László Mester de Parajd

László Mester de Parajd was born in Budapest in 1949, then his family left Hungary in 1957 and came to Paris in 1958. László Mester de Parajd first studied mathematics for two years before starting to study architecture in 1970.

During the holidays, he undertook numerous trips which took him for the first time in 1971 to Niger. Upon completion of his studies, he designed a leper colony for which he spent another three months in 1975 in the African country. In 1977, he finally moved with his wife to Niger, as had been sent by the French Ministry of Cooperation to work in Niger's Ministry of Construction.

Mester de Parajd planned the construction of the Office Nigerien de l'Energie Solaire (ONERSOL), a solar energy research institute located in the capital Niamey. The building was completed in 1981 and was shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. By incorporating forms and materials from Niger's building tradition, the ONERSOL building is already typical of the architect's later style.

In the 1980s he designed other representative buildings in Niger, such as the Niamey Literacy Directorate (1981), the Agadez Courthouse (1982), the Tahoua Town Hall (1984) and the Court of Niamey (1985). Mester de Parajd then returned to France where in 2000 he became chief engineer of the French Development Agency.

In 2014, he received the architect prize at the Salon d'Automne. László Mester de Parajd is also honorary consul of Hungary in Rouen and president of the Hungarian Protestant Church in France.

He is a member of the Society of Africanists.