Mariam Issoufou is a Nigerien architect. She founded the architecture and research firm atelier masōmī in 2014. The firm tackles a wide range of public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects. In 2022, she was appointed professor of Architecture Heritage and Sustainability at the ETH Zurich. Her work is guided by the belief that architects have an important role to play in creating spaces that have the power to enhance, dignify and provide a better quality of life. Through her practice, Issoufou aims to find innovative ways of doing this, while maintaining an intimate dialogue between architecture, people and context.
Her first major project, Niamey 2000, an apartment complex, addresses the spatial problems associated with the concrete structure of her childhood home. It was one of the twenty projects shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award. In 2018, she produced the project Hikma in Dandaji Niger. Inspired by the rammed earth building technique, the building is a cultural complex that houses a mosque, library and community centre. The project won two awards in the Holcim 2017 award cycle. She is based between Niamey, Zurich and New York.