Mariam Issoufou is an architect from Niger. In 2014, Issoufou founded her eponymous research-based practice, whose designs are rooted in identity, place, and history. With offices in Niamey, New York, and Zurich, the firm’s completed projects include the Hikma Community Complex — a library and mosque building in Niger — and Niamey 2000 Housing, a development conceived in response to the country’s deepening housing crisis.

For the design of Bët-bi, a new museum and a center for culture and community in southwestern Senegal, Issoufou’s studio approached the project as an opportunity to reassess what defines a museum in the 21st century. Rather than reference the 19th-century typology of the museum, Issoufou’s studio drew on the rich heritage that produced many of the artifacts these institutions hold, grounding its response in the region’s precolonial history. Once open, the museum has plans to serve as a temporary space for repatriated objects, supporting the return of African art to the places of its creation.