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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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 ...

African Modernism Exhibition at Shifteye Gallery Studios Nairobi by Manuel Herz

Manuel Herz was in Nairobi early last month to open the exhibition based on his book, African Modernism, to over 100 architects and artists who showed up. The organisers, the University of Nairobi and Goethe Institute Nairobi gave the opening remarks before Manuel Herz gave his informative lecture.

Africa Architecture Awards Announces 20 Shortlists For the Inaugural 2017 Fete

The inaugural Africa Architecture Awards has just shared with us the 20 shortlisted projects out of an unprecedented 307 entered projects situated in 32 African countries.

Africa Architecture Awards 2017

The Africa Architecture Awards seek to celebrate design excellence and promote an increased awareness of the role and importance of architecture across Africa. Based on values rather than categories, the awards seek to honour established architects and encourage emerging and future voices. A ‘Critical Dialogue’ award promotes excellence in architectural writing, film and criticism and encourage...

Local Studio's Thomas Chapman Headlines Talk 02 of GSA Boogertman + Partners International Lecture Series

The second event in Boogertman + Partners continuing International Lecture Series features Thomas Chapman from Local Studio. Thomas Chapman is an architect and urban designer with over 10 years experience working in both public and private sector. He founded Local Studio and has been focussing on community participation, exploration of materials and exploring new spatial typologies in the urban...

Andrew Freear Headlines GSA Boogertman + Partners International Lecture Series 2017

The first lecture in the GSA - Boogertman+ Partners International Lecture Series 2017 is coming up! This series creates an opportunity for architectural students, professionals and those with a keen interest in architecture to hear and interact with world-class local and international speakers, whilst building a great platform for new African design voices. Please see below an invitation to the...

Shelter Afrique's 5000 for 5000 Home Competition

As Africa’s primary Housing Development Finance Institution this challenge presents an opportunity for Shelter Afrique to lead a result focused debate on how the housing market can be made to work for the more than 300m Africans including women and children who are currently unserved. But beyond the debate, we now want to work with partners to promote innovation in low income housing developmen...

Francis Kere Opens Radically Simple Exhibition

The Architekturmuseum der TU München presents »Francis Kéré. Radically Simple«, the most comprehensive exhibition yet on Kéré’s work, covering both his completed designs and his ongoing projects. In addition to the buildings that he planned and realized in his home village of Gando, the exhibition displays his buildings in Africa and China, as well as his projects and designs in Germany, where ...

AfriSam-SAIA Award 2016 announce record number of eligible submissions

AfriSam-SAIA Award 2016 is underway with a record number of submissions. The award culminates in the best sustainable and innovative work in South Africa’s building sector is acknowledged and celebrated. "With a record 47 entries in the four award categories, the overwhelming response signals a resounding endorsement of the increasing importance of sustainable and innovative design practice in ...

2016 13th Cycle Aga Khan Award for Architecture Winners Announced

Zaha Hadid Architects concrete beauty in the Beirut based , BIG’s “baby proofed park” Superkilen in Denmark and a comprehensive brick structure in Bangladesh’s Bait Ur Rouf Mosque were among the 6 winners of the Aga Khan awards announced earlier yesterday. The other winders were Cha'er Hutong Children's Library and Art Centre in Beijing, China by ZAO, standardarchitecture and Zhang Ke, A place ...

The Winners Of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science City Cairo International Competition in Egypt Announced

The London based architecture studio Weston Williamson + Partners have triumphed in an international design competition to create a Science City for Egypt. Thw winning design explores the city as an underground city with only mushrooms visible at the top. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina – a major library and cultural centre – organised the single phase, open contest to receive conceptual designs fo...

Does Makoko Floating School's Collapse Threaten Whole Slum's Future?

Like most Lagos residents, I was familiar with Makoko Floating School. Its steep, three-storey triangular roof was visible from the Third Mainland Bridge, which cuts dramatically across the Makoko lagoon, the city’s vast waterworld slum. Designed by the Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, the Floating School was the winner of multiple awards for architecture and urbanism, attracting great interna...

Collapse Or Upgrade: NLE's Statement and on the Ground Opinion

Heavy rains brought down the pyramid-shaped wooden school, built on a platform held afloat by hundreds of plastic barrels, on Tuesday. None of its nearly 50 pupils were in the building when it collapsed, officials said. Classes had already been moved to another location in late March after heavy downpours at the start of the rainy season began to affect classes. "It is not only the floating sch...

Sudanese Students Are Protesting to Save Khartoum’s Historic Architecture

Sudan student protests show how much city planning and design matter. In this article originally published in The Conversation, Amira Osman and Mariam Mohd Abdallah focus on how city planning or lack of thereof in Sudan's main capital is casuign havoc across the city's old historic neighbourhoods.

Master Plan & Architectural Design Competition of the Science City in the 6th of October City in Egypt

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt is launching a single phase, open, international competition for a “Master Plan and Conceptual Design of the Science City,” to be located in 6th of October City near Cairo. The principle missions of the future Science City will be the dissemination of scientific knowledge, the promotion of science for development and the support of scientific education and r...

African Design Centre Fellowship Opens To Applications

Mass Design Group's Bauhaus of Africa recently opened its doors in Rwanda to applications. 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 Centre to train the next generation of human-cen...

9 of the Best : Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2014-2016 Cycle Master Jury Announced

With the recent closing of Nominations for the 2014-2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture cycle, The Steering Committee and the Master Jury have been announced putting together an ensemble cast for the three year prestigious award cycle by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Network. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is given every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence i...

The Boogertman + Partners Architectural Design Scholarship Award Africa 2016 is Back

It is about that time of the year when Boogertman + Partners Launch their Partners Architectural Design Scholarship Award Africa. This Award is awarded to one individual over a period of two years, and is valued at R140 000. This award includes an individual mentorship programme for the duration of the recipient’s studies, as well as a two year work contract at Boogertman + Partners after recei...

AfriSam-SAIA Award 4 Sustainable Architecture 2016 is Now in Session

Online entries for the 2015/2016 AfriSam-SAIA Award for Sustainable Architecture + Innovation are now open and feature two new award categories. Alongside the two mainstays, Sustainable Architecture and Research in Sustainability, we now have additional categories for Sustainable Products and Technology and Sustainable Social Programmes - making the Award South Africa’s premier platform for rec...

Finding Stories :: The Role of Immaterial Culture in City Planning

On 30 January 2016, AAmatters together with its partners City of Amsterdam, Government of Zanzibar and Stadsherstel Amsterdam, organises the symposium ‘Finding Stories :: the role of immaterial culture in city planning’

Pancho Guedes, A “Legend of African Modernism Architecture, Dies at 90

Pancho Guedes, one of the pioneering architects of lusophone African architecture has just passed away at age 90. Pancho died Friday at the age of 90. Famous for his artistic look at architecture and a keen eye for spatial acquity, Pancho is famously known for his buildings such as the Smiling Lion, the Saipal Bakery, and a a host buildings across Mozambique. His work perhaps tied the modern er...

Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2015: Finalists Announced

The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) has shortlisted six innovative proposals for the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The annual international design challenge, who crowned SCAPE as winner last year, awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems.These six Finalists were selected among ov...

African Design Center; “Bauhaus of Africa”

MASS Design Group’s Rwanda Program Director, Christian Benimana, will announce his vision for a major new initiative to train Africa’s next generation of creative design talent at the UN Solutions Summit in New York City on Sunday September 27th. Benimana, who oversees the nonprofit design studio’s high-impact architectural practice across Rwanda, will present what he calls the “Bauhaus of Afri...

Autodesk Kenya Live

Autodesk Africa is coming to Nairobi once again and invites you to attend a workshop showcasing the very best in design technology software and test drive moving from AutoCAD to BIM for Build.

Egypt inaugurates Museum of Arabic Calligraphy in Alexandria

A modest Classicist-style office building within the premises of theAlexandria Museum of Fine Art has been re-designed and adapted to house a new Museum of Arabic Calligraphy. The adaptation introduced a new glass curtain wall that combines Islamic motifs with modern design, and screens off the unchanged original facade. The design, implemented in 2010, included the scenario for a new exhibiti...

GIfA Awards for Architecture 2015

Architecture is the most visible and public of the arts. An important function of all the Regional Institutes and the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) is to recognise and promote excellence in architecture and to create public awareness and debate on architectural issues. The awards programme is in support of these goals, and run in two stages over a two year period.

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair

A reference to fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, the title of 1:54 establishes the parameters of the fair’s ethos: as a platform that strives to represent multiplicity and showcase the diversity of contemporary African art and cultural production on an international stage.