The capanne project in Rwanda is the third property to have been developed by the conservation-minded hotel group Sextantio, whose other retreats, in Matera and Santo Stefano di Sessanio, have helped preserve the disappearing architectural heritage of rural southern Italy. 

The identity-building idea that gave rise to the projects in Italy is to be repeated following a similar philosophy in another area of “social disadvantage”: on Nkombo Island in Lake Kivu, at the border between Rwanda and Congo. It’s an island that welcomes Western operators associated with religious organizations or NGOs just a few times a year. The project came about because of exhibits at the Ethnographic Museum of Rwanda, and the slight poetic license taken in this design, where original solutions were unworkable, took its cues from local building techniques, used in different contexts and for different purposes compared to the original ones but nevertheless showing no contemporary contamination. Despite having to rely on simple, non-electric tools, the high quality of the raw materials and impressive artisan techniques result in a sleekness of style and proportions. The bathrooms, while not betraying the original atmosphere imparted by the project, offer WCs, bidets and hot-water showers. But compared with a standard African resort, in the Capanne Project, the local anthropological aspect is the element on which the entire experience is centered. All these activities have the principal objective of maintaining the native social and cultural balance in order to preserve the dignity of the local populations.