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.

Christian Benimana on The Next Generation Of African Architects And Designers

Christian Benimana wants to build a network of architects who can help Africa's booming cities flourish in sustainable, equitable ways -- balancing growth with values that are uniquely African. From Nigeria to Burkina Faso and beyond, he shares examples of architecture bringing communities together. A pan-African movement of architects, designers and engineers on the continent and in diaspora a...

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 Styled Chic and Shack Architecture Drawings of Jo Noero

Joe Noero is no stranger to critical and conscious South African Architecture. A signature definition of his achievements is perhaps that he an International Fellow of The Royal Institute of British Architects and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects but his accomplishments perhaps lies in building small worlds of order and creating socially purposeful architecture

Changing Skyline: What Western Architects Can Learn From Africa

In this article originally published in the Philly, Inga Saffron, an architectural critic, looks at the influence of Francis Kéré on sustainable community architecture and skill building and how it has reverberated in Western countries with similar excitement surfacing in different forms within Africa and the rest of the world.had to travel long and far from his tiny farming village in Burkina ...

Focus: Demas Nwoko

Demas Nwoko is perhaps the most visible of the old era of Sub Saharan architects. Born in 1935, he emerged as a Nigerian artist, protean designer and architect. His work in architecture upholds modern techniques in architecture and stage design to perhaps articulate the African subject matters in most of his works. There is a tale tale spatial component of cultural production within the formula...

Hassan Fathy and The Architecture for the Poor: The Controversy of Success

In this article originally published by The Cairo Observer as Hassan Fathy Architecture For The Rich, there is a critical re-look and rework of the principles and philosophies of Hassan Fathy's work in New Gourna and his deliberates vis a vis personal ideologies. The article tries to delve into the idea of why Hassan Fathy perhaps emerged as a solitary force in sustainable architecture for the ...

Move Over, Paul Klee: Pancho Guedes And My Guardian Angel

A guardian angel, exactly 1,94 metres high, lives under the Jacaranda trees in our garden in Johannesburg. This is not one of those golden European baroque angels, the kind that lives in cathedrals, and which consists only of a head and wings and a chubby butt. This one does not sing sweetly. This is an angle-grinder angel. Made in Jurie van der Westhuizen’s security steelwork business in Indus...

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...

Datum Antique: Pancho Guedes' Saipal Bakery

Every so often architecture smacks you right in the face and forces you to remember why it is exactly that buildings touch us so deeply. The Amancio Guedes designed Saipal Bakery has more controversy in its use than most other buildings but the architectural trials and triumphs cannot be overstated. Completed in the mid 50s, the space frames that welcome you into the building are so definitive ...