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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 --
-
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)