Ellen Johnson Sirleaf partners with top African women architects in Monrovia project
The ESJ Presidential Center and Library to draw on Liberian narratives and heritage for landmark project in Monrovia
Former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has commissioned an all-African all-women team to design a state-of-the-art, large-scale project, a rarity on the continent, and the world.
This landmark, in every sense of the word, will be in Monrovia, Liberia, and signals the first presidential centre and library commissioned by a female president. The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development is collaborating with atelier masōmī’s Mariam Issoufou Kamara and Counterspace’s Sumayya Vally and pan-African Engineering Group’s Karen Richards Barnes.
“As an African woman, I am hard pressed to think of a more inspiring figure than Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the first woman president the continent had the privilege of experiencing. The Center for Women and Development crystallises the legacy of Madame Sirleaf by providing a place for empowerment, arming the next generation of women leaders for the world to come. A world they will undoubtedly have a greater and transformative affect on. The new home for this centre will serve to energise and inspire the future generation of women leaders, while drawing from local Liberian narratives, heritage and material ecologies. I am humbled by the opportunity to help bring such a vision to life in built form, and to do so with a pan-African team of incredible women,” says Kamara.
The expertise of these acclaimed African architects cements a truly unique destination with women and girls as the foundation of the design. Kamara is directing the building design, Vally, designer of last year’s Serpentine Pavilion, the scenography, pavilions and exhibition architect, and Liberian architect Barnes as the local architect.
Representing excellence in architecture and serving as a distinctive feature in the national and cultural institution, the building will feature future-facing sustainable design, using local and renewable materials. The building will provide digital access to Johnson Sirleaf’s personal and professional archives and provides a platform for networking and education. As a communal and collaborative space, exhibitions and programmes focused on leadership will empower and inspire women to pursue leadership, serving as a national and international hub of the advancement of women.