(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Mariam Issoufou
Mariam Issoufou is an architect from Niger. She studied architecture at the University of Washington. In 2014, she founded Mariam Issoufou Architects, an architecture and research practice that tackles public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects from our offices in Niamey, New York and Zurich. Issoufou’s design explorations are informed by rigorous research and a process rooted in conversations with end-users and collaboration with local crafters, masons and builders.
The firm’s completed projects in Niger include the Hikma Community Complex, Niamey 2000, and Dandaji Regional Market. Upcoming projects include Yantala Office in Niger, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia, and Bët-bi Museum in Senegal. Hikma Community Complex was awarded two LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture, while Niamey 2000 was shortlisted for 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Practice Ideology
Mariam Issoufou Architects is an architecture and research practice whose designs are a creative response to identity, place and history. The award-winning firm was founded in 2014 by Nigerien architect Mariam Issoufou. The team is spread across offices in New York, Niamey and Zurich, where Issoufou is a professor in the chair for Architecture Heritage and Sustainability. The firm’s completed projects in Niger include the Hikma Community Complex, Niamey 2000, and Dandaji Regional Market. Upcoming projects include Yantala Office in Niger, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia, and Bët-bi Museum in Senegal.
Mariam Issoufou Architects has twice exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2021 she presented The Makings of An Artisans’ Valley in the Arsenale and in 2023 she presented Process in the Giardini.
