African Design Magazine ADM #34 October 2017 | Page 47
Modernism:
The African Perspective
In the 1940s and '50s, experiments in architecture and urban planning were
carried out across the African continent, mostly by Western modernist
architects, who were particularly influential in the creation of mass housing
schemes in Morocco and Algeria.
When African nations started gaining independence, between the 1950s and
'80s, colonisers used “International Style” to show their good intentions of
leading colonies toward the future. In May 1981, the new African Union of
Architects began uniting architects of all races, religions and nationalities across
the continent.
Other national architect associations and action networks — such as
Adventurers in Diaspora, Casamémoire, Doual'art and ArchiAfrika — were
created to stimulate the debate on the quality of the built environment and the
value of Africa's artistic and architectural heritage.
With the fast pace of economic growth in Africa from 2000 to 2008, these
organizations kept a concerned eye on valuable architectural assets in African
cities — the historical buildings in the city centre of Dar es Salaam, for example,
and the National Museum in Ghana. Architects and academics alike within the
continent began paying more a ention to the buildings in their countries.
“Up to now, important projects on the continent were designed by foreign
architects. When you go to a bookshop, even in Africa...all the books wri en on
African architecture are wri en by people from outside of the continent, with
an anthropologist perspective or for tourists.” - Jean Charles Tall, architect and
founder of the College Universitair d'Architecture de Dakar.
Forums of discussion between
practicing architects, students
and academics, he says, will
allow this generation to further
voice its own opinion and
move African architecture onto
the global stage.
The former worker's club building
is now the National Union of
Eritrean Women's ofce
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