Mariam Issoufou, Principal and Founder of Mariam Issoufou Architects, has been named a 2025 UNEP Champion of the Earth for Entrepreneurial Vision. The award, the UN's highest environmental honour, recognises her pioneering work in creating sustainable, climate-resilient buildings across the Sahel region that are deeply rooted in local materials and cultural heritage. Read UNEP's press coverage on Mariam Issoufou award.
Reviving Traditional Building Wisdom
Issoufou's architecture demonstrates how local materials and cultural knowledge can create buildings that are both sustainable and climate-responsive. Her projects, including the Hikma Community Complex in Niger, use passive cooling techniques that keep buildings up to 10°C cooler without air conditioning.
Growing up in Niger shaped her understanding of architecture's power to respond to extreme heat. Moving to Agadez on the edge of the Sahara Desert as a child, she experienced the dramatic temperature drop when entering traditional mud-built homes—a lesson that continues to inform her work.
Projects Addressing Climate and Community
Her first major project, Niamey 2000, addresses Niger's housing crisis with compact clusters of linked homes reflecting pre-colonial Sahelian cities. The compressed earth bricks cost approximately 30% less than concrete whilst providing natural cooling. The project was shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The Hikma Community Complex in Dandaji—housing a mosque and library—won two Global LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture. When temperatures reach 45°C, it becomes a refuge for the village's 3,000 residents.
Her portfolio spans mosques, museums, schools, markets, and offices. Current projects include the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia and the Bët-bi Museum in Senegal. Read UNEP's press release and article on Mariam Issoufou.
Recognition and Impact
Beyond her architectural practice, Issoufou is a professor at ETH Zurich and has received multiple honours, including the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and the Architizer A+ Impact for Design Award.
Angélique Kidjo, singer-songwriter, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and 2011 UNEP Champion of the Earth, reflects on Mariam Issoufou's work and the deep cultural wisdom that shapes her architectural vision:
"I have always believed that Africa holds the answers within her soil, her people, her history, her customs. Mariam Issoufou understands this truth deeply. She turns what others might see as limitation—heat, dust, scarcity—into beauty and hope. Her buildings do more than shelter; they heal. They remind us that progress does not mean abandoning our roots, but rediscovering the wisdom they hold.
Mariam is not only shaping structures; she is shaping possibility. In a century defined by climate crisis, she reminds us that the answers are already here—in the earth beneath our feet, and in the courage to build with love."
Watch the video: Architecture for the future | Mariam Issoufou, Entrepreneurial Vision
Looking Ahead
GlobalABC looks forward to welcoming Mariam Issoufou to the Sustainable Construction Summit 2026 in Lausanne this April 20-22, where leaders from across the buildings and construction sector will gather to advance the pathway toward sustainable built environments. Her work exemplifies the innovation and cultural responsiveness needed to achieve the Buildings Breakthrough goal of making near-zero emission and resilient buildings the new normal by 2030.
Express Your Interest to Join
Join a global community shaping the future of sustainable construction. By expressing your interest for the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit 2026 here, you’ll be among the first to receive updates on the programme, partnership opportunities, and registration details. Compete the form here.
- About Champions of the Earth
Since 2005, UNEP's Champions of the Earth award has recognised outstanding leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector whose actions have transformative environmental impact. Now in its 20th year, it is the UN's highest environmental honour.
This year's laureates are addressing urgent challenges including climate justice, methane emissions, sustainable cooling, resilient buildings, and forest conservation.
- Further Reading & Links
Mariam Issoufou | Champion of the Earth
Read more about Mariam Issoufou on the Champions of the Earth website
Read the UNEP press coverage on Mariam Issoufou
Champion of the Earths
Learn about the Champions of the Earth
Read the UNEP press coverage on all 5 Champions of the Earth
- Meet the Winners
The Champions of the Earth award is the UN's highest environmental honour: Every year since 2005, UNEP honours individuals and organizations working on innovative and sustainable solutions to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Champions transform our economies, innovate, lead political change, fight environmental injustice and defend our natural resources.
Read about the 2025 Champions of the Earth. And watch the video introducing the Champions.
