Bio / Manifesto
Founded by Colin Mbugua, KAGVRV is an architecture and design studio rooted in material honesty, cultural intelligence, and care for context. Working between Vancouver, Kenya, and Europe, the studio focuses on small, high-impact projects that prioritize ecological interdependence, food sovereignty, and social continuity.
We design with an understanding that architecture is not just about form—it is about relation. Our work resists the pressure to overbuild or overstate. Instead, we create adaptive, thoughtful structures that respond to how people actually live, grow, and gather.
Whether designing a vertical farm behind a neighborhood shop, an art studio module for aging artists, or a courtyard refuge for women in semi-arid Kenya, KAGVRV builds formats for collective dignity—spaces that host meaning, support healing, and invite new social rhythms.
Influenced by thinkers long before us, our practice values smallness, slowness, and specificity. We see architecture as a kind of infrastructure for joy: quiet, accessible, and built to last.
We’re not here to impress. We’re here to offer architecture that nourishes
Contact : colin@kagvrv.com
Colin’s primary interest lies in the urban condition of Vancouver. The practise is involved in mediating how multi-generational families cohabitate space. With great influence from British Columbia’s vast and rich country, research between Vancouvers relationship to it’s countryside has led to exhibition and sculptural work to further his engagement with his surrounding territorial issues.
contact : colin@kagvrv.com
Kasirwa Earth House
Project Location : Mt Kilimanjaro , Tanzania
Completed : Fall 2015
Project Location : Mt Kilimanjaro , Tanzania
Completed : Fall 2015
About 1,800 m above sea level on the Mt Kilimanjaro, Kisirwa village got the opportunity to boost development by having a school built. Three volumes to house incoming teachers and a pavilion next to the entrance of the site works as a start to developing this arts school to improve the culture and education of the children in this village. A statement made by using vernacular architecture makes a contrast to the cement structures littered in the village. This project was used to educate the villager residents that using vernacular architecture with few contemporary solutions could be the solution to re- duce costs of construction, improve thermal comfort of living and celebrate a rich history in architecture and construction. The structure of the volumes were timber posts re- enforced with mud walls enclosed in gabions with rocks collected from a nearby river. Involving the community in the design of the space as well as the construction.
