Irish Design Week, Day One: Architecture & Interior Design

In Conversation: Mariam Issoufou and Professor Lesley Lokko OBE 7:30-8:30pm
Design & Crafts Council Ireland, in collaboration with the Irish Architecture Foundation, present an evening with Mariam Issoufou in conversation with Professor Lesley Lokko OBE, two leading architects shaping the global landscape.
Mariam Issoufou 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. Issoufou 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 complex, which won two Global Lafarge Holcim 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.

Issoufou is a professor of Architecture Heritage and Sustainability at ETH Zurich. She previously 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. Issoufou is a 2019 Laureate of the Prince Claus Award. She was named as one of 15 Creative Women of Our Time by the New York Times. The firm has been on the AD100 list since 2021.

Photo Credit: Aboubakar Magagi

Professor Lesley Lokko OBE is the Founder and Chair of the African Futures Institute (AFI) headquartered in Accra, Ghana and Director of the Nomadic African Studio; an annual winter/summer school located in different cities around the African continent. She holds a BSc (Arch), MArch and PhD in Architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. She was the Founder and Director of the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg (2014—2019). She is the Editor of White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture, Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) and the Editor-in-Chief of FOLIO: Journal of Contemporary African Architecture.

She is currently a Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture and at University College Dublin. She was appointed Curator of the 18th International Architecture Biennale at La Biennale di Venezia in 2023. In January 2023, she was awarded an OBE ‘for services to architecture and education’ in King Charles’ New Year’s Honours List. In January 2024, she was awarded the UK’s highest architecture award, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal. In April 2024, she was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in the annual TIME100 list.

Design Diplomacy. 6-7pm
Design Diplomacy is a concept developed by Helsinki Design Week, and produces unique, intimate conversations between two creative minds. During the event the international design professional meets an Irish designer over a card game of questions. Visitors will have an opportunity to experience carefully curated and unique conversations as in each situation the interlocutors meet for the first time.

International Designer, Netherlands: Lars Courage.

Lars Courage draws inspiration from industries like automobiles and fashion, integrating their forms and materials into his architectural work. Passionate about metal, particularly steel, glass, and colors—especially in prepainted metal—his firm, Courage Architecten, founded in 2001, focuses on simple, robust buildings and has helped popularize prepainted metal in both urban and rural architecture.

Irish Designer: To be announced soon!

Join us at the Royal Irish Academy of Music for an evening filled with inspiring discussions, innovative ideas, and creative collaborations. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just curious about the intersection of these two fields, this event is sure to spark your imagination and ignite your passion for design.

Host or Publisher Design & Crafts Council Ireland