Alero Olympio
Memorial Lecture

Alero Olympio was internationally renowned for her commitment to using local materials, including laterite, wood and stone, as well as her passion for exploring alternative construction methods rooted in local experience and expertise. She travelled widely, both on the African continent and around the world, translating her experiences through her innovations in design and building technology. Her work lives on, most notably in the Kokrobitey Institute, an hour’s drive from Accra along the coast, and in a stunning collection of sustainably built and maintained houses in Westlands, Accra. Fifteen years after Alero’s untimely death to cancer, we are proud to host the Alero Olympio Memorial Lecture. Held annually, the lecture features the work of an architect who brings together three important aspects of Alero’s work: support for women in design, enabling new architectural vision across the African continent, and providing a platform for sustainable construction in method and material. 

The 2021 Alero Olympio Memorial Lecture was given by acclaimed architect Prof Mariam Kamara.

Prof Mariam Issoufou Kamara is an architect from Niger. She studied architecture at the University of Washington. In 2014, she founded atelier masōmī, an architecture and research practice that tackles public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects. The firm is headquarted in Niamey, with a design studio in New York. Kamara believes that architects have an important role to play in creating spaces that elevate, give dignity, and provide people with a better quality of life. The firm’s completed projects include the Hikma Community Complex, a library and mosque, which won two Global LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture. Other works include the Niamey 2000 Housing project, a response to Niger’s housing crisis which was shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Upcoming projects include the Yantala Office building in Niger, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia and Hayyan, a housing development in Sharjah, UAE. Kamara is a Professor of Architecture Heritage and Sustainability at ETH Zurich. She has occupied academic roles as Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Brown University and as the 2021 Aga Khan Critic at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Kamara is a 2019 Laureate of the Prince Claus Award and The New York Times named her as one of 15 Creative Women of Our Time. The firm has been on the AD100 list since 2021.