For the 50th issue of Kinfolk, this interview with Mariam Issoufou Kamara, principal of Mariam Issoufou Architects reflecting on memory, material and the future of architecture. Recorded between London and New York, the conversation is grounded in a shared West African belonging between Kamara and Biamah-Ofosu.
Tracing her career and practice from Niamey 2000, the studio’s first built project, which emerged from frustration with imported Western housing models and a desire to reinterpret the traditional compound house typologies of West Africa, the conversation unfolds towards the studio’s current projects and Kamara’s reflections on “echoes” between climates and geologies, advocating for a horizontal dialogue across contexts, as well as the role of history in contemporary architecture.
Read Mariam Issoufou Kamara: The architect building the ruins of the future here.