African Architectural Traditions
Historic and contemporary African architecture reflects the interaction of environmental factors—such as natural resources, climate, and vegetation—with the economies and population densities of the continent’s various regions.
As stone is the most durable of building materials, some ancient stone structures survive, while wood and clay have succumbed to termites and rain. Stone-walled kraals from early Sotho and Tswana settlements (South Africa and Botswana) and stone-lined pit circles with sunken kraals for cattle (Zimbabwe) have been the subject of archaeological study. Stone-corbeled shelters and circular huts with thatched roofs were also recorded in the 20th century among the southern Sotho. Rectangular and circular stone farmhouses, unusual in being two stories, have been built by the Tigre of Eritrea and Sudan for centuries, while in Niger some Tuareg build square houses in stone.
As stone is the most durable of building materials, some ancient stone structures survive, while wood and clay have succumbed to termites and rain. Stone-walled kraals from early Sotho and Tswana settlements (South Africa and Botswana) and stone-lined pit circles with sunken kraals for cattle (Zimbabwe) have been the subject of archaeological study. Stone-corbeled shelters and circular huts with thatched roofs were also recorded in the 20th century among the southern Sotho. Rectangular and circular stone farmhouses, unusual in being two stories, have been built by the Tigre of Eritrea and Sudan for centuries, while in Niger some Tuareg build square houses in stone.
Communities in rural areas build in grasses, wood, and clay. Because of the impermanence of many of these materials, existing buildings, though based on forms many centuries old, are of relatively recent date. Where vegetation is largely confined to thin grazing cover, peoples are often nomadic, using tents of animal skins and woven hair for shelter. In the veld and less-forested areas, grasses are used as building material as well, being employed widely for thatch and mat roof coverings. Hardwoods in forest regions are used for building, as are bamboo and raffia palm. Earth and clay are also major building resources. Characteristic soils of Africa include semidesert chestnut earths and laterites (reddish residuals of rock decay), which are often low in fertility but easily compacted. Earth-sheltered houses are made by the Iraqw of Tanzania, and a number of peoples in Mali and Burkina Faso have partly sunken dwellings.
Nomads
As a consequence of their hunting and gathering economy, the San of the Kalahari move frequently. Some San scherms (shelters) are little more than depressions in the ground, but groups such as the !Kung build light-framed shelters of sticks and saplings covered with grass. Other hunter-gatherers, such as the Hadza of Tanzania, live in dry savanna territory, which contains a wide range of game animals. Their domed dwellings of tied branches are given a thick thatch in winter.
Some forest dwellers, such as the Bambuti of the Ituri Forest in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, are also hunter-gatherers. Their similarly constructed temporary shelters are interlaced with crossed sticks, over which mongongo leaves are layered.
As a consequence of their hunting and gathering economy, the San of the Kalahari move frequently. Some San scherms (shelters) are little more than depressions in the ground, but groups such as the !Kung build light-framed shelters of sticks and saplings covered with grass. Other hunter-gatherers, such as the Hadza of Tanzania, live in dry savanna territory, which contains a wide range of game animals. Their domed dwellings of tied branches are given a thick thatch in winter.
Some forest dwellers, such as the Bambuti of the Ituri Forest in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, are also hunter-gatherers. Their similarly constructed temporary shelters are interlaced with crossed sticks, over which mongongo leaves are layered.
Ranch settlements
The cattle-herding pastoralists of Southern and East Africa settle for some years in one location. The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania construct an oblong, or sometimes square, low-domed hut some 20 feet (6 meters) long and at shoulder height from closely woven frames of thin leleshwa sticks and saplings. Arranged in a circle around the cattle enclosure, or manyatta, the frames are packed with leaves and plastered over with cattle dung, which acts as a deterrent to termites. The huts are aerodynamically designed to resist high winds, and the manyatta thicket boundary acts as a defensive barrier. A number of other tribes use a similar structure; the Barabaig of Tanzania, for example, build thornbush enclosures in the form of a figure eight, with one loop used as a kraal for the cattle and the other lined with huts with flat-roof frames.
The cattle-herding pastoralists of Southern and East Africa settle for some years in one location. The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania construct an oblong, or sometimes square, low-domed hut some 20 feet (6 meters) long and at shoulder height from closely woven frames of thin leleshwa sticks and saplings. Arranged in a circle around the cattle enclosure, or manyatta, the frames are packed with leaves and plastered over with cattle dung, which acts as a deterrent to termites. The huts are aerodynamically designed to resist high winds, and the manyatta thicket boundary acts as a defensive barrier. A number of other tribes use a similar structure; the Barabaig of Tanzania, for example, build thornbush enclosures in the form of a figure eight, with one loop used as a kraal for the cattle and the other lined with huts with flat-roof frames.
Beautiful buildings, ingenious innovation: Africa's most exciting architects
By Daisy Carrington, for CNN
May 27, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/27/world/africa/beautiful-buildings-africas-exciting-architects/index.html
(CNN) -- 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).
"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, we take a look at some of Africa's most exciting contemporary architects.
"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, we take a look at some of Africa's most exciting contemporary architects.
David Adjaye
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 of Portland, England.
Though Adjaye's projects span the globe, he has numerous projects in Africa, including designing the Princes Town resort, in Ghana. In 2012, he opened an office in Ghana's capital, Accra.
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 of Portland, England.
Though Adjaye's projects span the globe, he has numerous projects in Africa, including designing the Princes Town resort, in Ghana. In 2012, he opened an office in Ghana's capital, Accra.
Kunle Adeyemi
Kunle Adeyemi, the Nigerian-born founder of NLE Architects, made waves last year with the completion of one of his designs: a floating, three-story A-frame school built in Makoko, a slum on the waterfront of Lagos, Nigeria.
Bobbing on top of about 250 empty barrels, the school is designed to avoid many of the problems associated with frequently rising water levels. The structure is also green: it makes use of rainwater collection, and solar panels provide the electricity.
Though the school accommodates a mere 100 elementary school children, it has potential to act as a model for water-bound communities the world over.
"It didn't start as a big idea, I was trying to solve a small problem the community had. I realized the problem I was trying to solve was a problem for a larger part of the world," Adeymi told CNN last year.
"We're now seeing people take interest in this across Africa."
Kunle Adeyemi, the Nigerian-born founder of NLE Architects, made waves last year with the completion of one of his designs: a floating, three-story A-frame school built in Makoko, a slum on the waterfront of Lagos, Nigeria.
Bobbing on top of about 250 empty barrels, the school is designed to avoid many of the problems associated with frequently rising water levels. The structure is also green: it makes use of rainwater collection, and solar panels provide the electricity.
Though the school accommodates a mere 100 elementary school children, it has potential to act as a model for water-bound communities the world over.
"It didn't start as a big idea, I was trying to solve a small problem the community had. I realized the problem I was trying to solve was a problem for a larger part of the world," Adeymi told CNN last year.
"We're now seeing people take interest in this across Africa."
Diebedo Francis Kere
Diebedo Francis Kere's humble beginnings in the small village of Gando, Burkina Faso, have granted him a useful alternate perspective on the architectural needs of his countrymen.
"Kere is deeply grounded in the values of African society," says Low. "He's really the one person trying to transcend tradition and find a new kind of direction that locates architecture within the global self."
Though his firm, Kere Architecture, is based in Berlin, he is also committed to reinvesting his knowledge back into his home country. Burkina Faso's landscape is dotted with schools he designed -- a revolutionary approach that replaces concrete with earth bricks and employs a corrugated steel roof that is raised to allow air for better circulation.
The idea is twofold: firstly, a cooler classroom will help improve the student's concentration. Secondly, by employing local materials and labor, Kere helps empower the local community. His efforts have earned him a series of awards, including the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Mokena Makeka
For Cape Town architect Mokena Makeka, design is not merely aesthetic; it's democratizing. In both his redesign of the Railway Police Station and the Cape Town Railway Station, Makeka has been significant in putting forth a post-apartheid aesthetic (for example, for the railway station he removed the two separate entrances that -- during the apartheid era -- had been used used to segregate black and white passengers).
Makeka Design Lab, of which Makeka is the principal and founder, has been the recipient of several awards, including two Merit Awards from the Cape Institute for Architecture. Though Cape Town is still very close to Makeka's heart, he dreams of having international influence as well. In 2008, he was part of the prestigious Ordos 100 (Herzog & de Meuron handpicked 100 architects globally to put forth designs for the industrial Chinese city).
Y Tsai
Heading up the Y Tsai Design Studio, Cape Town architect Y Tsai also believes in using architecture as a means of social reform. In 2012, he won a Loerie Award for converting an old shipping container into a classroom in rural South Africa. The colorful classroom featured an outdoor jungle gym, windows to allow for cross ventilation, a steel roof that can collect rain water, and an outdoor amphitheater for school events.
"Tsai does a lot of really interesting, innovative work with containers," notes Low.
Mick Pearce
Zimbabwean architect Mick Pearce is a leader when it comes to environmental design. His mission has always been to create buildings that are not only sustainable, but low-maintenance, low-cost and which blend into their natural surroundings.
Nature is often a great source of inspiration for Pearce. One of his best-known buildings, for instance, the Eastgate Shopping Center in Harare, Zimbabwe, employed a sustainable temperature control system, using tubes in the walls to move air through the building, based on the system employed by termites. He used a similar model for CH2, a mixed-use development in Melbourne, Australia.