On the surface, Sénamé Koffi looks calm and ready. He also seems to have lived several contradictory lives. Born in 1980 in Lomé, Togo, the founder of HubCity and one of the stewards of the 2050 fund grew up in a modest environment, experienced precarious conditions in Paris as a student, and worked for a fast fashion brand that offered him social mobility. However, each of these experiences, which from middle school onward inspired deep reflections on cultural identity, have patiently built his vision of the power of African history in constructing a sustainable society in the face of a growing global population and even more devastating climate challenges in the southern hemisphere.
A Call to Design Inspired by Africa
It was in middle school that his journey took an atypical turn. Faced with the deep frustration of an immediate environment that did not reflect the African essence, he chose design as his destiny. Exposed to ancient objects, he perceived a dissonance between the clumsily reproduced modern Western aspirations by the society around him and the richness of original African forms. This intuition led him to begin exploring design as a means to create harmony between cultural identity and modern expression. He then understood the power of design: it is a manifestation of identity that does not need to deny its own roots and possesses the power to transcend borders.
A Tenacious Educational Journey
After realizing that his future lay beyond Togolese borders, he pursued higher mathematics studies in Lomé before flying to France, supported by his family but also bearing the weight of their hopes. Fascinated initially by product design rather than architecture, he enrolled at Creapole, a design school based in Paris. « I dreamed of designing objects, cars, from a catalog of African forms. As if to reweave the old rope, » recalls Sénamé. However, financial difficulties forced him to drop out after just one semester, as the school’s director refused to grant a tuition waiver despite the support and mobilization of his professors. The rest of his journey was marked by periods of extreme hardship, sleeping on the streets of Paris while resuming his studies at the École du Louvre and later at the École Spéciale d’Architecture and Paris-La Villette. « It became complicated for me, and I remained homeless three-quarters of the time until the end of my studies, » he admits modestly. A part-time job as a salesperson at Zara on the Champs-Élysées allowed him to make ends meet and could have diverted him from his destiny, he recalls: « I was a right fit for what the brand wanted to represent back then, and I knew the garment and the nobility of the fabric. At the time, the clients were mostly young people from the suburbs, and the store management wanted to promote me. But my frustration with my studies was growing because they only presented architecture through Haussmann, while there were so many stories and resources on my continent. I had to go back. »
A Return to Roots: The Tamberma Project
In 2006, his overwhelming desire to confront other thoughts, the need to return to Togo, and his thirst for knowledge collided during an encounter at the Dapper Foundation museum. Lucille Reyboz, a young rising photographer, gained fame from a book dedicated to the Tamberma, a Togolese ethnic group recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its ancient architecture. Sénamé knew this book. When he spotted Lucille, he struck up a conversation, and the instinctive artist quickly entrusted him with the project of building an architecture school in Tamberma country. This first return to Africa, six years after his departure, would be decisive. Once there, despite the challenges, he succeeded in convincing the Tamberma of the relevance of his project by respecting and adapting their architectural traditions. « They had been told someone was coming from France, and they expected to see an old white architect. They felt disrespected, » he recalls with a stifled smile. « The Tamberma are very proud, tough, like the Masai; they are the Paleonegritics. As soon as I started drawing on the ground, they understood that I grasped the meaning of their architecture. Their openings always face west towards their imaginary country. But the main road came from the East, and the main school building had to open towards it. The 200 workers stopped; they refused to go against their history. I explained why I envisioned the building this way, the risk of turn it into a folklore… Then one of the elders approached, asking what the problem was. After explaining, he approved my approach, specifying that a small ritual to reverse the cardinal points at the time of the foundation would suffice. » With this project, Sénamé managed to prove that thought systems are not fixed but can evolve without being forced. A lesson for a continent from which the seven largest megacities in the world are expected to emerge by 2050.
From Marginalization to Innovation
Having the opportunity to stay in Africa afterward, he nevertheless understood the need to continue his training and returned to Paris. Despite persistent difficult living conditions, he found a form of precarious balance, alternating between stays abroad for humanitarian projects and continuing his academic construction. « In Paris, I was marginalized. But I did not suffer from it because I was focused on what I was learning, on the quality of the people I could meet in the streets. Towards the end of my studies, it became sadder and more difficult. » His encounter with anthropology and Assan Fathi through a course on « discourses and practices of the future » broadened his understanding of architecture as a projection of social structures. This realization led him to found HubCity in 2012, an initiative aimed at creating « smart cities » in Africa, inspired by fablabs and hackerspaces that accompanied the digital revolution from Silicon Valley.
A Pan-African and Technological Vision
Convinced that Africa must seize technological opportunities for development, he is concerned about the risks of digitization but also sees it as a chance. Emerging large African cities require a holistic and pan-African vision, integrating local infrastructures and materials. His project aims to create neighborhood innovation labs, connected to broader master plans, to recreate social and environmental links. His multi-local and systemic approach echoes the upheaval brought about by digital technology forty years earlier, he asserts: « I felt like what was happening was akin to the invention of the personal computer. The way hackers operated reminded me of the Tamberma with the economy of less, collaboration, the need to remain open. I thought there was material for Africa to seize this movement and develop its own path. »
A Presidential Candidacy for Continental Challenges
Facing the political challenges of Togo, Sénamé Koffi now envisions a presidential candidacy. He believes in a political reorganization that reintegrates the common into governance. While recent constitutional reforms abolishing the presidential function reinforce his commitment to democratic transformation in his country, it is the demographic fever he wishes to accompany with solutions drawn from the history of the African people as a whole: « Tech alone will not suffice; there will need to be infrastructures, materials, and the real challenge for Africa is to have this satellite view. Because the cities we are talking about will span regions, straddling several countries, and it should be a pan-African effort to design them. The problem of our continent is that it is cut into small pieces. There are more and more projects addressing this fragmentation, and we are increasingly hearing this pan-African discourse. It’s an opportunity, and it makes me optimistic! » Constantly juggling between his long-term vision and a still fragile daily life, this visionary and father of two defends an approach that blends tradition and modernity. He aims to give Africa the means for its own development through innovation and respect for cultural identities without compromise. Even if it means pursuing this kaleidoscopic path that not everyone understands, but which gives so much substance and coherence to his commitment.
