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The longest journey
that I have ever taken.

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That was in 2002.

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I was only 19 years old.

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It was the first time
I had ever been on an airplane

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and the first time
that I had left my country,

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Rwanda.

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I had to move thousands of kilometers away

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to follow a dream.

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A dream I have had
ever since I was a child.

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And that dream was to become an architect.

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That was impossible
at the time in my country.

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There were no schools of architecture.

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So when I got a scholarship
to study in China,

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I left my life and my family behind

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and I moved to Shanghai.

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It was an amazing time.

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This country was going through
a major building boom.

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Shanghai, my new home,

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was quickly turning
into a skyscraper city.

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China was changing.

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World-class projects were built
to convey a new image of development.

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Modern, striking engineering marvels
were going up literally everywhere.

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But behind these facades,

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exploitation of huge numbers
of migrant workers,

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massive displacement
of thousands of people

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made these projects possible.

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And this fast-paced development

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also contributed significantly
to the pollution

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that is haunting China today.

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Fast-forward to 2010,

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when I went back home to Rwanda.

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There, I found development patterns
similar to what I saw in China.

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The country was and still is experiencing
its own population and economic growth.

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The pressure to build cities,
infrastructure and buildings

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is at its peak,

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and as a result,

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there is a massive building boom as well.

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This is the reality across
the entire continent of Africa,

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and here's why.

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By 2050, Africa's population will double,

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reaching 2.5 billion people.

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At this point,

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the African population will be
slightly less than the current population

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of China and India combined.

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The infrastructure and buildings needed
to accommodate this many people

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is unprecedented
in the history of humankind.

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We have estimated that by 2050,

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we have to build
700,000,000 more housing units,

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more than 300,000 schools

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and nearly 100,000 health centers.

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Let me put that into perspective for you.

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Every day for the next 35 years,

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we have to build seven health centers,

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25 schools

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and nearly 60,000 housing units each day,

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every day.

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How are we going to build all of this?

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Are we going to follow a model
of unsustainable building and construction

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similar to what I witnessed in China?

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Or can we develop a uniquely African model

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of sustainable and equitable development?

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I'm optimistic we can.

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I know Africans who are already doing it.

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Take Nigerian architect
Kunlé Adeyemi for instance,

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and his work in slums
of coastal megacities.

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Places like Makoko in Lagos,

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where hundreds of thousands of people
live in makeshift structures on stilts

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on water,

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without government
infrastructure or services.

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A community at great risk
of rising sea levels and climate change.

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And yet, people who live here
are examples of great ingenuity

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and the will to survive.

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Kunlé and his team have designed
a prototype school

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that is resilient to rising sea levels.

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This is Makoko School.

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It's a floating prototype structure
that can be adapted to clinics,

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to housing, to markets

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and other vital infrastructure
this community needs.

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It's an ingenious solution

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that can ensure this community
lives safely on the waters of Lagos.

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This is Francis Kéré.

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He works in the country
where he comes from,

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Burkina Faso.

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Kéré and his team have designed projects
that use traditional building techniques.

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Kéré and his team
working in the communities

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have developed prototype schools

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that the whole community,

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similar to every project
in the villages of this country,

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comes together to build.

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Children bring stones for the foundation,

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women bring water
for the brick manufacturing,

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and everybody works together
to pound the clay floors.

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Working with the community,

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Kéré and his team have created
projects that function better,

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with adequate lighting
and adequate ventilation.

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They're appropriate
for this particular context

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and really, really beautiful as well.

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For the past seven years,

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I have been working as an architect
at MASS Design Group.

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It's a design firm that began in Rwanda.

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We have worked
in several countries in Africa,

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focusing on this more equitable
and sustainable model

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of architectural practice,

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and Malawi is one of those countries.

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It's a country with beautiful,
remote landscapes

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with high-peak mountains
and fertile valleys.

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But it also has one of the worst
maternal mortality rates in the world.

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A pregnant woman in Malawi
either gives birth at home,

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or she has to walk a really long journey
to the nearest clinic.

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And one out of 36 of these mothers
dies during childbirth.

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In Malawi,

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with our team at MASS Design Group,

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we designed the Kasungu
Maternity Waiting Village.

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This is a place women come to
six weeks before their due dates.

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Here they receive prenatal care

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and train in nutrition
and family planning.

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At the same time, they form a community

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with other expectant mothers
and their families.

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The design of the of Kasungu
Maternity Waiting Village

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borrows from the vernacular
typologies of Malawi villages

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and is built using really simple
materials and techniques.

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The earth blocks that we used
were made from the same soil of this site.

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This reduces the carbon footprint
of this building,

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but first and foremost,

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it provides a safe and dignified space
for these expectant mothers.

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These examples show
that architecture and design

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have the power and the agency
to address complex problems.

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But more to point,

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that we can develop
a model of effective solutions

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for our communities.

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But these three examples are not enough.

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300 more examples will not be enough.

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We need a whole community
of African architects and designers

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to lead with thousands more examples.

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In May of this year,

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we convened a symposium
on African architecture, in Kigali,

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and we invited many
of the leading African designers

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and architectural educators
working across the continent.

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We all had one thing in common.

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Every single one of us
went to school abroad

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and outside of Africa.

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This has to change.

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If we are to develop
solutions unique to us,

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rather than attempting to turn
Kigali into Beijing,

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or Lagos into Shenzhen,

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we need a community

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that will build the design confidence
of the next generation

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of African architects and designers.

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(Applause)

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In September last year,

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we launched the African Design Centre

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to start building this community.

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We admitted 11 fellows
from across the continent.

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It's a 20-month-long,
design-build fellowship program.

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Here, they are learning
to tackle big challenges

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such as urbanism and climate change,

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as Kunlé and his team have.

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They're working with communities

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to develop innovative
building solutions and processes,

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as Kéré and his team have.

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They're learning to understand
the health impact of better buildings

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as we at MASS Design Group
have been researching

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for the past several years.

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The crowning moment of the fellowship

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is a real project
that they designed and built.

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This is Ruhehe Primary School,

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the project they designed.

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They immersed themselves in the community
to understand the challenges

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but also uncover opportunities,

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like using a wall
made of local volcanic stone

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to turn the entire campus
into a space of play and active learning.

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They evaluated
the environmental conditions

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and developed a roof system
that maximizes daylight

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and improves acoustic performance.

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The construction at Ruhehe Primary School
will begin this year.

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(Applause)

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And over the coming months,

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the African Design Centre fellows
are going to work hand-in-hand

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with the Ruhehe community to build it.

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When we asked the fellows

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what they want to do after
their African Design Centre fellowship,

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Tshepo from South Africa said

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he wants to introduce this new way
of building into his country,

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so he plans to open
a private practice in Johannesburg.

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Zani wants to expand opportunities
for women to become engineers.

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Before joining the African Design Centre,

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she helped start, in Nairobi,

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an organization to bridge the gender gaps
for women in engineering fields,

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and she hopes to take
this movement across Africa,

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eventually the whole world.

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Moses, from South Sudan,

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the world's newest country,

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wants to open the first polytechnic school

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that will teach people how to build
using local materials from his country.

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Moses had to be determined
to become an architect.

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The civil war in his country frequently
interrupted his architectural education.

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At the time he was applying
to join the African Design Centre,

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we could hear gunshots going off
in the background of his interview call.

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But even in the middle of this civil war,

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Moses hangs on to this idea

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that architecture can be a way
to bridge communities back together.

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You have to be inspired
by this fellow's belief

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that great architecture
can make a difference

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on how the future of Africa is built.

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The unprecedented growth of Africa
cannot be ignored.

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Imagine Africa's future cities,

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but not as vast slums,

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but the most resilient

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and the most socially inclusive
places on earth.

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This is achievable.

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And we have the talent
to make it a reality.

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But the journey to ready that talent
for the task ahead,

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like my own journey,

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is far too long.

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For the next generation
of African creative leaders,

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we have to shorten
and streamline that journey.

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But most importantly --

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and I cannot stress this enough --

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we have to build their design confidence

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and empower them to develop solutions
that are truly African

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but globally inspiring.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)