Two exhibitions currently on view at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, shine a big spotlight on design in Africa. 

Olajumoke Adenowo has been practicing architecture in Nigeria for more than a quarter of a century. Still, she became significantly better known when CNN named her “Africa’s star architect” in December, as part of a report on her Lagos-based practice, AD Consulting.

In a remote village in southern Burundi, an American architect joins forces with the local community to build a simple and sensitive dormitory for health-care staff.

It was late morning in Gando, a rural community in the West African country of Burkina Faso, and the fierce sun was beating down on the arid, ochre-colored landscape.

When they founded Work Architecture Company (WORKac), in an apartment facing a brick wall in 2003, Dan Wood and Amale Andraos had two jobs lined up: a bathroom renovation and a doghouse.