Instead of sand, this Senegalese architect builds with rammed earth. Fatiya Diene Mazza, proves that you don't have to choose between heritage and innovation.

Dakar

Fatia Dien Maza, an architect from Dakar, is leading a project to build a school for talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Her design incorporates both indoor and outdoor learning spaces, with a strong emphasis on landscaping and responsible use of local resources.

After gaining international experience, Fatia returned to Senegal to focus on architecture that reflects the country's culture and climate. Through her firm, she combines traditional techniques with modern engineering, advocating for innovation rooted in heritage and serving as a mentor and role model for young women in the field.

How this architect is building Senegal's future

Before we talk about skylines and skyscrapers, meet the architect building something far more powerful. A school for brilliant kids who had no chance. This is Fatia Dien Maza and her story starts here. This project is a wonderful project that we've been contacted by the client who wanted to build this beautiful school project for unfortunate children, but who have brilliant minds. But the beautiful part that has been integrated is the landscaping as well, which will be a huge part of the education process. So yes, the children will be learning in between four walls per se, if I was to speak in caricature, but there will be a good amount of their time, learning time, will be outside as well. In a city raising to look like Dubai or Paris, Fatia asked a bold question. Why copy when we can create? Why erase our roots when they hold the answers to living sustainably? I prefer to think in terms of responsibility rather than sustainability. I think as long as you design in a way that is responsible and thoughtful of the resources that are surrounding it, take into account the climate, the wind, the lights, especially for us here in Senegal, and also people's traditions and way of life. Born in Dakar to an architect father, Fatia grew up sketching dreams. After studying in the US and working on global megaprojects, she had everything most architects want, prestige, big budgets and international acclaim. But she walked away from skyscrapers in San Francisco to design spaces that breathe with Senegal's soul. I just wanted to be part of the development of my own country and just, you know, holding on tight, I mean, arriving and it's not just about explaining what you want to do even to clients, but it's also showing what your skills are and having proof of it and what you're capable of doing. Her return wasn't easy. In a male-dominated industry, she had to fight for a seat at the table and convince clients that heritage and innovation aren't opposites, they are partners. So it gives me perspectives, working internationally, it gives me structure, order and methodology in the way of doing things. So it's just a matter of finding the right balance between, I want to say, both heritages that I've gotten from the outside and from here and making my own and build something out of it. Through her farm, Idea, Fatia began blending ancestral techniques with modern engineering, rammed earth walls, natural ventilation and spaces that breathe with Senegal's climate, not against it. Using traditional materials is not just about the heritage, it's about the technique that they hold and reapplying those methods, taking all those advantages that they carry that our ancestors used and reinvent them with our modern methodologies. And it's a way of fusing the old and re-transforming it and building it, building something out of it, our modern methodologies, I want to say. Today, Fatia is more than an architect. She's a mentor, a disruptor, a role model for young women who dream of shaping cities alongside pioneers like the late Mamie Tal and Zingambou. She's proving that African architecture doesn't need validation from outside, it needs vision from within. Can you imagine if we all were following the same approach, it would be boring. What I love about what they have is this diversity, which is so reflective of who we are, we are not just one shade, we are so many of them. In a world obsessed with the next big thing, Fatia's journey is a reminder, sometimes the most revolutionary thing you can do is remember who you are and build from there.

NASA’s historic Artemis II mission to the moon launched Wednesday evening, taking four astronauts into Earth's orbit and on a path toward the world's first crewed lunar mission in a generation, beginning a journey into remarkable territory.

Florida

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Washington

Iran Strikes

Middle East Conflict

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Brussels

Ukraine Invasion

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Baghdad

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Cape Canaveral

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Jupiter

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Beirut

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London

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Madrid

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West Bloomfield Township

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Bucha

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Salt Lake City

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Tehran

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Jerusalem

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Havana

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Kharg

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Breakdown