Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary / Boogertman + Partners

Architects: Boogertman + Partners Architects
Location: Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa
Interior Décor: Boogertman + Partners
Project Year: 2012
Photographer: Boogertman + Partners
Website: www.boogertman.com

- 15 July 2015
- Edwin Seda Ajwang' Robert
Religious Centres , Communal Centres , Modern Africana , Contemporary African Directory , Africana , Selected Works ,

Religious architecture has and will always be on of the closets way to deity, the tenets manifest themeselves in all aspects godly and the faithfuls daily invent new ways to approach religion through these spaces. The Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary is no different and Boogertman + Partners have managed to demonstrate this through an architectural language that is intentional, contemporary and absolutely malignant in the mind that upholds it. The building is described as being uncompromisingly modern with concepts derived from the classics, just like Jesus preached from the old text things that were difficult to swallow from his contemporaries. This building challenges the stereotypes that relegate Africa's place in modern history to a nostalgic imaginary past.

Africa must be unapologetic about learning from other cultures, for no culture has ever grown without the contribution of other cultures. Here the architecture strides to reflect an international language in an African dialect. While Europe and her Western counterparts have done a great deal in industrializing and militarizing the world, herewith the missing contribution from Africa... GIVING THE WORLD A HUMANE FACE...

CLICK TO REVIEW LINKED STORY

Karura Forest Environmental Education Centre / Boogertman + Partners.
The winning entry in an open competition to design an environmental education center in the Karura urban forest in Nairobi, Kenya. Located in the northern part of Nairobi County, bordering the Muthaiga, Gigiri and Runda residential areas, the Centre will seek to educa...

- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...
- © Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary_Boogertman + P...

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

If you want your own avatar and keep track of your discussions with the community, sign up to archiDATUM >>

SELECTED WORKS

- British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice
- 12 Nov 2015
The British Council is perhaps the biggest export of architectural heritage across the world, comparable only in second place to the Dutc...
- Making a Case for the Renaissance of Traditional African Architecture
- 08 Mar 2018
Last September, Nigerian Afrobeat musician Wizkid played to a sold-out house at the Royal Albert Hall in London, joining a growing list o...
- National Theater of Equatorial Guinea / Independent Architectural Diplomacy IAD
- 16 May 2015
Designed for one of the smallest countries in middle Africa, the National Theatre of Equatorial Guinea acts as a cultural hub sited in th...

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIRECTORY

- AACCSA Headquarters / BC Architects
- 27 Apr 2015
Urbanism, in common perception, comes before architecture: urbanism creates potential by generating conditions to orchestrate the city’s ...
- UJ GSA Lecture Series: David Adjaye on Unlearning Everything and Redoing it Again
- 11 Aug 2017
David Adjaye explored a returning to the renaissance in African architecture yesterday at the University of Johannesburg Graduate School ...
- Ecological house in Gambia / Virai Arquitectos
- 01 May 2017
At the seaside just outside Tujereng, west Gambia, a house has been built for a family of three children and some bungalows to accommodat...