ARCHITECTS
Africa is a land under construction. Last year, over $220 billion was
spent on all kinds of building projects in the continent. While foreign
architects have clamored to make their mark in the region, a range of
local talent has also stepped forward to shape their landscape (and in
some cases, export their aesthetic abroad). CNN recently looked at the
continent’s most exciting architects.
A
frica is a land under construction. Last year, over $220 billion
was spent on all kinds of building projects in the continent.
While foreign architects have clamoured to make their mark in
the region, a range of local talent has also stepped forward to
shape their landscape (and in some cases, export their aesthetic
abroad).
“Africa is constantly looking to the North. It doesn’t always
look in its own backyard, but the truth is, there’s a lot of very
good indigenous knowledge on the continent,” says Iain Low, a
professor of architecture at the University of Cape Town and editor the South African
edition of Architectural Digest.
In celebration of that knowledge, CNN Inside Africa took a look at some of Africa’s
most exciting contemporary architects.
David Adjaye
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Born in Tanzania, “starchitect” David Adjaye is the son of a Ghanaian diplomat
and spent his childhood traveling the globe before settling in Britain at the age of
nine. The multi-award winning architect (he has scooped up numerous accolades
from both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the American Institute of
Architects) has been tapped for a number of high-profile projects over the years,
most recently the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and
Culture in Washington DC and the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory in the Isle
africandesignmagazine.com