MARIAM
A MASTER’S IN COMPUTER SCIENCE and
one in architecture: it’s not a combina-
tion we come across very often at Frame,
but Mariam Kamara holds both degrees.
Trained in the US but originally from
Niger’s capital, Niamey, Kamara employs
her architectural skills to improve and
develop her beloved homeland. Strongly
rooted in a sense of place, her designs offer
solutions to spatial problems that are cul-
turally, historically and climatically relevant.
To achieve her aim, Kamara works closely
with local engineers, masons and other
craftspeople to produce simple projects
that respond to the realities and aspirations
she and her team identify on the ground.
We meet at Design Indaba in Cape
Town, where she has just given a talk. Kamara
stresses the fact that design cannot be seen
separately from socioeconomic development
in Africa, and that it should always embody
a sense of place. ‘Everything that is going on
in the world right now in terms of globaliza-
tion, environmental issues and heightened
economic pressures is felt with stronger
intensity in Africa,’ she says. ‘We are seeing
the biggest explosion in urban growth, and
we are experiencing serious consequences
from climate change. So it is the perfect time
and place to try new things.’You have an unusual career path that
includes a shift from software developer
to architect. Please explain. MARIAM
KAMARA: Coming from Niger, I felt it
wasn’t reasonable to choose a creative
career. I didn’t know anyone who was an
architect. Later I came to view architecture
as much more than a creative pursuit. I saw
it as a conduit for positive contributions
to the social, economic, cultural and even
political dimensions of a place. So I decided
to pursue a master’s in architecture at the
University of Washington, which led to my
position as cofounder of the collaborative
United4design in Seattle and, subsequently,
the architecture and research firm Atelier
Masōmī back in Niger.How do you see the role of architecture?
Architecture touches everything. It has a
heavy economic component, in the sense
that building is really expensive. It is also
political, because how you approach a project
and what you put into it has consequences,
whether or not you choose to acknowledge
them. The bottom line is that your work won’t
exist in a void; it has to engage with a physi-
cal environment and with users. If I choose
to design a space in a way that makes it more
inclusive – more welcoming to a segment
of the population that might not feel like it’s
a space for them – I have taken a position.
Depending on who those people are, the
move might even be political.
When I use local materials because
they are cheaper and consume less energy,
it translates into lower energy bills for
users and the possibility of buying a home
much quicker than they would be able to do
otherwise. The design inserts itself into the
economic discourse. Architecture is crucial,
because you can make decisions that have »The demographic growth of Dandaji, a town in rural
Niger, led to a more permanent market – now open
daily instead of weekly – that boosts the local economy.
Mariam Kamara designed the infrastructure and the stalls.56 PORTRAITS