Architect and anthropologist, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou is the creator of the collaborative research platform on African architecture and city issues ‘L’Africaine d’architecture’. Founder of WoeLab, a network of Togolese grassroots tech-hubs whose ambition is to “make everyone equal in the face of technology” and in which he helped launch the half-dozen shared companies of the #Siliconvillage Group. Since 2017 Sename has been elected to the Ashoka Foundation’s prestigious fellowship program for social entrepreneurs.
Born February 8, 1980 in Lomé, Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou trained as an architect and anthropologist. After extensive experience in humanitarian construction, he creates the platform L’Africaine d’architecture on the line “Modernité Ancrée” where the ambition is to provide the conceptual means of architectural alternatives that value the canons, dynamics and resources of the raw materials. In 2006, he is in charge of the project of Tammari School, a school complex for 200 children, made of raw earth and mixed techniques with the population and the tamberma builders (Northern Togo, World Heritage of UNESCO).
In 2012, he becomes a defender of a “digital vernacular, when he identifies a similarity between “Ethics Hackers” and the values of traditional African societies. The #LowHighTech concept is born to emphasize this proximity and to consider an original approach to innovation issues involving modest layers. The HubCité vernacular smart city project, the WoeLab grassroot incubator and the W.Afate (the first African 3D printer, built with computer waste) are the best ambassadors for this vision of society.
Sénamé leads the network of WoeLabs (African Spaces of Technological Democracy), atypical spaces that facilitate a pool of intelligences and mix different populations that aim to use with low environmental footprint. He is mentor of a community of about thirty young boarders, co-partners of the dozen local businesses, collaborators of the #SIliconVilla program.
Another pilot programme ,# 3DprintAfrica, is deployed in the radius of one km, like many project running at WoeLab, brings fast prototyping technologies into schools and cyber-cafes with the concious concertn that Africa should not get caught into the “next Industrial Revolution”.
Sénamé is a speaker at several major conferences: Lift -Marseille, SXSW -Austin, Re: Publica -Berlin, World MakerFaire -NYC, World Forum For Responsible Economy -Lille, Sharing Khnowledge -Trieste, etc. His interest covers issues as diverse as startup culture, the Digital Revolution in Africa, Circular Economy, Collaborative Economy, Third Industrial Revolution, Maker and DIY movements, Earth Construction