#mariam kamara

[keepingitneutral]

‘Portable Solar Distiller’ by Henry Glogau,

Chosen as the project that best encompasses “Design for a Better Tomorrow”, the Portable Solar Distiller provides clean drinking water by filtering polluted water or overly saline sea water using sunlight. Merging local resource production with community architecture, this low-tech solution also serves as a shaded gathering place.

Mentors: Joe Doucet, Sabine Marcelis, Mariam Kamara, and Sputniko

Winner for the 2021 Lexus Design Awards Edition

[africanfemalearchitects]

Niamey 2000 Housing is a 1700 square meter (18,000 ft2) housing development that was designed in response to the current housing crisis occurring in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Niger’s capital, Niamey, has been growing at an exponential rate in recent years, relentlessly pushing the boundaries of the city further outwards. Over the past twenty years, Niamey’s expansion has accelerated to unprecedented levels, putting greater distance between its citizens and their workplaces. The municipality has also struggled to provide the new settlements with basic infrastructure, such as water and electricity. These issues, coupled with rampant real estate speculation, have created an unprecedented housing crisis in the city.

The Niamey2000 project is a direct response to the current housing and socio-economic conditions found in the city. It proposes a new model that increases density in order to counter the city’s aggressive growth. Because towers and apartment buildings are not culturally appropriate and do not respond to the social norms of the country, they were not considered for this project. However, Niamey is a city of mostly one-story homes, and a certain degree of densification could easily be achieved by simply adding a story or two. In this context, going up in height and decreasing the typical building footprint dramatically increases the number of homes that can be built on a particular site.

While this modest approach to increase the height of a typical home is new to Niamey, it takes its inspiration from pre-colonial cities in the region such as Timbuktu in Mali, Kano in Nigeria, or Zinder in Niger, which were all dense urban centers in their day. Their organic layouts of intricately intertwined homes were often two to three stories in height, while still managing to maintain a sense of privacy and intimacy. In addition to building economically, maintaining a sense of privacy is key to the project and is one of the central conceptual drivers. However, the project strives to be more than simply affordable and culturally appropriate. It takes a firm position on material selection by using locally abundant earth and passive cooling techniques to protect against Niger’s scorching temperatures. As is the case in many parts of the world, local materials are increasingly being abandoned in urban centers in favor of concrete. This project reintroduces these materials in a contemporary design that offers a serious alternative to expensive concrete homes.

Status: Completed May 2016 Location: Niamey, Niger. Size: 958 m² Design: Yasaman Esmaili, Elizabeth Golden, Mariam Kamara, Philip Sträter

Visit Atelier Masomi & Studio Chahar for more.

[dezainnet]

アシフ・カーン、マリアム・カマラ、デヴィッド・アジャイらがリバプール港湾地区の再開発コンペに勝利 (dezeen) Asif Khan, Mariam Kamara, David Adjaye and Theaster Gates to redevelop Liverpool waterfront (dezeen)

[africanfemalearchitects]

Mariam Kamara is a founder and principal of atelier masomi, in Niamey Niger, an architecture firm whose interests lie in designing culturally, historically and climatically relevant solutions to spatial problems inherent to the developing world.

Mariam holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Technology from Purdue University (2001) and a Master of Science in Computer Science from New York University (2004). She joined our Master of Architecture program in the autumn of 2010. Her thesis project, Mobile Loitering (2013), focused on issues of gender and public space in Niger, West Africa. Her research-based design was awarded a thesis prize in the Department of Architecture and special mention in the 2014 Young Architects in Africa Competition. Her thesis was also exhibited in the 2014 Milan Triennale in the exhibit Africa Big Chance Big Change.

Following her graduation she worked with united4design on the UNHabitat project that aimed to rehabilitate an urban village in Niamey, Niger’s capital. This project led to the firm’s first built project, the Niamey 2000 affordable middle class housing pilot project that uses appropriate materials and passive techniques to decrease energy consumption. This sustainable project won an AIA Seattle Merit Award in 2016.

In her current work with atelier masomi, she seeks to develop innovative ways of using local, renewable, and low-cost materials, while exploring new adaptations of local architectural techniques.

Dandaji Market

Niamey Cultural Center

[afrotumble]

Mariam Kamara Could Profoundly Change Design Pedagogy Everywhere | ArchDaily

Mariam Kamara Could Profoundly Change Design Pedagogy Everywhere

The Niger-based architect Mariam Kamara’s rapidly growing practice informs a series of lectures she has delivered recently at MIT, Columbia

[carmenvicinanza]

Mariam Issoufou Kamara

https://www.unadonnalgiorno.it/mariam-issoufou-kamara/

Mariam Issoufou Kamara è un’architetta e urbanista nigerina che si distingue per la sua progettazione sostenibile.

Il suo lavoro è guidato dalla convinzione che l’architettura contemporanea debba pensare spazi che hanno il potere di elevare, nobilitare e fornire una migliore qualità della vita.

Attraverso la sua pratica, mira a scoprire modi innovativi per farlo, mantenendo un dialogo intimo tra architettura, persone e contesto.

Nata a St Etienne, in Francia, nell’aprile del 1979, la sua famiglia è tornata in Niger quando aveva pochi mesi.

Dopo la laurea in informatica tecnica conseguita alla Purdue University nel 2001, e un master in scienze informatiche alla New York University, ha lavorato nel campo dell’informatica per sette anni prima di decidere di diventare architetta.

Nel 2013, ha conseguito un master in architettura presso l’Università di Washington con una tesi dal titolo Mobile Loitering, concentrata sui divari di genere negli spazi pubblici del Niger.

Il lavoro del suo master è stato esposto alla Triennale di Milano nel 2014 nella mostra Africa Big Chance Big Change.

Con il collettivo internazionale di architetti United4design ha lavorato a progetti negli Stati Uniti, in Afghanistan e in Niger.

Nel 2014 ha fondato lo studio di architettura e ricerca, atelier masōmī, che si occupa di design pubblico, culturale, residenziale, commerciale e urbano.

Nel 2017 ha insegnato studi urbani come professoressa associata presso la Brown University di Rhode Island.

Vincere il Premio Rolex Mentor e Protege Arts Initiative le ha consentito di collaborare con l’architetto David Adjaye.

Il suo primo grande progetto è stato Niamey 2000, un complesso di appartamenti costruito nel 2016.

Nel 2019 è stata insignita del Prince Claus Prize nei Paesi Bassi.

In mille metri quadrati di superficie, la struttura ospiterà una collezione di arte antica e contemporanea, una biblioteca, e spazi in cui sviluppare programmi educativi con varie iniziative per far dialogare artisti da tutto il mondo. Saranno impiegate tecniche edilizie a basso impatto ambientale, mutuate dalla tradizione locale, facendo largo uso di materiali facilmente reperibili e di sistemi per limitare il consumo energetico che coinvolgeranno le maestranze artigiane locali.

Se le nuove frontiere dell’architettura debbono necessariamente guardare all’Africa, Mariam  Kamara rappresenta sicuramente una protagonista brillante di questo importante cambiamento.