In a video interview with BBC news, Issa Diabaté of Koffi- Diabaté Architects discusses the need for an improvement in the urban fabric of Africa, and specifically in the city of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, where he has been working for the past 20 years. “It’s not by building one house after the next that we will have an impact on the city…I feel that the architects of tomorrow, especially in African cities, need to become developers, to actually imprint his or her vision on the city,” he says in the video. “There are no better ways of integrating issues of sustainability or issues of density than by doing it yourself.”
Watch the video after the break.
Diabaté introduces the viewer to several projects exemplifying the sustainable ideologies of his office. From a set of dense, luxury residences meant to acclimate residents to living in closer proximity, to the Assinie-Mafia Church which capitalizes on natural ventilation, Diabaté discusses the various ways that his projects have addressed the issue of urbanity in Africa.
See more architects working to improve Africa's urban fabric here.
The Assinie-Mafia Church / Koffi & Diabaté Architectes
News via BBC
