilds biodiversity and anchors a regional economy and education ecosystem around conservation.

MASS Design Group and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund engaged our team to help shape the narrative heart of the new Conservation Gallery. Our role was to guide a series of Storytelling Workshops to uncover the lived stories that define this landscape. Rather than beginning with content or exhibits, we began with people. Their memories, field experiences, and cultural knowledge became the foundation for a gallery that invites visitors into a deeper understanding of mountain gorilla conservation and the human communities who safeguard their future.

Through facilitated conversations and place based exercises, we worked to surface the emotional, scientific, and ecological threads that could anchor a powerful visitor experience. Participants shared field encounters, generational knowledge, and the values that guide conservation in Rwanda. These sessions revealed the invisible systems behind the work. The long arc of Fossey’s legacy. The quiet courage of trackers. The connection between community wellbeing and thriving ecosystems. The gallery narrative emerged from these stories, not from abstraction, grounding the design in real voices and real relationships.

The outcomes of the workshops shaped the interpretive framework for the Conservation Gallery, ensuring that the space reflects a living and evolving story rather than a static museum. The final narrative arc highlights the intertwined futures of people and gorillas, the ongoing research that guides protection efforts, and the campus itself as a place of learning and hope. Through this process we helped create a storytelling foundation that honors the integrity of the work on the ground while welcoming visitors into a shared sense of responsibility and wonder.