Paolo Cascone grew up between the West Indies and East Africa. During his master's studies at the Architectural Association in London, he began researching urban ecologies, digital fabrication, and self-construction, which he continued while earning a PhD in environmental engineering in Rome. In 2007 he founded CODESIGNLAB, an architectural firm and design research laboratory for performative architecture and smart constructions. In the past ten years the office has developed innovative projects between Europe and Africa bridging traditional techniques and digital fabrication. More recently he was appointed scientific director of the African Fabbers School, the continent's first school of urban ecologies, self-construction, and digital fabrication. After many case studies conducted between Ghana, Morocco. Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali, the school is now based in Cameroon with a grant of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cascone’s work has been published in international design magazines and he has lectured widely.