Ghana's architecture has long been tied to local building materials. From traditional thatch roofs and mud walls to contemporary concrete and glass structures, the country's built environment is a refection of the surrounding context. This is true for urban and rural projects alike, and as new educational buildings are created across Ghana, these spaces reflect the country's landscape as they look to the future of learning.
The human scale spans both physical dimensions and sensory perception. Designers create spaces and objects like steps, doorways and chairs that are closely aligned to human measurement and how we see the world. But as we look beyond the human scale, new ideas and typologies emerge that help us rethink how we conceptualize architecture and build for the future.
South Africa is an ever-evolving, dynamic country – which over the recent years has seen the emergence of landmarks that have achieved global recognition. In Cape Town, there’s the distinctive elevation of Heatherwick Studio’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. In South Africa’s Western Cape, there’s the free-flowing concrete roof of the Bosjes Chapel, designed by Steyn Studio. And, in a design only unveiled last year, there’s the granary-inspired Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg, designed by 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal winner Sir David Adjaye.
Founder of the Berlin-based firm Kéré Architecture, Francis Kéré, has won the 2021 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Presented by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, the award is one of four honors recognizing achievements in architecture, citizen leaderships, global innovation, and law. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals recognize the exemplary contributions of recipients to the endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high regard.
Kéré Architecture has unveiled first images of its proposal for the Benin National Assembly. Located in Porto-Novo, in the Republic of Benin, the Parliament House has been commissioned by the Ministry of Living Environment and Sustainable Development, and has been in the design phase from 2018 till 2020. Portraying the values of democracy and the cultural identity of the citizens, the project is set for construction in March 2021.
Launched by the Goethe Institut, Habiter Dakar (Living in Dakar) is a virtual exhibition tackling Housing in the Senegalese capital. The study was led by Nzinga Mboup and Caroline Geffriaud, both Architects based in Dakar. They noticed that the current housing offer in the city was particularly far off the needs of its inhabitants, whether on the cultural, societal or environmental level.
The architects analyzed the progression through which the Senegalese capital's Urban Landscape and Housing development had passed, starting from the traditional compound living type to today’s international housing models which seem to be disconnected from the daily reality of most of the city’s inhabitants. The study is concentrated on Housing which is an essential part of the formation and evolution of Dakar and suggests important theoretical and concrete reflections for the future development of the African metropolis.
In our increasingly urbanized world, everything and everyone has adopted a lifestyle of nomadism. New environmental and social constraints have forced people to have a constant "on-the-go" behavior, so much so that almost everything has acquired wheels, even the buildings. But with the rise of debates like "is humankind being replaced by robots?" and "is technology taking over?", urban mobility has helped give access to housing, healthcare, and education in places with extreme difficult conditions.
To shed the light on globally-thriving mobile activities, the France-based Institut pour Ville en Mouvement, or City on the Move Institute, is an organization that has been addressing the challenges posed by urban mobility and contributing to the emergence of innovative solutions. In a series of short Youtube clips, the organization invited experts in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and technology to share their insights on the future of urban mobility.
Scale dramatically shapes how we experience architecture and the built environment. Whether looking at buildings by volume, square area or height, the larger a project gets, the greater our perception changes. Monumental projects tell incredible stories of spatial experience, programming and design. Towering above us and around us, these large-scale works become landmarks in rural and urban contexts.
This week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture focuses on large-scale architecture located around the world. Drawn from an array of firms and local contexts, they represent proposals submitted by our readers. They showcase a wide array of approaches to designing at larger and larger scales, from an expansive arena in Vienna and a lush memorial in Singapore to the world's tallest tower designed to draw attention to poverty in Toronto.
Adjaye Associates has unveiled its design for a new historical center for African consciousness, the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg. Named after the previous president of South Africa, the project is an opportunity to realize the dreams of Thabo Mbeki to advance and empower an African renaissance, according to the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal winner Sir David Adjaye.
Adjaye Associates unveiled its design for the Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA). Investigating the archaeology of the Kingdom of Benin, including buried remains below the site, the EMOWAA Archaeology Project is set to start in 2021, involving the Legacy Restoration Trust (LRT) and the British Museum with the local communities, the Benin Royal Court, the Government of Edo State, and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM).
The Un-Habitat or the United Nations agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development, whose primary focus is to deal with the challenges of rapid urbanization, has been developing innovative approaches in the urban design field, centered on the active participation of the community. ArchDaily has teamed up with UN-Habitat to bring you weekly news, article, and interviews that highlight this work, with content straight from the source, developed by our editors.
Associated with crime, waste, and garbage, Dandora in Nairobi’s Eastlands is home to 140,000 or so residents. In an on-going collaboration, between local residents and youth groups, UN-Habitat, Making Cities Together Coalition, and the Dandora Transformation League, the Model Street project has been transforming the garbage-filled community spaces into waste-free, attractive, and engaging places. Focusing on improving the shared courtyard spaces of residential compounds, an annual competition led by the youth of the neighborhood, the Changing Faces Challenge, became an initiative mobilizing citizens across Nairobi.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
For the past two weeks, cities across Nigeria were hit by protests against the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit setup in 1992 to fight armed robberies. The anti-SARS protesters are calling for the unit’s disbandment, due to its high-handedness, extra-judicial killings, extortion, and numerous human rights abuses.
Tragically, the protests came to a brutal climax on October 20, with the shooting of protesters at the Lekki Tollgate by gunmen believed to be agents of the Nigerian state. This led to casualties, which are currently a subject of controversy: the Lagos State government concedes that two persons lost their lives; groups like Amnesty International insist the figures are much higher.
Investing in virtual projects has probably never been more timely, after all, we have been partially deprived of contact with the concrete world. Exploring the singularities of the present moment and the power of online engagement, a group of architects from Angola started an ambitious work: pursuing a new identity for Angolan architecture.
Formed by Yolana Lemos, Kátia Mendes, Mamona Duca, Elsimar de Freitas, and Gilson Menses, Grupo BANGA is responsible for the project Cabana de Arte (Art Hut), which combines the efforts of young architects and artists from Angola in virtual works that seek to bring visibility to emerging professionals and bring architecture closer to people's daily lives.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, I, like most of the world, have spent the last few months quarantined at home, perturbed and uncertain about the ramifications of it all. I will spare you my predictions for the Post-Pandemic Future of the African City (there’s presently no shortage of those), but instead, I want to offer up some observations about our current situation. As an African, my perspective is both unique to our continent and universal to everyone. It is, afterall, a global pandemic.
The Kaira Looro Architecture Competition to support humanitarian projects has released its full list of winning projects for an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The contest, already in its 4th edition, aims to raise awareness among the international community about emergencies in developing countries, and support humanitarian projects in Africa.
The World Bank believes that urbanization will be “the single most important transformation that the African continent will undergo this century”, with over half of the population set to live in cities by 2040. This will manifest as 40,000 people moving to cities every day for the next 20 years. While much of the architectural discourse around Africa's future focuses on cities, rural areas are often ignored. This has however been the preoccupation of Italian architect Valentino Gareri, founder of Valentino Gareri Architectural Atelier and Senior Designer at Bjarke Ingels Group.
From academic institutes in North America to residential projects in the Middle East, the various disciplines of Bauhaus and its influence on architecture and design are noticeably present in projects all over the world. While most projects acquired the school's universal language, a few unique ones combined Bauhaus' theory and design principles with the site's cultural and climatic specificity.
This article is a collaboration between ArchDaily and the Arieh Sharon Org. All historical images were shared by the organization.
_-_Vista_da_Pra%C3%A7a.jpg?1601059705 "Projeto arquitetônico virtual para a exposição \"Tchitundu-Hulu, a história resgatada\". Image Cortesia de Grupo BANGA")
_-_Planta_de_Cobertura.jpg?1601059767 "Planta do projeto para a exposição \"Mfwanana, Dialetos da Terra\". Image Cortesia de Grupo BANGA")
_Eu_sou_o_sol_-_as_marcas_perpetuadas_em_mim_(2)_-_Sala_de_Exposi%C3%A7%C3%A3o.jpg?1601059792 "Projeto arquitetônico virtual para a exposição \"Eu sou o sol - as marcas perpetuadas em mim\". Image Cortesia de Grupo BANGA")
