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.

Before 2007, people living in the rural Burera district of northern Rwanda had little access to a health-care facility or doctors.

Firms working everywhere from China to Saudi Arabia have to navigate the often grandiose ambitions of authoritarian regimes.

Architects have long traveled to far-flung corners of the world in search of inspiration, information, and work. But few places remain as unfamiliar to most architects as Africa—a continent with an area equal to the United States plus Europe and half of Asia.