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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Looking Up / Francesco Bonanomi, Michael Goldoni, Riccardo Bovo

Cult, introspection, spirituality, rest, identity: these are some of the themes translated through an architectural perspective to design a versatile space which can serve several varieties of cult. This is the place where every visitor can seek his own spirituality through an experience of personal introspection and detachment from reality; the centre around which architectural spaces and shap...

Prayer & Meditation Pavillion / Studio Tam Associati

The prayer and meditation pavilion is an integral part of the recently realized Cardiac surgery centre in Sudan, built by the Italian humanitarian organization, EMERGENCY NGO. The complex, planned and designed by Tamassociati architecture studio, is the only one of its kind to provide free health-care to patients in an extensive area within a ten million square km. radius and counting three hun...

Bosjes Chapel / Steyn Studio

The new chapel, set within a vineyard in South Africa, is designed by South-African born Coetzee Steyn of London-based Steyn Studio. Its serene sculptural form emulates the silhouette of surrounding mountain ranges, paying tribute to the historic Cape Dutch gables dotting the rural landscapes of the Western Cape. Constructed from a slim concrete cast shell, the roof supports itself as each undu...

Kericho Sacred Heart Cathedral / John McAslan Architects

The Sacred Heart Cathedral of Kericho is located 250 km west of Nairobi, Kenya. It lies within the Highlands, close to the Rift Valley, enjoying magnificent views across tea plantations and surrounding hills.The Cathedral's great inclined roof will become a distinctive form in the rolling panorama of Kericho's hills and valleys when it completes in 2015. Strikingly crafted, the building's simpl...

Houghton Jumuah Mosque / Abdel Wahed El Wakil + Muhammad Mayet Architects

The Houghton Mosque design sees an eclectic and hallowed collaboration between Muhammad Mayet Architects + Urban Designers and the acclaimed Abdel Wahed el Wakil. The mosque, envisioned in 1998 when Saudi royals visited the country and expressed to Nelson Mandela the desire to contribute a piece of legacy to the area has been the subject of careful and integral urban design decisions and religi...

Lake Muhazi Gahini Church / Light Earth Designs

As I shake Peter Rich's hand and ask him whether he is now retired, he smirks and stares back almost semi insulted "I'm too young. I am just starting." And looking at his impeccable sustainable portfolio of architecture you can see why he is just starting. The Anglican Church just North of Kigali in Rwanda perhaps speaks to that metamorphosis form one technological advancement to the next while...

Revival Sunset Chapel / FATmaison

The Revival Sunset Chapel in Libreville is perhaps Africa's Taj Mahal, built for a love that a Government Minister sort to bequeath as a send off to his wife. It stands a s perhaps the power of emotion and the art of architecture that heals and sends off, ana perhaps a new typology within the country of private chapels and spaces of worship. It reminds you perhaps of an interpretation of the ea...

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.

Malabo Basilica / Saraiva-Associados

The project for Malabo Basilica conveys values such as strength, serenity, austerity and tranquility. The rectangular shaped building emerges from the ground, forming a semi-arch and rises 40 m height, culminating with a zenith opening above the altar. The Basilica can receive until 1,000 people, includes multipurpose rooms for educational activities and diocese services and a priest residence.

Great Mosque of Touba / Tashiko Mori

Religion has the instrinsic ability to influence a creed, and so does architecture. At the heart of the Mouride holy city lies a well crafted piece of architectural realm in The Great Mosque of Touba. It is a riveting piece of qarchitecture, solemn in materiality but robust in versing and space making. The mosque rises up from the African soil with such confidence it can be seen from almost all...

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...

Windmills Chapel / Koop Design

The brief on this project was to design a small chapel that would provide a beautiful setting for couples who want to tie the knot. It was not to be associated with any specific religion and was to have very strong relationship with the landscape especially the water body within the site. The required capacity was 150 people and the space would be used for live music and conferences as well.

Grand Mosque of Algiers / KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten Gmbh

Algeria boasts the third largest mosque in the world in the Grand Mosque, a magnificent edifice that towers above the city of Algiers erected at the present bay of the city. The mosque is a conglomeration of various religious and cultural midpoints and on common ground aligned from west to east in the direction of Mecca in tandem with Islamic tenets. The programme is split into two with the wes...

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...

Don Bosco Catholic Church/ Space and Systems Architects

This youth church stands out from the traditional Catholic Church which was more solemn, more linear and with cold colors in a curvilinear, natural lit stepped high volume space that remains true its spirit.

Jarred Pincus and the Fortress of Faith: Architecture as a Religious Mediator

Whether with a resolved architectural identity or an analogous mood that simply seeks to express an idea, architecture has been bequeathed with a mandate that exposes the stark social modernity vis a vis the chaos that punctuate our everyday lives. How can we then as designers navigate and solve the seemingly harsh overtones and critical scrutiny that we have subjected ourselves to and with the...

Goma Catholic Cathedral/ Lexicon + Ion Architects

Lexicon + Ion architects have just released plans for a proposed catholic cathedral in Congo modelled on the concept of Mary mother of Jesus, Jesus and his followers towards an all-inclusive and equal setting.

Old is-Gold Throwback: Photographic Chronology through the Mosques of Africa

Religion has been a major driver of architectural language in any civilization through the world histories. Religious buildings have been known to make a mark and stamp authority within the societies in which they are planted. Islam is one scope of the society that has been at the forefront of good architecture, in all aspects urban and rural and the mosques throughout Africa that have resulted...