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.

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Making a Case for the Renaissance of Traditional African Architecture

Last September, Nigerian Afrobeat musician Wizkid played to a sold-out house at the Royal Albert Hall in London, joining a growing list of illustrious African musicians, such as Selif Kaita, Youssou Ndour, Miriam Makeba and others, that have performed at that prestigious venue. This event affirmed the unfolding cultural renaissance across the continent, but it also signified the rising global i...

Focus : Hassan Fathy

Hassan Fathy is the default setting for social housing in architecture. He was the epitome of sustainable no pretence living, a man whose life and work spoke more to people within his community than perhaps any other architect in the world. It is perhaps with this mindset that archiDATUM launches the inaugural Series where we will FOCUS on the architects in Africa that are larger than their work.

Terra Lodge Hotel / Ramos Castellano Arquitectos

In the middle of the Atlantic ocean, in the island of Sao Vicente, in a dry windy island where only rain in August. A France trekking guide decides to build his own hotel for the incoming tourists that want to go trekking in the nearest mountain island of Santo Antao.

Urban Patios / Pedro Sousa

The Angolan urban patios explore the home as a city and the city as a home. Architecture and a city are different manifestations of the same theme. The city isn’t simply the reunion of buildings or houses; it is a big and complex building.

Mass Design Group's Documentary Made In Ilima Premieres at Architecture and Design Film Festival

On Friday, November 3rd 2017 at 9:00pm, MASS premiered a new feature-length documentary film titled Made in Ilima at the Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF)in New York City.In the center of Equator Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ilima community remains one of the most isolated in the world. They have coexisted with endangered wildlife in their surrounding forest ...

Antonio Esposito Reimagines the New City Of Mengomeyene In Equatorial Guinea With A Series Of Elaborate Graphics

In this set of hand drawings, Antonio Esposito reimagines the city of Mengomeyene in a series of Graphic images for the foundation plan of the new city in Equatorial Guinea.

Lycée Schorge Secondary School / Kere Architecture

Located in the third most populated city in Burkina Faso, the Lycée Schorge Secondary School not only sets a new standard for educational excellence in the region, it also provides a source of inspiration by showcasing locally-sourced building materials in an innovative and modern way.

UJ GSA Lecture Series: David Adjaye on Unlearning Everything and Redoing it Again

David Adjaye explored a returning to the renaissance in African architecture yesterday at the University of Johannesburg Graduate School of Architecture in an engaging heart to heart with Lesley Lokko where he implored upon the need to radically explore architecture from always the new rather than projecting upon them before the actual solution, deeper meaning or discussion of the situation is ...

The Preschool of Aknaibich / BC Architects and Studies

The Preschool of Aknaibich is only 1 classroom, nevertheless a holistic architectural design, incorporating community dynamics, bioclimatics and a new vernacular style.Aknaibich is a town in transition: the eastern old town is made of earthen constructions, sinusoid roads and narrow alleys, while the western part exists of modern, plot-based concrete houses built by rural-urban emigrants. In ne...

Dominican Chapel/ Demas Nwoko

Dominican Chapel is a landmark for the city of Ibadan. It is located in a hill with slight incline and it is surrounded with green lawns so that anyone can see the tower coming up from Oyo Road.

British Council, Freetown / Manser Practice

The British Council is perhaps the biggest export of architectural heritage across the world, comparable only in second place to the Dutch. The latest addition to the portfolio of architecture in Africa is the Freetown British council, a building that has now become synonymous with social and cultural endeavors in Sierra Leone. The building alludes to clean and entrenched values of embassies bu...

Foster + Partners Ventures into Rwanda with a Droneport Project to Save Lives

Lord Foster has launched proposals for the Droneport project in Africa to support cargo drone routes capable of delivering urgent and precious supplies to remote areas on a massive scale. The project is a collaboration between Redline partners led by Afrotech, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL); the Norman Foster Foundation; and Foster + Partners.

St Jerome’s Children's Centre / Orkid Studio

Built with a diverse group from a small Kikuyu community in the rapidly developing agricultural outskirts of Nakuru, Kenya, we have recently completed a new home which will house local disadvantaged and abandoned children. Challenging the typology of the typical African orphanage where children sleep en mass in large dormitories, the new home limits each room to just four children providing amp...

MNBH Museum of Earth Architecture_Sama and Kasa / BC Architecture and Studies

Sama & Kasa (high and low in the Hausa language) is the project we presented for the pavilion, to promote earth architecture, in the national museum Boubou-Hama in Niamey. Logically the project was inspired by the vernacular architecture of Niger. It contains characteristics of traditional materials, techniques and forms to obtain a contemporary architecture in harmony with the local culture.

Africa Design Center: Training New Generation of Creative Leaders

As Africa’s cities experience explosive growth, the continent will need designers to build critical infrastructure in a sustainable way. Otherwise, health and environmental crises will undermine the continent’s potential. MASS is creating the African Design Center to train the next generation of human-centered designers. Watch Christian Benimana, MASS' Rwanda Programs director present his visio...

Sinthian Thread Arts Cultural Centre / Toshiko Mori Architect TMA

The design of the Sinthian Cultural Centre is described as a parametric transformation of the traditional pitched roof, which is literary inverted to collect rainwater. The construction of this structure is found in a remote Senegalese village of Sinthian, close to the Mali border. This construction, begun by the New York Studio of Toshiko Mori, is designed in collaboration with two non-profit ...

Malabo New St. Isabel International Airport / Independent Architectural Diplomacy IAD

The MSI New International Airport is the first and last place of exchange between the traveler and his land host; in essence, a large door and approach. From this point of view, the building needs to be prestigious and express the culture and identity of the city or the country it represents, just as a monument, a public place or an official building. At the same time, it is a symbol of technol...

Primary School Tanouan Ibi / LEVS Architecten

Situated in a remote village in the vast plains of the Dogon country in Mali, Tanouan Ibi Primary School is a perfect example of a design that is innovative, sustainable, functional, practical while still remaining authentic to its context. The school has a single-block typology consisting of three classrooms measuring 7 x 9 meters that can hold a total 180 pupils, a principal’s office, a depot...

The Plight of African Vernacular Architecture

African vernacular architecture experiences very little to none online documentation. This trend is even more pronounced by the rapidly disappearing of the said architecture, abandoned for Western materials, designs and techniques. In an effort to remedy this, architect Jon Sojkowski created a data base displaying images from every African country. His goal is to create a central website showc...

Seth Mokitini Methodist Seminary / Boogertman + Partners

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...

Embassy of the Netherlands / Dick Van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek

The new Embassy of the Netherlands is a building that thrives within its environment, seeking new ways to deal with both the thermal nemesis and the contextual significance of a growing architectural language in Ethiopia's stone architecture. It is a vision that is intended to set an example for a sensitive and sustainable approach towards existing natural and landscape values in Ethiopia

Soweto Theatre / Afritects

You rarely see the impact that social projects ground upon their environment until you hit the ground running. The Soweto theatre is one such project. Setting foot on it is an absolute marvel. It is an art piece in itself and a canvas for art, a duality that theatres have been known for. The theatre is the culmination of both national and global best practices in theatre design. Various local a...

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

Hassan Fathy would be proud standing on one side of the red sea and glaring into the yonder, eyes fixed on the red adobe architecture replication of his ideas into the El Gouna Hotel resort in Egypt’s hot and humid air. It is a oxymoron idea into architecture, using locally affordable materials and technology to create a luxurious environment for the well-heeled, trying to adopt a cultural and ...

Honoring Wangari Maathai: The Epitome of Sustainable Influence

“When fire breaks out in a huge forest, all the animals flee, except the hummingbird. The little bird flies back and forth, its beak filled with water. The other animals are terrified into inaction. When asked what the hummingbird can possibly do with its small beak, the little bird answers, “I am doing the best I can. I certainly don’t want to be like the animals watching as the planet goes do...

Umubano Primary School/ MASS Design

In 2007, UK charity A Partner In Education (APIE), as part of its mission to boost education in Africa, committed to building a new school campus in the Kigali neighbourhood of Kabeza to replace dilapidated existing facilities. MASS was brought on board to select the new site, design the new educational facility, as well as assist in building the organizational structure to support the educatio...

The Assinie-Mafia Catholic Church / Koffi & Diabaté Architectes

The small town of Assinie-Mafia is typified by modesty, low cost structures and a bright hopeful community are synonymous to such African developing towns. Tropical heat is always a concern in such environments and sustainability is a major concern to the architects. Tapping into the zeitgeist of the context, Koffi & Diabaté Architectes designed a magnificent church which transforms a pract...

Azur Pavilion/ Koffi & Diabaté Architectes

For this project, Koffi and Diabate Architects created a pavilion that mediates in a holiday home situated at the seafront. With three main structures, a well-landscaped courtyard and a large swimming pool, the development incorporates a range of facilities including African and European cuisines, hotel suites, indoor sports and sauna, and servant spaces organised within an open plan.

Cove 6 – Pezula Knysna/ SAOTA

Designing out of context and non site-specific projects has been one of the most criticized approach of modern architecture. It follows then in these modern days a project brief that requires the integration of design into its locality, site and context is not a walk in the park. The challenge is even more pronounced when the architects wants to make a statement of the current time, materials a...

Mtamu Kililo and the Brick by Brick Battle in the Savanna: Voi Community Library

It’s viewed that most traditional buildings and especially in the African continent are sympathetic to the environment they are located in and uses low tech local available materials. However, due to globalization and high technological standards these buildings have been associated with primitivism and branded elementary. In Africa people have universal standards, technology and design that ar...

Butaro Hospital/ MASS Design Group

In January 2011, the Rwandan Ministry of Health and Partners In Health (PIH) opened the 140-bed Butaro Hospital in the Burera District of Rwanda. Burera District, which has a population of over 340,000, has historically had very poor health indicators compared to other areas of Rwanda and is one of the most impoverished districts in the country. Prior to PIH’s arrival in 2007, Burera was one of...