Mariam Issoufou Kamara is a Nigerien architect and the principal of atelier masom, an architectural practice headquartered in Niamey, Niger. Her first major project—Niamey 2000, a housing scheme based on the traditional Nigerien compound house—was completed in 2014. Since then, Kamara has explored the traditional typologies, materials and building techniques of wherever her projects have taken her. These include the Hikma Community Complex, comprising a library and mosque, which won awards for sustainable architecture, and the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia and the Bët-bi, a new museum and cultural center in Senegal for the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation—both of which are currently in development. 

When we speak over Zoom, Kamara...