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Architects 7 Design of a future of diversity in Africa

As the legacy of the Cold War fades and becomes progressively rule Western a thing of the past, the population booms in Asia, followed by growth of a large non-Western middle class have seriously challenged the Western perception of the world. The East has become the focal point of development in the world.

If East Asia is the current focal point of this evolution, the future undoubtedly lies in Africa. featuring long in Western consciousness than an endless suffering of earth, it is now a place of rapid drop in poverty, increasing investment, and youth populations. It just seems that the rich cultures of Africa and population growth (expected to reach 1.4 billion by 2025) finally took the stage, but it is extremely important that the future development of Africa is well done. Subject of colonialism for centuries, the development in the past has been characterized by systems that were designed for the benefit of settlers. Even recently, resources and energy of heavy concrete buildings, clothing donations that damage native textiles, and reforestation programs that hungry too flammable trees and water the plant have all been seen leaving the NGO accusations of ignorance well intentioned.

Fortunately, the growth in indigenous practices and a more sensible approach, sensitive to foreign organizations has led to the rise of architectural groups creating buildings that learn from and improve 'Africa. The combination of local solutions with the most appropriate Western ideas, for the first time these new developments down the monolithic perception of Africa and began to engage individual cultures; using elements of the non-local architecture when they enhance development rather than creating a pastiche of a pan-African culture imagined. The visions of these groups express are not at all the same - sustainable rural development, luxury residences upscale and civic buildings worthy of all long - but they have in common argument for a bright future through the 'Africa. We collected seven pioneer of architectural revival of Africa -. Read more after the break for the full article and infographic

Pretoria's Freedom Park, designed by MMA Design Studio with GAPP Architects and MRA Architects. Image Courtesy of MMA Design Studio, GAPP Architects and MRA Architects The Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria. Image © NLÉ Architects Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Image © Iwan Baan Red Pepper House in Lamu, Kenya. Image © Alberto Heras + 29

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David Adjaye - Adjaye Associates

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Tanzanian born David Adjaye grew up in London, a combined background that has led to projects that are equally informed by African culture by Vitruvius. Although he made his name with a number of sensitive projects in developed countries across the northern hemisphere, Adjaye has gained importance in the drive towards taking Africa seriously as a place architectural innovation, something that is spearheaded through thorough research and a focus on understanding individual cultures. Adjaye has expanded its practice with an office in Accra join those in New York and London and spent 11 years visiting every African capital to research and publish a well-received book dividing Africa in climate zones function and culture, rather than the colonial borders established in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, USA. Image Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
The Smithsonian National Museum of History and Afro-American culture Washington DC, USA. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

Currently under construction in Washington DC's Smithsonian National Museum of Adjaye of history and African-American culture, which uses formal symmetry to attach it to other monumental buildings on the National Mall, but resists using its outside to explain the "African-American history. However, the building takes many cues from culture and African design, using a form similar to those created by the Yoruba crafts, and is clad in bronze. Although the building does not require obvious African influence, it indicates the incorporation of Adjaye African styles in the "globalized" architecture. Attempts of this Adjaye day to build in Africa still under construction, but its projects show a strong awareness of local culture - its proposal for the Alara magazine Lagos uses a facade inspired by the West African textile design, providing a welcome alternative to the common narrative upscale development imitating Western styles.

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Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation Headquarters in Libreville, Gabon. Image Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation headquarters in Libreville, Gabon. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

Another example is the seat of the Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation in Libreville, Gabon. The work of the Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation focuses on women, encouraging entrepreneurship and microfinance projects for women and families, as well as efforts to reduce poverty in isolated areas of the country . The new headquarters building permits public interaction with the foundation that was impossible before, something encouraged by the completely open nature of the facade reminiscent of Western modernism in the concrete frame and glass, but in the form of an individual envelope that encompasses an open space West Africa tradition, wrapping an influence within the other. Between his extensive research into the diversity of African culture and her voice increasingly well known, Adjaye's ability to focus attention on African architecture is potentially unparalleled

Francis Kere -. Kéré architecture

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Francis Kere, born in the village of Gando in Burkina Faso, initially trained in carpentry after receiving a scholarship from a German charity. However, realizing that there was little future in training as a carpenter for a country that does not produce wood, he followed his childhood interest in architecture at the Technical School in Berlin, graduating, then back later in Gando. Configuration of the association Schulbausteine ​​für Gando (Building Blocks for Gando) Kéré placed on the use of its European and African traditional training methods to transform Gando, moving Western accent "one size fits all" methods for those that incorporate native solutions to high temperatures, lack of resources and seasonal weather.

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The Gando School Extension in Gando, Burkina Faso. Image © Erik Jan Ouwerkerk
The School Extension in Gando Gando, Burkina Faso. Image © Erik January Ouwerkerk

The working Kéré in Gando is well known thanks to its innovative use of local materials, replacement of heat-retaining and electricity intensive concrete with locally made mud bricks, coupled with wide overhanging roofs designed to withstand the rainy season and allow passive air circulation to cool the building. The initial success of the primary school in Gando has since expanded to a library and high school, housing for teachers and a community center. Kéré also worked on the fight against deforestation by using eucalyptus wood for buildings, one often planted through reforestation programs shaft which is water hunger and unsuited to local climate, and replace them with mango, which provide both a source of fruit and shade to the local community. The food source is particularly important; the harsh climate and dependence on millet (boiled and pounded into fufu) mean that the food supply is precarious - something which also led Kéré to establish an education allowance, increasing the diversity of supply local food and teaching children valuable techniques which will result in more sustainable practices farming.

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The Centre for Earth Architecture in Mopti, Mali. Image © Iwan Baan
The earthen architecture center in Mopti, Mali. Image © Iwan Baan

The working Kéré in Gando has inspired other communities to embark on similar projects, while the attention it brought Kéré allowed to expand the scale of its projects, including a medical center, Museum of the Red Cross, including a center to promote the use of earthen architecture as a way to reduce deforestation . Also worthy of comment is working on the Opera Village, a project integrating ethics Gando project with a focus on national identity

Kunle Adeyemi -. NLE

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the son of the founder of one of the first indigenous architecture firms in Nigeria, Adeyemi focuses on the rapid expansion of cities, especially Lagos. Amid plans to transform Lagos into a city of the west-side with the development of luxury and large office construction height, Adeyemi is rather articulate an alternative vision of development in Africa, allowing the personality single pre-existing - so poor - areas to inform its buildings

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The Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria. Image © NLÉ Architects
The floating school Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria. Image © NLE Architects

demand Adeyemi to fame is its widely covered floating school in the Makoko area of ​​Lagos. Makoko built over the lagoon which gave the city its Portuguese name, has effectively become a self governing regulations because of the lack of government presence in the region. As booms Nigeria - recently overtaking South Africa, Africa's largest economy - Makoko came under pressure from the government as a familiar and informal resolution distinctive in the heart of the largest city in Nigeria. Although neither requested nor approved by the government (but built with NGOs and the UN), the school uses traditional forms of Nigeria in a modern way and is particularly well suited to the situation of Makoko. Although only one building, the project has proved easy to build, low cost, and shows a different and desirable path to Lagos rather than the current pressure at Makoko -. Including the school, which is technically built illegally

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An urban growth proposal developed for Lagos as part of MoMA's
An urban growth proposal developed for Lagos as part of "Uneven growth "the MoMA exhibition, developed by Nle in collaboration with Zoohaus / Inteligencias Colectivas. Image © NLE and Zoohaus / Inteligencias Colectivas

Despite this, Adeyemi draws on his considerable academic expertise to develop the floating Makoko school in a proposal for the floating residential multiple and commercial buildings - part of its proposal for the uneven growth of MoMA exhibition - in what he sees as a solution for some 250,000 people living in Makoko, but also the future challenges brought by the vulnerability of Lagos to climate change. The buildings, fashioned to imitate the local forms and benefit from solar panels, would be perfectly suited to the operation of transport of water based and very resistant to the problem and ocean storm surge flooding.

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The Yaba Prototype, designed as a model for housing to be used across Nigeria. Image © NLÉ Architects
The Yaba Prototype, designed as a model for housing to be used across Nigeria. Image © NLE Architects

Outside the floating city project, Adeyemi is known for its specific urban planning context in academic, and residential proposals continue these themes. For example, the modular Yaba Prototype is a well designed yet low cost, efficient system that could be developed as a new form of urban housing for the middle class in Nigeria, which is estimated to grow by 7.6 million over the next 16 years. This growth will put tremendous pressure on the existing housing in Nigeria, which, despite increased investment is still highly polarized between luxury housing and informal settlement in the very unequal countries. In addition, with the Nigerian fertility long for a significant decline - it has remained stable at around 6 for the past 40 years, while other countries such as Kenya have seen their fertility rates half over the same period - and thus a potentially volatile housing market on the horizon as family sizes change, the modular nature of Yaba Prototype allows easy reconfiguration to create internal apartments with more or fewer rooms than necessary. large-scale deployment of Yaba would not only provide space in Nigeria to a new low and middle class, but also ease the stress of demographic changes that could easily make large areas of new housing in Nigeria out of context.

Mokena Makeka - Makeka Design Lab

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As a young black architect working in South Africa, Makeka was sentenced to spend his first career fight against the perception that he was only there because of the policy of black Economic Empowerment, the South African version of affirmative action, designed to help professionals integrate blacks in the south African economy in the post-apartheid era. As a result, many of its buildings come from a place of ambivalence towards the South African institutions that sections of the population (and many still do) historically excluded; as such, his work often focuses on the transformation of the imposing fortress architecture of buildings from the era of apartheid in delicate and, in his own words, "vulnerable".

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The interior of the Cape Town Station Refurbishment. Image © Peter K Photography
inside the Cape Renovation Station. Image © Peter K Photography

Makeka is best known for its refurbishment of the Cape Town railway station in time for the World Cup 2010 and its subsequent proposal development of the area, under the brand Cape Town station in 2030 - something desired for comfort and visiting supporters' safety, but most of the time because the station 1960 has been built to explicit separate railways. Its design opens the station as much as possible, moves the focus on the trains for the passengers themselves, and removes the idea entirely controlled input.

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The interior of the Cape Town Station Refurbishment. Image © Peter K Photography
inside the Cape Renovation Station. Image © Peter K Photography

Makeka made his name with the Thusong service center in the township of Khayelitsha. These centralized government service centers are built in rural areas with the intention to deploy access to government information and services. Although Cape Town began segregation later, when they started, they were so heavily. In the 1980s, Cape Town was perhaps the most important city segregation in South Africa, Khayelitsha and was one of their last attempts to enforce the Group Areas Act and keep the white and black housing separate. forced relocation in the late 80s and years of internal migration has created a sprawling informal settlement with a population of somewhere between 400,000 and 2 million.

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The Thusong Service Centre in Cape Town's Khayelitsha Township. Image © David Southwood
The Thusong Service Centre in Cape Town's Khayelitsha Township. Image © David Southwood

The service center is part of ongoing attempts to integrate Khayelitsha in Cape Town; although the construction of a single hub building and even attempts to introduce a formal housing in the area seem like a drop in the ocean, the building itself is worthy of respect one who speaks a desire to create an architecture that truly serves everyone. Also noteworthy is the participation of Makeka in the rock bench project, a local project to create safe spaces for women in a country notorious for high rates of sexual violence. Designed in collaboration between local artists and designers and school children, members of the community and families, each bank has a different message - some remember a specific woman, others simply celebrate femininity - and are placed in very public places to draw attention to women. with "sister schools" in disadvantaged areas

Mphethi Morojele - MMA Architects

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MMA architects Morojele was one of the first architectural firms owned by blacks in South Africa after the end of apartheid and was a leader of the new, non-business practices since. Working on large-scale institutional projects such as embassies and university buildings, Morojele is heavily involved in efforts to remake the face of African city to serve the public and to reflect social commentary. A strong cultural interest is also shown in the drawings, which are intended to reflect the way that South Africa considers itself in the post-apartheid era.

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The South African Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Image © Reinhard
The South African Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Image © Reinhard

Morojele cultural interest can be seen in his designs for the South African embassy buildings in Ethiopia and Germany. As a typology, embassies are complex buildings, necessary to present a national sense of self while adjusting in the foreign context in which they are placed. The embassy in Berlin was the first South African embassy built after the end of apartheid, and shows the new vision of South Africa most evident in the use of traditional African retailer - but in fact, the entire building is informed by traditional African forms, using a central courtyard that recalls both during and central Berlin kraal (corral) of South Africa. This theme continues in the work on the Freedom Park, in collaboration with GAPP Architects and architects ARM, a project of enormous importance in South Africa, which is dedicated to the victims of the two world wars and the period of apartheid, and the complexity of the hotel in Maropeng cradle of humankind, a World Heritage site.

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Pretoria's Freedom Park, designed by MMA Design Studio with GAPP Architects and MRA Architects. Image Courtesy of MMA Design Studio, GAPP Architects and MRA Architects
Freedom Park in Pretoria, designed by MMA design studio with GAPP Architects and MRA Architects. MMA Image courtesy of Design Studio, GAPP Architects and MRA Architects

In addition to its cultural work, Morojele is also active in the reconstruction of residential areas, receiving attention for his participation in the project 10 x 10 slot. Its design low cost, low complexity borrows elements from the wattle-daub building traditionally found in southern African colonies, and requires little skill to build, no electricity on site and as little as 6 workers. This means that, in theory, these models could be used by residents of informal settlements and isolated areas to set up a high-quality housing without outside help. Its Ellis Park Sport Precinct, in the suburbs of ramshackle Ellis Park in the city center, also played an important role in the largest reconstruction program in the region. Alongside his school projects in the township of Khayelitsha, the work focuses on the inclusion of young people in South African society - important in a country known for extremely high levels of protest (South African youth are more likely to have protested against the government that voted for him) and still struggle to create a new self-image that includes all sections of society.

MASS Design Group

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Boston-based design MASS Group are anchored in what they call their "impact driven model" of practice, an iterative approach where they plunge into the context they build in the design of the project, monitor the construction process in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, and continue to monitor the effectiveness of post construction of the building to incorporate in their future work improvements. This sensitivity to the real impact of their buildings has created a practice that focuses on the objectives of each project and the buildings that perform well their intentions.

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Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Image © Iwan Baan
Butaro Hospital in Rwanda. Image © Iwan Baan

Attracting significant coverage for their project Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, the approach to health facilities MASS Design Group 'light touch "approach represents an alternative to the big Western hospitals, high technology which have not been transplanted to African contexts successfully (for example, the great King Faisal hospital, also in Rwanda, was built in this manner 1991 but remained empty for many years due to a lack of staff.) the success of the Butaro hospital is readily apparent, showing the benefits of mass approach to layout up, fight against the problems of crowded corridors and poor ventilation sensitive approaches that reduce energy consumption and maintenance. The practice has since expanded the capabilities of Butaro, and continued to work on innovative health care facilities across Africa and around the world (including Haiti) that drew praise for their low power consumption, drawings impact.

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The Umubano Primary School in Kigali, Rwanda. Image © Iwan Baan
The elementary school Umubano in Kigali, Rwanda. Image © Iwan Baan

Working across Africa also included school buildings, as primary school Umubano in Rwanda. materials and labor from the region using the school is integrated into the local environment through school construction in a series of terraces in the field of Rwanda, which allows ventilation passive and creates a space which includes children in a way that a larger building could not. With this success, MASS currently working with the African Wildlife Foundation on 15 new schools across the Congo Basin, which holds one of the largest remaining areas of rainforest. Although some countries in the region have made environmental regulations designed to protect, regulations are both difficult to implement and seriously detrimental to local communities living in the forests on which they depend for food and fuel. Schools, therefore, are built entirely on site from durable materials that are easily maintained and replaced without outside help (in the process of formation of local, giving a potential source of income) and teach practical courses, helping end the dependence on forest resources. In return Ilima, the first village of the project, has already promised to protect over 0,000 acres of forest. Well integrated into the local economy and land in local practice, the new model of MASS has so far been a success both for MASS Design Group and the communities they build in.

Urko Sanchez -

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