Sename Koffi Agbodjinou Togo

Sename Koffi Agbodjinou  is a promoter of neo-vernacular thought which he concretely declines as a designer, architect, entrepreneur at the different scales of the product, the building and the city. He is the creator of L'Africaine d'Architecture, a platform for experimentation on questions of African architecture and the city, and WoeLabs: a network of Togolese tech-hubs whose ambition is to "make everyone equal in front of technology”. With his community, he contributes to prototype a digital collectivism which has made it possible to launch the half-dozen startups of the HubCity Group. Its prospective vision sheds light on several conferences, institutions and large groups. 

Born in 1980 in Lomé, Sename Koffi Agbodjinou is mainly an architect and an anthropologist by training (ENSAPLV, EHESS, Paris). In 2010, he created the L’Africaine d’Architecture platform on the “Anchored modernity” line, with the objective of providing the conceptual means of an architectural alternative that enhances the canons, dynamics and resources of the vintage. 

He became a defender of a digital vernacular in 2012, when he thought he identified a correspondence between hacker ethics and those of traditional societies. The #LowHighTech concept was created to highlight this proximity and consider an original approach to innovation issues involving the most modest layers.

The urban utopia HubCités Africaines, the Technological Democracy Spaces WoeLab and the “first made in Africa” 3D printer Wafate are the best ambassadors of this vision of a pioneering society in the criticism of the Smart City. 

As a curator and scenographer, he has designed various installations and exhibited at the ZKM or at the headquarters of the European Parliament. He was doubly requested in 2020 to present in the central exhibition and to collaborate in the German pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale.