A city that defies expectations, this is what many visitors often express about the Senegalese capital, Dakar. As Africa's most western port city, which gained independence from the French in 1960, Dakar is a regional hub for diversity and culture. While it's often described as an unexpectedly sleek and "modern" city, with its characteristic and sometimes colorful monolithic buildings, Dakar is in fact in constant development and each of its districts tends to reflect a different style and focus, depending on its inhabitants and the dominating functions.
The mid-twentieth century marked a transformative period for Africa as 29 countries achieved independence between 1956 and 1964, signaling the dawn of the nation-state across the continent. This era resonated with a spirit of liberation and progress, paralleling the global movements of that time, such as the establishment of international organizations like the United Nations (1945) and the Organization of African Unity (1963). Within this context, Modernist architecture emerged as a powerful symbol of national identity, ambition, and the collective aspiration for a brighter future. As newly independent nations sought to define themselves apart from their colonial pasts, the adoption of Modern Movement principles facilitated the construction of key infrastructures, such as convention centers, parliament buildings, and hotels, as well as the development of architectural education, as native-trained architects begun to either replace or cooperate with foreign-born professionals.
This article inaugurates a new series titled Rediscovering Modernism in Africa, aiming to explore the architectural legacy of the Modern Movement in Africa, highlighting its role in nation-building and the evolution of architectural education, while shedding light on the architects and movements that shaped this transformative era.
Weaving is not only a technical craft but also a way to design material experiences. Engaging in the process of weaving allows us to structure, communicate, reflect on, and connect with our designs. By experimenting with different fabric structures, we gain insight into how materials behave under tension and compression. This understanding helps us push the boundaries of textiles and their limitations, resulting in designs that stretch and test the properties of the materials.
In architecture, the construction mechanism of weaving centers the shelter to the building process. In this sense, shelter becomes a direct manifestation of material production. Additionally, weaving offers numerous environmental and social benefits by creating shelters that actively engage with materials, tools, technologies, and creative potentials, thereby supporting placemaking.
Located in the city of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, is the Notre DameCathedral. This large red brick church was built in the early 1900s in the French colonial style. As the city grew from a small outpost to a colonial capital, the building was formed as a cultural and symbolic fusion of European and Central African architectural styles. Designed by French architect Roger Erell, the cathedral showcases local construction craftsmanship, provides a space for spiritual solace, and contributes to the national identity of the country.
The home is a fundamental expression of architectural movements within the fabric of a city. As one of the smallest typologies, it is the simplest canvas to exhibit the design ethos of any particular era. African cities have continuously negotiated the meaning of their residential dwellings, from traditional architecture to colonial architecture, and the influx of post-colonial modern architecture. Vernacular architecture explored homes with spatial patterns rooted in cultural dexterity, envelopes built with indigenous materials and forms, endowed with traditional motifs. These were in stark contrast to colonial homes that featured a range of imported architectural styles across the continent, neglecting their climatic and cultural contexts while amplifying social class.
Rammed earth is one of the oldest methods of constructing walls and still holds great potential for modern earth construction. One aspect of this potential is the gift of its colors and layers, which become visible as the formworks are removed, revealing a layered character. As a process that involves the layer-by-layer compression of gravel, sand, silt, and clay, its resulting appearance is a horizontal stratification of earth tones, material content, and curing procedures. This colorful appearance of rammed earth walls can be controlled and explored through patterns, texture, pigmentation, and natural clay colors, offering an opportunity to push its boundaries within architecture.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to an enormous number of religious adherents – within which there is extraordinary diversity in religious expression. Iconic buildings serving a religious purpose are found throughout the continent, such as The Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Family in central Nairobi or the Hare Krishna Temple in South Africa. What is evident is that architecture that hosts religious gatherings makes up a key part of the urban fabric of sub-Saharan African cities and that in a lot of cases, religious structures go against the grain – leaving aside or tweaking classical models in favor of a unique architectural approach.
A quick glance today at the cities of the African continent reveals a rich diversity of urban settlements, ranging in type from rural enclaves to sprawling metropolises. That quick glance also reveals a larger picture of cities that are continuously adapting and evolving as we enter the decade of the 2020s – yet this evolution in many places is taking place at the expense of those who are less fortunate. This is not happening in a vacuum, as the reason why a lot of African cities look as they do today is a result of a segregated organization during colonial rule.
With the proper know-how, readily available earth, sand, chalk, lime, or gravel can yield a versatile, strong, and durable construction material. Its colorful results vary from region to region, depending on the natural soil component, climate, and treatment. While some prefer to minimize any added processing, others relish the exploration of rammed earth surfaces. Different textures and mesmerizing layers of multitoned or multicolored earth can be used to create a solid surface that enriches the visual quality of a space and carries a sense of warmth to any project.
African societies' cultures are intrinsically linked to color. From fabrics to clothing, products, sculptures, and architecture, various societies explore rich and vibrant colors that are vivid, expressive, and joyful. Through different shades, hues, contrasts, motifs, and ornamentations, colors are embraced as an unspoken language, a palette for storytelling, and a sense of cultural identity. Although the use of color in African societies may seem decorative on the surface, it is extremely symbolic, with a deep sense of history behind it. Traditional African architecture is a prime example. Ethnic societies have endowed their homes with color through ornaments and motifs, expressed it with religious and cultural patterns, employed it on facades to tell familial stories, and created labyrinths of communal architecture that not only celebrate color but explore its ethnic meaning.
In the south of Burkina Faso, sharing borders with the northern environs of Ghana is Tiébélé; a small village exhibiting fractal patterns of circular and rectangular buildings, housing one of the oldest ethnic groups in West Africa; the Kassena tribe. With vernacular houses dating back to the 15th century, the village’s buildings strike a distinctive character through its symbol-laden painted walls. It is an architecture of wall decoration where the community uses their building envelope as a canvas for geometric shapes and symbols of local folklore, expressing the culture’s history and unique heritage. This architecture is the product of a unique form of communal collaboration, where all men and women in the community are tasked with contributing to the construction and finishing of any new house. This practice serves as a transmission point for Kassena culture across generations.
Fractals are complex geometric shapes with fractional dimensional properties. They have emerged as swirling patterns within the frontiers of mathematics, information technology, and computer graphics. Over the last 30 years, these patterns have also become important modeling tools in other fields, including biology, geology, and other natural sciences. However, fractals have existed far beyond the birth of computers, and have been observed by anthropologists in indigenous African societies. One of which is Ron Eglash; an American scientist who presents the evidence of fractals in the architecture, art, textile sculpture, and religion of indigenous African societies. In his book, “African Fractals: Modern Computing and indigenous design”, the fractals in African societies are not simply accidental or intuitive but are design themes that evolve from cultural practices and societal structures.
As Venice Architecture Biennale presents its 18th edition titled "The Laboratory of the Future", it centers on Africa as a place of exploration that will offer a template for solutions to the world. According to its curator Lesley Lokko, the Biennale explores entrenched concepts such as climate, land rights, decolonization, and cultures. It challenges us to question how Africa's history can be a radical tool for imagination and reminds us of Stephen Covey's statement: “Live out of your imagination, not just your history.” The biennale's title is probably the most ambitious question in years. It forces us to revisit all boundaries of the continent's historical societies, explore the influence of imposed colonial borders on them, and examine the dual identities they gave birth to. We must consider how these identities can be instruments of creativity, and, more importantly, recognize that every African society has a unique point of view. This viewpoint yearns for cross-cultural collaboration as a powerful tool for imagination.
The legacy of the Modernist movement is a complicated one. Spanning a diverse assortment of fiercely debated sub-categories and styles, the Modernist style has established its presence in virtually every continent. Although the movement's origins may be rooted in Europe and the U.S., outside of the Eurocentric canon architects have redefined and re-established the definition of a "Modernist" building. In Sri Lanka, for example, architect Geoffrey Bawa's sensitive, nature-inspired architectural responses gave rise to the "Tropical Modernism" label. Over in the African continent, it is in the East-African country of Tanzania that some highly unique examples of Modernist architecture are found – headed by architects Anthony Almeida and Beda Amuli.
2022 has been the year of AI image generators. Over the past few years, these machine learning systems have been tweaked and refined, undergoing multiple iterations to find their present popularity with the everyday internet user. These image generators—DALL-E and Midjourney arguably the most prominent—generate imagery from a variety of text prompts, for instance allowing people to create conceptual renditions of architectures of the future, present, and past. But as we exist in a digital landscape filled with human biases—navigating these image generators requires careful reflection.
