African architects have cool designs for a warming planet

The first thing you notice, stepping from the scorching Sahelian sun into the laterite-stone dome, is how cold it is. There is no air-conditioning, just shade and natural ventilation; nor is there plaster. Diebedo Francis Kere, the architect behind the new mausoleum in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, strives to use only what can be sourced nearby. “I’m a construction-material opportunist,” he says. “I look around at what is most abundant, and how people use it, and try to do something new.” The result is a building so austere, low-tech and elegant that it is like entering a temple of the ancient world.