 Hi, my name is Sandy Bear, and I'm from the Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement. And we are pleased tonight to present this wonderful artist on architecture in Africa. And we have with us Diane Gayer, who was fortunate enough to bring her here to this town to exhibit her art and her film. And also with us is Erika Nero, who is also from Vicky. And I'm going to allow you to introduce our guest, right? Thank you. Diane. Thank you, Sandy. So I met Amelie Essase through the International Women in Architecture organization. I think we said seven years ago. And Amelie's been a professional architect for over 20 years. In the field of management, restoration, conservation, and valorization of African heritage. We had made a connection and over time thought maybe, and she's, and I invited her to Vermont for a week to bring her film on women's work in construction and earthen architecture in three West African countries. The Niger, the Cameroon, and the Ivory Coast, Bocrina Faso, sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm getting confused. And she especially went into earthen architecture because of working with the women in construction and it very much inspired her research as she went forward as an architect. She's worked for 15 years with UNESCO World Heritage on some of these projects. And she's made several films as well as written books, especially for children on what it means to create, you know, hands-on in architecture and earthen constructions. And so we're really happy to show the film. We've showed it at the University of Vermont this week, but this Vicki program is very special and we're happy that CCTA has been offering us this space. And that's my introduction for Amélie. Do you want to say something before the film? No, you are good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And thank you for coming. Thank you. We're happy to show the film. We want to show the whole film and then we'll have a discussion. Women Builders of Africa showcases and encourages the participation of women in construction, public works, engineering, town planning, rehabilitation, and the preservation of cultural heritage. The association helps promote women involved in building. Women Builders has the goal of broadcasting their expertise and integrating them as partners in land planning. Our organization, Batir et Dévelopé, Build and Develop, proposes four programs of which one is women builders. This program's objective is to help enhance women's image in construction. It spreads the knowledge of and promotes their expertise in the context of transferring knowledge and of sustainable development. The African continent is full of exceptional architectural typologies changing along ethnic lines. Earthen architecture is differentiated according to various construction techniques that depend on local geography and climate. Monumental, urban or rural or even minimalist architecture vary along the lines of form, technique and customs. Builders tell their stories through their expertise and their history. In the goal of bearing witness to these women's accomplishments, the Batir et Dévelopé team suggested setting up an educational construction site to renovate and decorate an earthen home. The objective is to know and transmit expertise and to research best practices for sustainability, preservation, maintenance and the promotion of iconic earthen architecture. Our film will take you to three countries to meet three different groups of people in which the women sometimes practice the same skills, mostly without knowing of each other. Usually, the women organize the tasks within a building site or to renovate an earthen construction. The most senior woman manages logistics. Another woman will be the project manager handling the requirements and sometimes also participating in the labor. Each knowledge expert has a specialty, for example, preparing binding agents, mud coating, paints with natural pigments and drawing graphics that may include relief engraving. They are the main players and teach the younger people. This expertise is transmitted from generation to generation. It is an intergenerational building site. This video tells a story of female builders in specific locations in Cameroon, Niger, Burkina Faso. In each location, they got together for an educational construction site that week after week turned into a true adventure. The Musgoom live about 1,250 kilometers away from Yaounde, Cameroon's capital in Marrois, in the far north province of the country, on the banks of the Lagoon River at the border with Chad. They created a spectacular type of architecture that resembles a mortar shell called a teluk. The layout is a perfect circle. There is neither framework nor support of any type nor a foundation. The shell is self-supporting. The teluk's construction technique is that of clay and straw mortar architecture. Water is poured into earth along with suksuki, a specific plant, and cow or goat dung. The mixture is needed until it has good plasticity. Then it is turned into balls that are the building blocks of the construction. The women who work on this building mold it like a pottery piece and prove their dexterity in the field of earthen construction. The decorative moldings are used as a clever scaffolding and water runoff system, as well as a buttress. It is architectural handwriting. Women transmitted this expertise to men. The self-supporting dome can reach a height of 15 meters. The granary is the centerpiece of the compound. Each living unit has a specific purpose. The unit of the family chief, the wife, initiation or hiding place, cattle space, kitchen. The grouping is enclosed by a perimeter wall, protecting it from external attacks. The compound is spacious. There is one single door in the shape of a warrior's shield and a zenithal opening, a sort of chimney covered with a straw hat. Inside the teluk is decorated by women. The furnishing is shaped and built in, along with the wall, alcoves, partitions, benches, beds, spaces for the cattle, and more. The Musgum-Teluk architecture is proof of a true artistic exploration, as well through the choice of placement in a natural location, as through its mastery of shape and the attention to detail. However, these Musgum homes are threatened. Less and less of them are built, and the expertise is fast disappearing. What can we do to sustain these truly self-supporting units that can be up to 15 meters high? In western Niger, in the Tilaberi region, female builders work in the 14 islands of the Niger River. They hail from a variety of ethnicities—Songai, Germa, Zarma, Wogo, Hausa, Tuareg, Pearls, and Bellas. Their architectural practice includes earthen coatings and decorations. Every island has its own identity, thanks to the coatings prepared by these women. On the Ayoru Gugum Island, we set up another educational site. The local people decided to rehabilitate the earthen home of Jean Rouge, built in the 1970s. As elsewhere, construction tasks are distributed. Men handle the basic construction work, and the women apply the coating and the decor. They also rehabilitate when needed. Each woman knows which task is assigned to her. The younger group observes the elders and learns. The first task is to make the coating. The women bring mud from the river to ensure that the water genies will make it solid and protected. This river mud is mixed with dry earth from the soil, water, and manure. Those who know how to do it show the others how to need the mixture. The mixture must rest an entire night. The next morning, more and more women, young girls and children, come either just to look on or to participate in the work. The island is crowded, and the scene is colorful, thanks to the various fabrics worn by the people. The mix of earth and manure, needed once more, is spread upon the house's façade. The women smooth this first coating, which must be smooth and even. It is left to dry for 24 hours before adding a second identical coat. It must be diligently smoothed out so that it is uniform. It's time to decorate the walls. The experts bought natural pigments in the market to create the colors. We have here the clay, the clay that we have left from the river, the clay that we have left from the river. Of course, we have the other side, a substance of blue color that comes from Acacia fruit. This is what we use to have this blue substance. Now we mix them together so that it gives a more French color, this gray color that has the effect of cement. And this liquid that we pass on to the surface of the house, it allows to give a very beautiful color, and it also allows to have very smooth surfaces. The women also need to make a perfectly white coating, symbol of purity and renewal. To obtain this pure white, they mix limestone, pureed wheat, ash, and the juice of slimy leaves. Once the house is covered in white, Zelia Mido, the decor specialist, draws geometric patterns and Suleiman does the animal and people drawings. The house is done in a festive atmosphere. It is positively shining. The Muzerugay Fuhr, or Jean Rouge House, is also called the White House. In just eight days, thanks to the women's collective work, the house has regained its previous splendor. In Kandaji, the electrical dam project will submerge these Niger River artistic islands. How can we preserve this expertise? In Bukina Faso, in the Cassena region, land of the Gurunsi, a people located between the southern Bukina Faso border and northern Ghana, the fortified urban architecture is exceptional. Tiebele is located 178 kilometers away from Ouagadougou, the country's capital in the Nahuri province. It is a rural town that is home to a royal court, representing the rich cultural heritage of the Cassena. Elements linked to history and intangible cultural aspects form part of this space. At the entrance, the Sacred Hill and the Sacred Red Fig Tree. Inside, the Sacred Baobab Tree, along with several areas of worship. The different architectural shapes forms with double-lobed or triple-lobed forms, rectangles or cones, represent either living spaces or spaces with well-defined uses. The royal court is a true labyrinth. Low walls mark private spaces, partially open spaces, spaces open with codes known only to the court inhabitants. The relationship with the environment, the natural materials used, clay, laterite, painting agents, natural pigments, fibers, the presence of animals, the relationship with ancestors, and the rituals form an important cultural space characteristic of this heritage. This can be called a link between heaven and earth. The Cassena have a unique and specific space for women. It's located to the west of the compound in order to respect the setting sun, symbolizing women as well as being associated with the moon. The home of a woman and her children is always spatially organized the same way, whatever the size. Its construction is usually circular, with round units with flat roofs, which are joined together by groupings of two or three. This is called a double-lobed or triple-lobed shape. The first room could be a multifunctional room for living or sleeping when there is no third room. Its small semi-elliptical door marks it along with the low wall protecting the space from water runoff or animals. To enter the home, yikes, you have to bend down and walk on all fours. This shows the earth is due respect and thanks it for holding the home such symbolism. You also need to go down 20 cm so that the earth's coolness can spread to all the rooms. Such ingenuity. This area is lit through a zenithal light located above the millstone for crushing grains. This light illuminates the well-organized interior and the smooth decorated walls. There is a pantry and built-in furniture, a bench, bed, piled-up pottery. The second room is the kitchen, accessed through the first room, also through an elliptical door. The kitchen contains a hearth on two fixed legs and a movable one. In order to change its width according to the size of the pot, there is also a granary. Smoke escapes through an opening in the roof over the hearth and also plays the role of zenithal lighting. The terrace roof is also multifunctional. It is used to dry grain and spices or as an outdoor bedroom. You can reach it by a wooden or earthen staircase. These double or triple-lobed homes point towards an empty space, the interior courtyard. There is an external kitchen, built-in benches, chicken coop, small livestock. Other small courtyards extend the space of each housing unit. As for the men's space, the men's symbol is the east, where the sun rises. This is the time when his workday starts outside of the compound. His home is a simple rectangular room with a flat roof, furnished with an earthen built-in bed. It is located in his first wife's courtyard. The bachelor's housing is round with a straw roof. It also functions as guest housing. The granary is conical with a straw roof. The local earthen building techniques, there are two of them. Cob style clay and straw mortar using hand rolled balls of earth. This used to be used for everything, but nowadays is used for the granaries, external kitchens and chicken coops. The adobe style technique is used for the housing units. However, some homes are deteriorating and in some cases they're completely destroyed. Technical and sustainable solutions are needed while preserving the expertise. As in Niger, the Casino woman builders participate in the creation and application of coatings, as well as the decorations which represent symbolic messaging. To start off, we decided to think about testing earthen coatings in an adobe building in the capital, Wagadougou. Some of our team members are bachelor's degree architecture students. We tried out several mixes, some of which contained lime in order to repair the cracks. We made three layers of coating. As we were satisfied with the results, we decided to share them with the Casino women builders of the Tiebelé Royal Court. We jointly organized a workshop to exchange techniques and research. We discussed and decided on a course of action. We made a preliminary visit to the Royal Court in order to view the premises and to determine the location of the educational building site. They're very organized. The Casino women builder experts show us their expertise. Thanks to their participation, we restored in several stages a wall, as well as the decorative symbols. There is a judicious choice of natural materials and simple tools. The materials that are usually used are natural clay, lateritic soil, black graphite earth, ash, cow dung, nere stocks, fibers, and leaves. The usual tools used by the women are a flat pebble, a bouquet of guinea fowl feathers used as a paintbrush, brushes, a sieve, a long broom, pots, and pestles. The implementation process for the protective coating follows the same stages as for meal preparation, and the general atmosphere is also similar to that of an outside meal preparation. Each type of ingredient represents one stage in the practice of the women builders. After removing and cleaning the wall's surface, several layers of coating are applied. The first coating is made of cow dung, water, and gray clay. It is propelled on to the humidified wall and is then spread around by pressing it in with the palm of the hand and then smoothing it. The second coating is made of cow dung, lateritic soil powder, applied by pressing it on and smoothed by using a moistened flat pebble. The reliefs engraving is traced finely and smoothed with the same pebble as previously. As for paints, black paint is made with black graphite powder, which is natural carbon, mixed with slimy leaves. It's applied using the guinea fowl feather bouquet, either on or between the grooves. White paint is made with moistened limestone powder, applied in chosen intervals between the areas painted in black. For waterproofing, Nere's stocks are boiled and pressed to make a liquid, which is propelled onto the wall, thus waterproofing it. All the decorations are symbolic forms representing elements of Casena daily life. Casena women builders perpetuate an expertise, thus guaranteeing the Casena cultural identity. After this process, we suggested testing new mixes with materials such as lime, gum Arabic, and Nere juice. Several tests were carried out. Thanks to the results, we have several promising avenues to follow. During our research workshop in the Royal Court, 100 young girls from 10 Tiabele Rural District High Schools also came to learn alongside the Casena female builders thanks to a competition called Dora, organized by the Desenidani Association of Tiabele. The entire Tiabele Royal Court was filled with educational activities, transmitting expertise and methods for creating earthen coatings and decorations using natural pigments. It was a true intergenerational transmittal, interrelational, and humanistic in a folkloric atmosphere. Traditional songs and dances accompanied the entire process. We continue our research on solutions for coatings using local materials in the goal of preserving this earth architecture heritage. The restored walls respect the expertise of the women builders. They would like to continue working with us in the search for solutions to better preserve this site from the effects of climatic and anthropogenic changes. We are but at the beginning of a wonderful human and heritage-related adventure. The expertise of women builders deserves to be known, promoted, and supported. It proves the ingenuity and their creativity as much in research as in transmittal of knowledge. It contributes to safeguard heritage that is material as well as intangible. I'm going to start with our panel in terms of questions. I have that question. Yeah, so are we ready? Should I go ahead? Okay, okay, Sandy, yes, please. I had this similar question when this film was presented at the University of Vermont. Two questions. One, is this a structure that is more conducive to a rural space rather than an urban space, or is it architecture and structure that could be adapted to an urban space? I'm going to continue, yeah, okay. So as an architecture, can we adapt to urbanization or is it mainly for rural landscapes? No, it's both. We can very well adapt this architecture in the city because there is still this type of architecture in the city a little less today. But when I met Agadougou 20 years ago, there were all these architectures in the city. And so this village is a royal court. At the time, 20 years ago, when we entered the village, we still saw a lot of houses. Today, with the advent of urbanization and especially the cement material, because we have always said that the land was not good for the construction. People have more and more abandoned this architectural practice to make modern architecture but which is not at all adapted. And we come back 25 years today to this architecture which can be adapted very easily in the city, et cetera. So I'm going to continue a little bit. Okay, so there was a lot explained, but yes, the existing cities 20 years ago had more of this architecture still intact within the cities. And it's been the loss of that that's also been part of the loss of the heritage du patrimoine. But the part of the point of the film is to show the heritage and to learn from that so that it can be adapted into urbanized situations. And especially because the competition is concrete structures, this is a lot safer construction in terms of adapting to climate and a much better situation. But over these recent years, of course with urbanization, the pressure has been to do other things than this. And so the old structures have fallen down a little bit and been abandoned in certain cases. C'est à peu près. But I may add that, you know, this also is a problem of having a conversation between the two worlds. These are ancient techniques that have been preserved in a rural area for most of them. And then in the beginning of urbanization in Africa. But if you have seen in the movies, they were architects, students architects, meaning that they are also open to new techniques. So there is a need for a conversation between the two but most of the countries were under colonization. Attends, mais je suis traduit, oui. Okay. Ah, j'ai compris. So the problem is for a long time those techniques were considered not modern and had that idea of a knack-world world from the past. And then everybody went into concrete but everybody went also into concrete because the French companies, when it comes to the French colonial power, I mean empire, the English companies were there also to sell everything that is around concrete. So for a long time architecture was only about the ways built in the Western world and looking at your own ways of building as something that is not acceptable. Now we hope that the new generation of architects will bring these materials that were there also because if you live in those herds or in those houses, there's no need for a conditioning system. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, and that's the shifting world that we're all having to fight and work with. Yeah. You had another question? Yeah, the other question was it seems that this is more like communal space and architecture for a community rather than for instance in this country, architecture is often based on housing and villages are based on private property, a single house for a single family rather than an extended family. So is this more like a communal, the building of a real community or communal space rather than the kind of Western tradition of everybody in their own house and in their own space and a nuclear family structure rather than an extended family structure? You understand a little the question. And also if it's, not only if it's communal, like at the beginning in practice, but of conscience in comparison to architecture, what, modern or it's basically chacun et c'est très privé. Très privé. Oui. Dans les villages, aujourd'hui, la communauté existe, ça c'est sûr, mais on a tendance aujourd'hui à devenir aussi individualiste. On a sa maison, même si c'est ouvert, il y a semi ouvert, c'est-à-dire qu'avec le développement des villes, chacun a sa maison, la grande barrière, et on s'enferme, donc point de vue de sécurité, peut-être. Et comme je disais tout à l'heure, moi j'ai connu mon village qui est devenu un grand quartier populaire à Douala, au Cameroon. Et il y a 20 ans, on n'avait pas les barrières. On rentrait d'une maison à une autre, etc. On allait chez Tonton. Et la ville, les populations sont venues, la ville s'est développée, et aujourd'hui on a les barrières. Mais c'est notre village, même si bien qu'il soit populaire, pour nous c'est notre village, mais c'est un quartier populaire aujourd'hui. Et donc c'est ça qui s'est passé. Et pourquoi, pourquoi ce truc? Je suis triné un petit peu. Vraiment je... Je pallède. I lose the thread. So 20 years ago, for example, where Amélie lived, there weren't any barriers, there weren't any walls, there weren't any separations. And you could go next door, you could go in and out of your familial zone as well as your greater neighborhood zone. And now of course all that privatization has come in, and there are many reasons for it, but there is that push towards individuality that's taken hold as well. And... Oui, tu peux continuer. Pourquoi c'est venu un peu comme ça? Il y a eu l'urbanisation qui est là, mais toujours est-il que bon moi je traverse la roue pour aller chez grand-père, et dans la famille, dans la maison du grand-père, on a des générations, on a l'oncle, on a les enfants, mes cousins, etc. Donc il y a quand même la cellule familiale qui reste toujours. Même si on est dans la vie, on a quand même cette cellule familiale qui a été là parce que nous sommes des autochtones. Pourquoi aussi ce travail? C'est pour dire que dans beaucoup d'écoles d'architecture, moi j'ai fait mes études en France, et on n'a pas eu l'occasion de discuter avec cette architecture, nous étant jeunes étudiants, et j'avais besoin de connaître les techniques de construction pour pouvoir justement aller vers une architecture durable, identitaire, sociale, et culturelle, et que cette ville africaine soit aussi représentative de son patrimoine. At one point in terms of the proximity of her family nucleus was very intact in relationship with grandparents and so forth. But as she went and studied in France, architectural studies aren't based on this kind of heritage, and you lose your identity when you enter into another system, and it's all about that, and as an architect I do know that myself, that you're trained a certain way, and while you're in school you can't really question that training. So it takes a moment for you to go back and reclaim who you are, and in this case you go back and you reclaim your own family heritage and your systems within the countryside that you grew up in, and you bring that forward, and that becomes the conversation between the past and the future. But I think all civilizations, even the western world, have gone through different stages. Of course. You know, in Europe or in Asia, if you go to Greece, you still have these houses that take you back in time, but everywhere people have had the luxury to decide how to evolve. No, I would not say everywhere. No, I mean somehow. Somehow, like in Africa, this discussion between the past and the future, or today has not been made, because at some point there was an accident, which was colonization, which came to, and all the friends that I've had who are architects have learned the way it's built today, but they were not given the chance to take these ancient techniques and to go to the modern world with it. It's not that Africa wants only to build this way. We want to build the modern way, but using these techniques, using these materials freely. Or the knowledge. Without being told that you are a bank of savages who are in the past and just using mud or clay, we could build a new city that is in between. It's a mix of all the techniques that we learned today freely. It's a matter of sovereignty. It's important in developing your own city. So, Eric, we have that situation with other examples. And I want to also see if any audience questions. But like I think of Paolo Solari in the southwestern desert of the U.S., he too isn't accepted and he was trying to build a future called an arcology. And using new techniques, old techniques, it's not accepted in the west, just as it's not accepted. Back to other places too. So I think that pushback is valid, but it engages all of us. It engages all of us. Because people in the west, including in the United States, have not been allowed either to form their own structures or their own communities. Essentially, I shouldn't say that. I suppose our economic system has shaped how we live. And that's an economic system that also shapes people in the west as much as people, not as much probably as people in Africa, because Africa is loaded down with colonialization. But it's not like western peoples have been allowed to develop their own architecture or community either. So it's a brutal situation for any architecture, school, or writing, or everything to emerge. Right. OK. So... Yes. I wanted to add that it's also the focus with women, because it's important. In my training, I did civil engineering before. I built it before, so I did technical training. And when I did my baccalaureate in my first year, I couldn't go to a field because I was a woman. And we're in France, we're not in Africa. And when I left Burkina Faso, I saw the organization. The men, well, in this case, in Burkina, in the construction of the population, because what I also wanted to say is that Africa has 44 countries. Black Africa, South Africa, and Australia. So we need to know that in one region, the territorial typology is not the same as in the other. So we can't centralize Burkina, it's Africa. No, it's not possible. It's like I said, the United States is the vermouth. So we also have to accept that Africa has a lot of countries, and that it's not a country. And so this region, which is the Burkina Faso's Casenade... I'm very good. So as a reminder, Africa is a continent, and it has 49 countries. And it's like saying that Vermont is the same as Southern California, and most of us know that that's not true. And we're states, and we're not even different countries, and the regional climatic differences and cultural differences across a continent are huge. But to circle back for a minute, Emily, in 1989, it was before that. But at some point, during her studies in France, because she was a woman, she wasn't allowed to do fieldwork, site work. And she was also first in engineering before architecture. And that's part of the reason why coming back to the women that she met, doing earthen construction, was relevant, is because they were women working on site, working with materials and working in building. And so she learned from that a very different modality than was being pushed in France. Also because, well, I haven't learned African architecture in Africa, or in a school of architecture in Europe. But in any case, for me, it was important, it was my question, if I go back to Africa, in one of the countries, what kind of architecture am I going to do? Who am I, as an individual, an architect, a woman, an African, and who loves materials? And so for me, I had to know who I was, and through this exchange with the populations that formed me at the beginning, on the architecture of land, bamboo architecture, ecological architecture, that I was able to have this conversation with African architecture. In any case, some typologies, the techniques, so here it's the land, but I know bamboo, the leaves, etc. I myself, in my culture, in the south of Cameroon, we build with banana leaves. So I'm also learning. I'm a hopper. So as an architect, she had to reclaim... I needed to go to know the architectural typologies, to be able to have the conversation with modern architecture today. So to learn, to do research on the different typologies of architecture within different regions of Africa, allowed her to have the conversation with modern architecture and what might be adaptable, what might be relevant to the future within urbanization in Africa, but I offer in other parts of the world, too. And you did a special presentation back earlier this year in the Southwest, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos, and had very intense conversations about those materials with the materials that you knew and the diversity of materials that you knew. It's interesting, talking about the Southwest, that is asking, are you able to compare these architectural and decorative techniques with those found in the United States? I'm impressed that you can read that from here. Is that Beth Sacks? Yes. Yes, he's in Bishop. Oh, that's the people. Bishop? Okay. So the question is that connection with the Southwest. Yes. I make a workshop, I did a workshop in the case of the Congress in June, and it was the same technique. And she presented her film as well in Albuquerque and had a great reception about the film, and she was very keen on the workshop as well. And you had people mixing the adobe and also the bulls, the cobs. Except for the restoration techniques, but not the decorations. But they didn't have time for the decorations. I did a little workshop with the Arabic gum that I brought. I bring gum, Arabic, to mix with different colors and create the skim, what would you call it, the finish? Finishing? Yeah. And yet they didn't actually apply that entirely. Yeah. Moving forward. Joan, do you have a question? Do you have comments? I know I have admiration. I love a question. It's like the same. But my question is, how do you now move forward? Because we're living in a very interesting time, which is everybody now thinks about climate change, how to adapt to climate change, and it looks like these people knew already how to adapt to the climate by using clay or your earth to build. How can we use it? How can we bring it in our new world? And how can the conversation be, as you said, not only a conversation among Africans, but a conversation around the world and how these techniques can be used to adapt to climate change? Yes. You know, there's a third of the population in the world who live in an ecological house on earth. So a third of the world already lives in... Earth and climate-adapted construction. A third? A third. It's true. Most of the developing countries, correct? Yes. I'll just add, it's around the Mediterranean basin. It's in one of the plateaus in China. This is something that I did a lot of studies on. So I followed it, and it's surprising how much of it exists, but we just don't see it. And we don't see it in our magazines and illustrations. And certainly, we really don't see any of the adapted, sustainable ways of living in any of our movies. It's not in the media. Yes, but today, we're starting because it's been 10 years. There are a lot of land structures that are being built, in any case, in France, which I know. A lot of the Olympic Games of 2024 present this. A lot of studies on the architecture of land in Europe, particularly in Africa, in France, which I know. And it's quite interesting because it's been 20 years. It's a project, a library of land. 25 years ago, my diploma. We said, no, it's not possible. It's not possible because it is Earth architecture. No, we have... And now... So France has been experimenting, and I know that even from the 70s, with rammed Earth. But she did a project 25 years ago for a library in France with rammed Earth. In Africa or France? In Africa. But we do see this different places. It's just not changing the landscape of what we know. So I think that's why this is interesting, is because it's bringing it forward as a conversation to affect our expectations and as currently a way to rethink what we're doing in terms of climate. Right. So we have just a couple of minutes left. Do we have any other questions from... Now, yeah, sax. I think I may have heard my name mentioned. Was there a question? We thought about you, just thinking about you. Okay. So, the last words before... The last word, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so much. And the project... It's very difficult here in China. I lost my words. It's very emotional. I would like to thank the populations who welcomed me and all those who helped me because this film is made of small hands and no subvention at all. I want to continue because it's also about being with you. I want to continue working on this world-class theme. Today's architecture, climate change, preservation of a heritage, but also people with good living conditions, and the economy. Because we can't preserve a heritage film without thinking about the economy, that people eat it. So that's all. And I think this continent is wonderful and shows the beauty of the continent. That's what I'm saying. That's what we're talking about. And today, we can participate in the ecological architecture through these resources. Thank you. Thank you. I'll start with a tale of that. So, bringing beauty back into things, which we tend to forget to do, especially when we're worried about economic things or transfer of technologies. But the beauty of Africa is critical to know because it's very vibrant and it's part of its spiritual existence, which we've talked about a lot, the spiritual existence of some of this making of earth and architecture. But all of that goes to a very critical thinking by Emily of the women, the people that she worked with through these projects and over this time, because without them, this wouldn't exist. And as much as thanking everyone in Vermont that she's met, it's really about the women that she worked with. And what the film represents is many, many hands coming together to make it. There was no support for making the film. It was really done by individuals coming together and Emily's talent and courage. And we really thank you for being here with us and hope you come back soon. Yeah, I'm very proud to have an architect also coming from Africa because we tend to think that Africa only provides refugees and people that are plagued by war. We have people that want to participate in the universal, in the global debate. It is time now that we stop militarism and then we start discussing as brothers and sisters because we have a fantastic, it's urgent but we have a fantastic opportunity to do that is how to battle climate change, how to bring back peace. It's important that we open that discussion. And also Vicky hopes to do that, correct? The Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement really thanks you for coming. This is a wonderful presentation. Thank you so much. And our little Vicky will be back soon with other interesting and presentations about beauty. So join us soon. Thank you.