Located north of Dakar, near the city's airport, is an architectural composition of triangular volumes known as the International Trade Fair Centre, Dakar, Senegal. Also known as the Foire Internationale de Dakar or FIDAK, this structure is an iconic example of 60s modernism in West Africa. It synthesizes the complexity of simple forms within vernacular spatial patterns. Completed in 1974, it reflects the post-colonial ambition of the country and has grown as an adaptive spatial framework for major cultural events and exhibitions.
In the 50s and 60s, at the peak of the modernism movement, newly independent African nations encouraged European architects to explore architecture that could define a new country's national identity while drawing from its vernacular vocabulary. These buildings showcased a synthesis of modernism's universalist approach with the expressiveness, cultural rootedness, and climatic responsiveness of vernacular architecture. In West Africa, this developed into the tropical modernism style, featuring buildings such as Unity Hall in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, and Independence House, Lagos, Nigeria, among others.
