Capturing wind for cooling, using wood and clay as basic materials for houses, or constructing buildings tuned to the sun’s daily path to provide natural shade: Instead of overexploiting nature, a new generation of architects in sub-Saharan Africa is focusing on building practices that conserve resources and are climate-friendly.

“It is high time,” says Francis Kere, one of the best known sub-Saharan architects who was born in Burkina Faso and now lives in Berlin. “For a better future for all of us, not just in Africa, but for all of us on this planet, it’s important to go back and actually use only those materials that nature gives us freely and to stop overexploiting them,” he told DW.