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Today, host Maty Sy welcomes you from the new Goethe-Institute in Dakar, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Francis Kéré. Senegalese architect Nzinga Mboup, who oversaw the project, tours you around.
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00:14We're here in the car at the new Goethe Institute designed by Pritzker Prize winner Francis
00:20Carey who teamed up with Senegal's very own Zingambou.
00:23Now in this episode it's all about how Africa is building forward and this is what's coming
00:28up for you right now.
00:30In Ethiopia, the future is built upon plastic used for houses.
00:35We will explore the stunning structure of Dakar's Goethe Institute together with Zingambouk
00:40and see how the future of fashion relies on mushrooms.
00:44I'm Mattie Sieff and you're watching Aphromax.
00:54Let's begin in Ethiopia where a startup in Addis Ababa is building the future by solving
00:59two problems at once, plastic pollution and housing shortages.
01:03This is Innovation with Impact.
01:06Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia is growing rapidly.
01:10But while more than 380,000 new homes are needed every year, only about half that many are
01:17being built.
01:19Acquiring my own house is the primary goal.
01:22Everyone needs that.
01:24And that's what I want.
01:29And while Ethiopia's capital struggles with housing, it's also drowning in plastic.
01:34With 2,500 tons of it generated every year, a small startup is turning this very crisis
01:41into an opportunity.
01:42We're turning hard-to-recycle plastic into low-cost, low-carbon construction material.
01:50An unconventional approach with a tragic origin.
01:53It all started with the deadly collapse of the Kaushay landfill in 2017, which claimed 113 lives.
02:03This is actually how Cubic was founded.
02:07The founder and CEO of Cubic, Caduce, at the time, he was outraged by the situation and wanted
02:18to provide a solution, right?
02:21And so that's why it's important for us to be solving our own problems.
02:27Here at this plant in Adama, 5 tons of plastic are assorted, shredded, washed, melted and
02:33turned into interlocking bricks every day.
02:36Asefa Ayalev is the plant's manager.
02:40Those plastics are mainly available in the market, so we don't have any problem in that
02:46one.
02:47So due to these factors, I think the cost will be very much less.
02:52The main cost in the construction of housing is mainly the material cost, yeah?
02:58So if you are going to construct a conventional house, there is metal, there is cement, there
03:05is also some excavation workers and finishing work, everything like that.
03:09So this takes a huge cost by itself.
03:15Houses built with recycled plastic cost 40% less than those built with conventional materials
03:20and go up in days, not months.
03:23This daycare was built in just 16 days.
03:26It serves children of government workers, most of which are women.
03:29At the heart of our business, we're trying to make housing affordable, but simultaneously,
03:34we're working on cleaning the environment and empowering women.
03:41The company specifically trains women in the fields of engineering, construction and finance.
03:50I think when you work on women, you're pretty much building a very resilient society.
04:00Also we want to build gender equality.
04:03So most of these fields, like the supply chain, engineering, construction and finance, they're
04:08mainly dominated by men and we want to give the skill set, work on the skill set and also
04:16the opportunity for women to thrive in these sectors.
04:20While the vision is clear, the journey ahead is not without its challenges.
04:26There is huge awareness problem, there are a lot of plastic generations, you know, however,
04:33the collection rate is very low.
04:36So the plastic materials that we are getting in the factory for the recycling purpose is
04:41very low.
04:42This is not because there is no other material, it's not because there is no other plastic.
04:46It is because we are not collecting as well and we are not segregating well.
04:50This starts from the household.
04:52So if the awareness of the people was better, then our job would have been, you know, very
04:58easy.
04:58Despite that, the company is growing and changing minds.
05:03So at first people are like confused, they are confused and they ask a lot of questions
05:09because we are changing plastic waste into building material.
05:15In terms of affordable housing, in Ethiopia I think the major issue is to have a house.
05:23So mentioning that we are working on creating an impact and assisting the society to have
05:31their own house, affordable housing is I think a major impact.
05:34For the team around Hayat Berdane, building a house means problem solving.
05:40But for Zeleke Murad and his family, having a house means dignity.
05:46Every Ethiopian, not just me, deserves a better life.
05:50One that includes a peaceful home and the ability to raise their children.
05:56And that's why Hayat, Assefa and their colleagues aren't just recycling plastic or building houses,
06:02they're building hope.
06:06To building with purpose, I'm now joined by architect Zinga Mbou, who oversaw the Gott
06:11Institute here in Dakar.
06:13Hello.
06:14Hello.
06:15Zinga, this space really feels like it breathes.
06:17What's something that your team really wanted people to feel as soon as they walked in?
06:21I think as soon as you walk in, obviously, you want to feel the welcome by this amazing
06:26baobab in this courtyard that really envelops you, makes you feel safe in this place of
06:32gathering, which is anchored in our tradition and our culture.
06:36A little bit like the pinch from our world of culture, which has always been at the core
06:42of the village, the community.
06:44This is what articulates and orientates this building.
06:48Absolutely.
06:49And speaking of culture and heritage, you worked on this building with Francis Careville.
06:53What's something that comes from your heritage or speaks to your heritage here?
06:57This distinctive red laterite actually reminds me a lot of the place where my grandmother
07:03is from, because the mother's side of my family comes from Western Cameroon.
07:07And it's known for these mountains of laterite.
07:10And the traditional architecture is made with laterite bricks.
07:14And I was really poised that eight years ago, I met a Senegalese engineer called Dudu Deme that
07:21produces these red bricks.
07:23And we hear a lot of bioclimatic design, but what does this truly mean and how does it affect
07:28everyday people's lives?
07:30It's really about designing for the climate and for the context where you're in.
07:33And here, for instance, we're quite close to the Atlantic Ocean.
07:37We're about 300 meters away.
07:38And as you walk in, you feel this breeze from the sea.
07:42And this is possible because we've built very sort of low rise buildings, especially on the
07:47coast to allow the air to kind of continue to flow.
07:50And this building also ensured that there's these breeze blocks facades, which means that
07:56the wall gets ventilated or allows for the air to pass through.
08:00And when you're inside, you feel the breeze of the air, which allows you to feel cool.
08:05And that's a very important principle.
08:07We should never block the flow of the air.
08:09Thank you, Nzinga.
08:10We'll be back with you a little bit later.
08:14From leading architect to leading scientist, our next story takes us into the lab where
08:19Ana Ololade-Sogosonia is growing waterproof, biodegradable leather from mushrooms.
08:26Let's check it out.
08:28Fashion made from living organisms?
08:30Ana Ololade-Sogosonia is doing just that.
08:33She's made this jacket out of fungus.
08:36I'm actually quite proud, yes, indeed, of this.
08:39It was kind of a big challenge that I took.
08:42Ana's fungus leather is waterproof and biodegradable.
08:46Her vision is of an intelligent material that can heal itself like a living organism.
08:51But more on that later.
08:53At the Brussels Free University, the bioengineer shows us how she creates the organic textiles.
08:59So this is a mycelium skin.
09:02So this is basically only mushroom.
09:06It's ready to be harvested.
09:08So I just drew it on the liquid surface and now I'm just taking it out so that we can
09:13make a material out of it later.
09:16It all started in this petri dish.
09:18In her lab, Ana reproduces the underground root system of the mycelium fungus, which normally
09:24grows in the woods.
09:25The tiny threads grow and weave themselves together into this artificial leather skin in just three
09:31weeks.
09:33I'm always excited to harvest the skin and trying to see, like, did anything different
09:41happen from the previous times, trying to understand why.
09:45And I actually really like these very hands-on parts.
09:48Yeah, just touching and getting my hands dirty.
09:54She separates the skin from its jelly layer, a bit like separating real leather from its
09:59fat.
10:00The surface has to be even and smooth in order to make clothing out of it later.
10:07I'm treating the skin with some natural product, it's called glycerol, in order to keep it flexible
10:13and fresh like if it were alive.
10:16The key word is alive.
10:18Ana's vision goes even further.
10:20Imagine you rip your jacket and it has some dormant units in there that can revive in a structured
10:26way so that it just repairs the wounds.
10:29That would be one of our goals and that's something that is currently being researched.
10:33Her idea of making clothing out of living fungi has gained Ana international recognition.
10:38Her fungus jacket was exhibited at Milan Design Week in 2025, introducing her invention to
10:44a wider audience.
10:46It's important to make things that are aesthetically pleasing or that have like a specific aesthetic
10:51so that people start thinking, oh wow, this is a new material but this is how it could
10:58be used.
10:59It could look good and it's also biodegradable.
11:03Professor Elisa Elzaka is supervising Ana's project.
11:07I'm super proud about Ana because it's really where that a scientist moves into a completely
11:17different other field which is design and she was able to really do that transition to bring
11:24it to a design exhibition which is like super renowned.
11:29So where does Ana's boundless motivation come from?
11:33The young French Nigerian woman knows firsthand how much of Europe's discarded clothing ends
11:38up in West African landfills.
11:42Instead of having a linear thing where you produce something that never degrades and then
11:47you just end up having it in the landfill, you biosource it, you use it and then it biodegrades
11:54and gets back to nature.
11:58At home, Ana works on new designs.
12:00But getting here wasn't easy.
12:02Her parents wanted her to study something serious, bioengineering.
12:06Today, her creations combine science and fashion.
12:13Now that I think about it, I'm super happy of where I have come.
12:19I'm very happy to go to work every day.
12:21It's a very privileged position and that's also the advantage of being at the intersection
12:29of two domains that are so different like biology and design.
12:33I get to do some things that are very niche and that's something that I really love.
12:39Although her fashion is not yet ready for mass production, Ana's journey proves that the
12:44future of fashion can be sustainable and innovative as well as stylish.
12:54Nzingo, tell me, what's your favourite space in this building?
12:57We are in my favourite space of this building.
13:00I love this corner because it's a corner where you feel a lot of the air breeze and you're
13:07also sheltered from the sun.
13:09And you have the connection with the outside through the small openings.
13:14And the small openings really speak to also our traditional vernacular architecture that
13:20usually has very small windows, just enough to let the air in.
13:24It's really lovely.
13:26The breeze and the bird sounds and there's a lot of local materials that are used throughout
13:30this building even.
13:31But is this something of the past that's done well or would you say is the future of African
13:36architecture?
13:37It is the future because we sit today at a junction where we have to grapple with the
13:43effects of climate change and with the rising sea levels and the rising temperatures as well.
13:48We really have an opportunity to dig back into our heritage in order to find the solution
13:55for the future.
13:55And we have the possibility to also build without using a lot of energy, which is very positive.
14:04And we also make projects that do not require energy like AC in order to fill the cooling.
14:10And I think by also building more and centering these materials, we can create more jobs opportunities
14:15for people that are based here, for young people, engineers to really have autonomy and be
14:23able to work with the knowledge, but also the materiality that is rooted here in our country.
14:28Ziga, what would you say is your greatest takeaway from working on this project?
14:32I think I've loved the collaborative aspect of this project.
14:36I've loved being able to work with an international architect like Francis Keiré, to be able to
14:42also learn and exchange from him because he's a precursor in this sort of contemporary movement
14:48of urban architecture.
14:49So I really enjoyed the fact that we're able to work with so many different people and
14:54make sure that this site was really a place of transmission of knowledge.
14:57And now it's going to be a building that is going to welcome more people and also continue
15:02to activate this chain of transmission.
15:04Absolutely.
15:05Ziga, thank you so much.
15:07Shall we continue our walk?
15:08Of course.
15:09I'll show you.
15:12Architecture creates spaces, which are then in turn furnished with additional design pieces.
15:17Desai Tantua from Nigeria creates a very special yet very practical works of art.
15:22His furniture is made of old cars.
15:24Let's take a look.
15:26Wondering why these old rusted car parts form the centerpiece of this rooftop setting in Nigeria's
15:32Port Hakkort?
15:33Well, that's because they're just that.
15:36Parts of classic cars reborn into classy furniture.
15:41The skilled hands of Desai Tantua are behind these creations.
15:45As an experimental craftsman, he's giving new life to classic cars and helping create a
15:50sense of nostalgia.
15:54My main idea for this car sculpture was trying to, you know, maintain my father's car, which
16:04was the first thing that I did.
16:06It was a Benz.
16:09Use the car to create bars, chairs, tables, all sorts of things which you see.
16:16I created my own bar.
16:18So, for me, it was very interesting to have furniture that is art as well.
16:25I wanted to rebuild something that is special and different.
16:28And I used this car instead of packing it in the garage and fighting with mechanics every
16:34day to fix it so I can just drive it once in a while.
16:39Rare classic cars fetch premium prices, and so parts are also highly sought after.
16:45Enthusiasts like Desai Tantua know their historical value and their investment potential.
16:50Practical modern cars might get you from A to B. But for Desai, nothing can replace the
16:56look, style or nostalgia of a classic well-worn Mercedes-Benz or VW Beetle.
17:01So how does he source the parts for his furniture?
17:04There was this car dealer who became a friend.
17:08I started sourcing car parts from him as well.
17:11Sometimes, if they bring in a car that they want to sell.
17:15He calls me and says, are you interested in this car?
17:18And that they want to sell it.
17:20And they are selling it in parts.
17:23It might look like just a scrap metal container.
17:26But for Desai, this is an ultimate treasure trove.
17:30Panels, dashboards, door handles, chrome bumpers.
17:33It's enough to make any car enthusiast take notice.
17:37Importing classics is usually handled by specialised dealers or passionate aficionados.
17:42But like the body panels, it's never straightforward.
17:46It's not the same as with new imported models.
17:49Right now, with the challenges we are facing, classic cars are not coming in the way they used to.
17:55And, due to scarcity, we see a hike in prices.
18:02Back to the workshop.
18:03Desai and his team are currently working on parts from a Volkswagen Beetle and classic Mercedes-Benz.
18:09Desai always has young apprentices in his shop, like Isaac.
18:13He's been working with Desai for over six years and his skills have improved quickly.
18:20Working with an artist, it gives more experience, you know.
18:26It makes me more creative than before.
18:30Because in my work, for years, there were some things I was struggling with.
18:38But coming across with him, you know, as an artist, I see things very easy.
18:48What began in 2016 with a desk made from his late father's car has now become an entire furniture collection.
18:55With meticulous welding and clean paintwork, Desai breathes new life into car wrecks.
19:02Prices range from a few hundred dollars to $420,000, depending on the car parts used and the complexity of
19:09the task.
19:10But who actually buys furniture made from cars?
19:14Marvel owns a restaurant in the heart of Lagos and is one of Desai's customers.
19:19It's a side attraction to the restaurant.
19:22It's one of the unique stuff we have here.
19:23Now, my customers, they love it.
19:25The comfortability, the fun part of it, which is the swing one, and the durability as well.
19:31As me, as a purchaser, someone that got it, I have the durability that it's going to stand the taste
19:38of time.
19:38And not just in the sixth most time.
19:40And you know, it has been here for, it's getting two to three years now.
19:43And as you can see, it's still strong.
19:46Desai Tantua has found a unique way to keep classic cars rolling.
19:50So, sit down and buckle up.
19:57That's the spirit with which futures are built with.
20:00In Ivory Coast, we met up with a team who carry the spirit into the kitchen.
20:04Where creativity meets tradition and every dish tells a story.
20:08Let's head to Abidjan and sample the city's best recipes.
20:14From sizzling street food to gourmet fusion plates, Abidjan is the culinary heart of Ivory Coast.
20:24Trashville is one of its oldest and most vibrant boroughs.
20:28And right here, you'll find what many say is the best seafood stew in town.
20:34Amasawa learned to cook it from her grandmother.
20:39We've been making seafood stew for over 40 years.
20:43My grandmother taught me once during the holidays.
20:47And then she told me to prepare it myself that day.
20:52Her little restaurant is well known in the neighborhood.
20:55Every day she receives a steady stream of phone orders.
20:59A testament to how popular her food has become.
21:02Yet it all began as a modest venture.
21:08She started here little by little.
21:10First, her friends wanted to eat seafood stew when they came here.
21:15She started with two guests at first.
21:22Then people started ordering more and more.
21:25We were the only place making seafood stew around here.
21:33Seafood stew is a popular dish from Ivory Coast.
21:36Made with an assortment of ingredients and traditional spices.
21:45It's a special meal because here it's made better than anywhere else.
21:50If you really want to eat authentic seafood stew, come to Amasawa's.
21:57The fish is fresh, the snails are fresh, the shrimp is fresh.
22:00Everything is fresh here.
22:05So we invite everyone to come to Tanti Amasawa's in Ivory Coast to really enjoy the seafood stew.
22:18Just a short drive from Trashville's bustling markets and steaming kitchens,
22:22you'll find yourself in a very different setting.
22:27In Cocody, you find a truly unique chef, Charlie Coffey.
22:32More than anything, he sees himself as an artist, deeply inspired by and connected to nature.
22:39With his restaurant, he created a place where creativity, calm and culinary finesse
22:45blend seamlessly under his unique vision.
22:49Especially in the tropics, we can see lots of flowers, but we don't know if they're edible.
22:54And I say yes, they are edible, and better than that, they're even delicious.
23:00They add a special touch and liven up every dish.
23:04So I introduce people to new things and new flavors.
23:09They're edible, like clover and navelwort, and all these flowers come from the garden.
23:18The idea is to add color, color, and more color.
23:23I love bright plates.
23:26I deeply love nature, which is why my restaurant is called Villa Alfira, like a flower in a Tolkien story.
23:35Born in Abidjan, Charlie was trained in Europe.
23:39Back home, he now blends fine dining with street flavors.
23:42One of his signature dishes?
23:44A stunning duo of tiger prawns and grouper, both fresh from San Pedro, Ivory Coast's biggest fishing port.
23:52Everything you're going to see on this plate today comes from Ivory Coast.
23:55All our products come from Ivory Coast.
23:57The idea is still to offer an Ivorian dish, but stylized, worked differently to say that yes, we can make
24:03local products.
24:06After diving into Charlie Coffee's botanical universe, we head back toward the sea.
24:11This time for some traditional home cooking at Chez Rodrigue.
24:14A local gem that blends hospitality and home-style Ivorian cooking.
24:26Wait just about 15 minutes and the fish will be perfect.
24:32The house specialty is African sea catfish, prized for its firm texture and rich, distinctive flavor.
24:39The fish is marinated in a mix of ginger, garlic, chili and local herbs, then grilled slowly over charcoal,
24:47just as it's been done along the West African coast for generations.
24:52While the culinary scene evolves, traditional home cooking like that celebrated at Chez Rodrigue
24:58continues to honor the roots from which it all grew.
25:04Avijan beautifully reflects the rich and diverse food culture of Ivory Coast.
25:09From soulful seafood stew to the innovative fusion of street flavors with culinary artistry
25:14that showcases Ivorian creativity at its best.
25:25From the newest building in Dakar, today's episode showed how Africa is shaping the future one bold idea at a
25:32time.
25:33Thank you for watching us on dw.com forward slash AfroMax.
25:37Stay curious, stay creative and keep building.
25:40Stayж Candidately.
25:42Stay excited, stay.
25:43Stay jodan.
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