Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Posts
Thumbs

Rwanda Cricket Stadium / Light Earth Designs

The RCSF is not only building a future for Cricket in Rwanda, but is facilitating reconciliation, and the rebuilding of communities through the essential values of cricket. Light Earth Designs- an integrated architectural and structural consultancy specialized in sustainable technologies and communities- takes us through the design of the first dedicated international cricket ground in Rwanda. ...

The Elusive Element of Regional Urban Resilience and Social Awareness in Cities

With urban sites being places where the large percentage of the population dwells to alter their economic situation, large cities have become home to high concentrations of poverty. The motivations and forms of concealing this reality have resulted in large inequalities manifest in conflict and other forms of social disability palpable in the region today. In the greater expansion, conflict can...

ArchDiaries: A Walk in the Mind of Frank Gehry

Often we have to step outside our comfort zone and experience the world over. The musings of Frank Gehry led Humphrey Mumita to take a deeper exploration of the ‘Foundation Louis Vuitton’ in Paris. Through Humphrey’s detailed account, Our new series ArchDiaries curated by Peninah Mutonga takes us for a walk in the mind of Frank Gehry;

Soleluna Mixed Use Development / Light Earth Designs

Light Earth Designs is spearheading yet another low-carbon building technology in the region. At the heart of Kigali, is Soleluna- a project which is retaining, re-furbishing and redeveloping its existing premises with a high profile multi-storey mixed use development that showcases innovative low carbon building technologies.

Oasis Kindergarten Kibera / Maisha Trust

At the heart of Kibera slums located in Nairobi Kenya sits a small beautiful, well laid out kindergarten school. Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, and one of the biggest in the world, is home to over 250,000 impecunious dwellers. The make-up of Kibera comprises some of the most modest dwelling spaces for any urban set-up, not to mention the capital city of one of the fastest growing economies...

British Council Nigeria / Allies & Morrison

There’s no denying that the fastest way to appear on the world map today is through icons. Beyond signs and symbols, architecture has slowly become a form of establishing notable presence for organizations, governments and corporates worldwide. The challenge with branding is not only in harmonizing the client’s iconic vision with foreign markets but in achieving functional utility. When it come...

Lost Villa / Jonathan Woolf Architects

When it comes to conceptualization, context is the foundation of architecture; a building must respond to the site elements of a specific area or location. For a design to be a success, it must strive to meet client needs and at the same time constitute an understanding of the genius loci. When we consider house and contextualism, we are often reminded of our modern forefathers. Closer home, ar...

Finding New Inspirations : Modernism Vs Mimicry

The shift from traditionalism to modernism in the mid 19th century resulted from the criticism of traditionalism because of its contradictions of hiding modern building technology with a facade of ornamental traditional styles. At the time, modernists advocated for truth to materiality and construction technology.

Koudougou Central Market / Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation + Laurent Séchaud

Designed as an urban community project, the mission and end goal of the design was to improve the human spirit by responding to the growing need for clean water, power, shelter, healthcare and education. Being an Aga Khan Award-winning design, the Central market in Koudougou involved not just the construction of a physical urban infrastructure, but also the elaboration and implementation of a p...

The Cities of Cogo & Corisco Master Plans / Page Think Architects

The influence of high modernism and revolutionary schemes to complement growing economies and cities remains a contested issue. Being particularly of concern to fast developing countries and the impact of modernism to societies with rich local traditions and norms, designers cannot shy away from making their contributions to these debate. Drawing master plans and re-envisioning their cities now...

Malabo New St. Isabel International Airport / Independent Architectural Diplomacy IAD

The MSI New International Airport is the first and last place of exchange between the traveler and his land host; in essence, a large door and approach. From this point of view, the building needs to be prestigious and express the culture and identity of the city or the country it represents, just as a monument, a public place or an official building. At the same time, it is a symbol of technol...

The Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Presidential Library and Museum / Page Think Architects

The Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Presidential Library and Museum is the first public facility in the country of Equatorial Guinea designed to showcase and preserve presidential documents, photographs, videos and artifacts. Located in the city of Mongomo, the complex includes the 81,000-square-foot Library and a 19,500-square-foot headquarters building for the Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Foundation f...

Equatorial Guinea Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy / Saraivae + Associados

Government buildings, in any developing country should set the pace for innovation, technology, sustainability and high-tech solutions for local problems. Located in Malabo, the capital and the largest city of Equatorial Guinea, this project intends to develop an architectonic solution of quality and functionality, which conciliates the concept of a modern image, connected to the surroundings c...

National Theater of Equatorial Guinea / Independent Architectural Diplomacy IAD

Designed for one of the smallest countries in middle Africa, the National Theatre of Equatorial Guinea acts as a cultural hub sited in the city of Oyala- one set to become the capital of an impoverished and ironically oil-rich West African nation. IAD- Independent Architectural Diplomacy, a spanish firm known for their striking and innovative designs, set out to define a form that is both poeti...

Riviera Apartments / Domaine Public Architects

The Riviera apartments mark a fresh look at the parti of residential design at a massive scale. It looks at reorganizing the riviera neighborhood into a small urban community that follows a public utility versus private spaces, all within the same economic scale and axis. It reveals a rather innate look at the process of apartment planning and the incorporation of gardens within the space furth...

Azur Pavilion/ Koffi & Diabaté Architectes

For this project, Koffi and Diabate Architects created a pavilion that mediates in a holiday home situated at the seafront. With three main structures, a well-landscaped courtyard and a large swimming pool, the development incorporates a range of facilities including African and European cuisines, hotel suites, indoor sports and sauna, and servant spaces organised within an open plan.

Concrete Beauty: Towards an Architectural Language

Highlighting the key elements of architecture as design, details, computers and people, Henning Rasmuss, a practicing architect with Paragon Architects in Johannesburg, South Africa, opened the lively discussion in a room filled with an audience eager to learn what concrete had to do with beauty. He began by stating that the greatest limitation of an architect would be ‘drawing a building that ...

Calabar International Conference Center/ Henning Larsen Architects

Calabar, the capital of the Cross River State situated by the scenic river delta at the outfall of the Calabar River Channel, is already hosting numerous conferences and, with the completion of the new Conference Center, the city hopes to attract even more international meetings and tourists.

International Conference Center / CAAU Architects

Located on 10ha of a 213ha site in the Ouaga 2000 district, the International conference center project, complemented by an immense urban park, was launched by the Burkina Faso Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs through a design competition, and reflects the ambitious goals and extremely high standards that lie at its foundation. The site is bordered by the Ouaga 2000 development towards the...

Bloomsbury Waterfront Development/ NLé Works

The project is a premium office space that maximises the great views across the city’s waterfront within a strategic site plan that incorporates a green landscape and ground parking surrounded by a see-through boundary wall. Characterised by a white solid high thermal mass structure which reflects heat away from the building, and punctured with large irregular openings that allow for natural li...

Gando Primary School / Kéré Architecture

If you have had the chance to interact with the works of one Diebedo Francis Kere, then you will understand why ArchiDATUM loves this man. His work speaks volumes about architecture in Africa; designing for what we know, and where our heart is. If you have heard the opportunity to listen to Kere talk about his work, then you know he is a passionate man, and a humorous one, if I might add. Susta...

AFGRI Headquarters Office Building/ Paragon Architects

The AFGRI headquarters building signals a new thought process, at least within the African architectural context. It provides for a brief departure from the gritty and tenacious look that dots the landscape to a more feline flowing from that almost seems to wrap itself upon the user. It is a statement of concrete and glass embedded in Tshwana history, one that Paragon architects have been makin...

Centre de Santé et de Promotion Sociale/ Kéré Architecture

Located in Laongo, a village not too far from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, the health facility known as Centre de Santé et de Promotion Sociale,which translates to Centre for health and social advancement was set up as an important component of the Village Opera project produced in conjunction with the late Christoph Schlingensief, and is geared towards providing basic health and medic...

Tena Tower-Tena Lakes/ Manuelle Gautrand

Aimed for sustainability as well as innovation and a construction argued to offer many job opportunities in the city, The Tena Tower- Tena Lakes is an ambitious urban complex project with a mixed use tower, 200 villas and facilities set to be located in the wealthy district of Ouaga 2000 in the southern part of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Designed in the context of a landlocked country with few ...

Opera Village Laongo/ Kéré Architecture

Initiated by the German film and theatre director, actor and artist Christoph Schlingensief, the Opera Village is an arts education project operated by Festspielhaus Afrika. When Francis Kéré first heard the idea of an opera house for Africa, he thought that it was crazy until he met Christoph Schlingensief, the initiator and visionary of the project "Opera House for Africa”. The architect’s co...

Of Cities & Urban Themes: A case of Zanzibar Stone Town

The first mention of Zanzibar was in 1499 by Vasco da Gama, who wrote “came close a large island called Jangibar which is peopled by moors”. Originally ‘bar of Zangh’, a name which has Arab origins meaning ‘the coast of the black people’ became ‘Zinjbar’ and later ‘Zanjibar’.

ArchiDATUM Dates: Joe Gitau on the Psychedelic Battle with Paint

Meet Joe Gitau Kamau, an artist and art collector who believes in art as a hobby, a business, and a community service. A man with hearty laughter and high spirits, his greatest contentment so far comes from the tremendous collection of Joe Ashley’s psychedelic paintings, 52 in total. He has collected art from other artists both from local and international artists and has sold over 112 major pa...

Great City or Terrible Place: Experiencing Lamu

While the history and origin of the Waswahili people remains a contentious issue, scholars of culture and house form have in the past acknowledged that there is an obvious difficulty in attempting to transfer ideas and concepts from one culture to another. Swahili culture has been seen to display a myriad of influences from the wider Indian Ocean, producing an integrated mix that is different f...

Centre pour le Bien-être des Femmes/ FARE Studio

Focused on contrasting the diffusion of Female Genital Mutilation/Excision [FGM], the CBF [Centre pour le Bien-être des Femmes] Women’s Health Centre in Burkina Faso complex investigates the possibility of creating a prototype for cooperation in development in Sub Saharan Countries. The social/health-services program developed by AIDOS, together with its local partners, focuses on providing edu...

Great City or Terrible Place: The Durban Experience

Undoubtedly, when discussing great cities and urban themes, the colonial port-and/or-capital is still a major legacy that has yet to be overcome. Out of Africa’s 50 largest cities, fully 28 are cities of those historical types. Thirteen of the other 22 largest cities are in Nigeria and South Africa, pointing to another, related element of the colonial legacy. Durban is one such city- a historic...