Africa Archives | Minimal Blogs

Afrofuturism has become the buzzword for the fast-growing creative scene across Africa. Here are 10 figures that are championing the movement, through designs that combine African heritage with visions for the future. Osborne Macharia This creative photographer from Nairobi, Kenya, describes all his work as being within the afrofuturist genre. A recent commission from Marvel

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Afrofuturism is “creating a different narrative for Africa” say creatives

The success of Black Panther and its afrofuturist aesthetic has put Africa in the spotlight as a growing force in design, technology and fashion, according to designers from the continent. African designers, architects and filmmakers told Dezeen that the Marvel movie, which features a black superhero and is set in fictional African country Wakanda, has focused

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SCAU to design stadium for Africa Nations Cup in Ivory Coast

by India Block

SCAU has won a competition to design a 20,000-seater football stadium in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, to host matches at the 2021 Africa Nations Cup. The £50 million Stade de Yamoussoukro, which will be built in Ivory Coast’s administrative capital, is one of six stadiums that will host games during the tournament. The Paris-based architecture firm’s proposal sinks three

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Snøhetta and Local Studio build tribute arch to Desmond Tutu in Cape Town

Architecture firms Snøhetta and Local Studio celebrate South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu with this monumental arch, which was unveiled in downtown Cape Town during this year’s Design Indaba. Called Arch for Arch, the memorial structure was created to commemorate the tireless efforts of Tutu – the nation’s first black archbishop – in campaigning for democracy in

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David Adjaye unveils plans for National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra

by Natasha Levy

British architect David Adjaye has revealed designs for a new cathedral in Ghanaian capital Accra, which will host a 5,000-seat auditorium beneath a dramatic concave roof. The cathedral will be Adjaye Associate’s first major project in Accra, where it has previously only worked on private residential projects. The practice is planning to open its own office

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Studio KO celebrates Yves Saint Laurent’s fashion oeuvre with Marrakech museum

A lace-like brickwork facade and an interior inspired by a couture jacket lining are just some of the fashion-inspired features of Studio KO’s Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech. Dedicated to the work of legendary couturier Yves Saint Laurent, the 4,000-square-metre building is the first dedicated fashion museum in Africa. It includes permanent and temporary exhibition spaces,

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Diébédo Francis Kéré says school that launched his career is “not a traditional African building”

by India Block

In this exclusive movie produced by Dezeen, Serpentine Pavilion architect Diébédo Francis Kéré reveals how building a school for his home village in Burkina Faso was the starting point for his career. Kéré was born in a village named Gando, a village on the east side of the African country. While studying to become an architect in Germany, back

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Durban heritage museum scoops top prize in inaugural Africa Architecture Awards

by Eleanor Gibson

A museum in coastal South African city Durban has been named best new building in Africa, in the continent’s inaugural architecture awards. Umkhumbane Cultural and Heritage Museum, by local firm Choromanski Architects, was awarded the Grand Prix in the Africa Architecture Awards, the first Pan-African architecture awards programme, which was established by construction group Saint-Gobain to showcase Africa’s

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Thomas Heatherwick: “There was a real worry about whether we could get people to come inside”

In an exclusive interview with Dezeen, designer Thomas Heatherwick reveals how he overcame early fears that no one would visit the art galleries in his new Cape Town art museum. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, or Zeitz MOCAA, opened last week and is now South Africa’s biggest art museum. Located inside a converted 1920s grain

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Thomas Heatherwick reveals Zeitz MOCAA art galleries carved out of Cape Town grain silo

Thomas Heatherwick has created South Africa’s biggest art museum – by hollowing out the inside of a historic grain silo building. Described by the British designer as “the world’s tubiest building”, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, or Zeitz MOCAA, is set to become the world’s most important exhibition space for African art. It

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Ghana’s “UFO-like” National Theatre photographed by Julien Lanoo

French photographer Julien Lanoo took these images of the National Theatre of Ghana built in Accra in the early 90s, which features smooth, white volumes elevated above the surrounding streetscape. Lanoo has travelled to Ghana regularly in recent years to photograph or film architectural projects including an eco lodge in Cape Three Points and a children’s hospital in

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White latticed screens encase apartment block in Kenya by Urko Sanchez Architects

by Eleanor Gibson

White mashrabiya-style screens cover these apartments in Mombasa, Kenya, which Nairobi-based Urko Sanchez Architects designed to provide residents with privacy but also views out to sea. Tudor Apartments is located on a site overlooking the coast and flanked by a housing development on one side and a private residence on the other that may later be turned into

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New Burkina Faso parliament building “responds to needs of the people” says Diébédo Francis Kéré

by Olivia Mull

Movie: in this exclusive Dezeen movie, Burkinabe architect Diébédo Francis Kéré explains how he is rebuilding his country’s National Assembly to be “more than just a simple parliament building”. In 2014, the Burkina Faso parliament building was set ablaze during the country’s revolution, putting an end to 31 years of dictatorial rule. Kéré is now leading the scheme

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Diébédo Francis Kéré uses local materials for ring-shaped school in Burkina Faso

Wind-catching towers emerge from the circular rippled roof of this brick and wood school building in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, which was designed by the architect of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, Diébédo Francis Kéré. Berlin- and Burkina Faso-based Kéré designed the Lycée Schorge Secondary School for a site on the outskirts on Koudougou – the West African

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Farm tower proposed for Africa wins international skyscraper competition

Polish designers Pawel Lipiński and Mateusz Frankowski have designed a conceptual high-rise building for sub-Saharan Africa that would be filled with crops, helping address issues of hunger and poverty. Titled Mashambas Skyscraper, the project won first place in the eVolo Skyscraper Competition, which annually invites architects and designers to conceive futuristic towers. The winner was chosen

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Huge inclined roof spans cathedral built by John McAslan + Partners on Kenyan tea plantation

John McAslan + Partners has built a cathedral on the edge of a tea plantation outside Nairobi, Kenya, featuring a tiled and angled roof lined with wooden slats. Kericho Cathedral is the latest in a string of worship spaces designed by John McAslan’s London-based team, which is also working on Britain’s largest mosque. Located around 250 kilometres southwest of the Kenyan capital, in

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Snøhetta presents memorial arch to Desmond Tutu at Design Indaba

by Lysiane-Marie | LINES MANNER

Snøhetta has revealed a prototype of an arch in honour of South African social-rights activist Desmond Tutu, which will be built near the National Parliament in Cape Town. Developed as a partnership between Oslo- and New York-based Snøhetta and Johannesburg office Local Studio, the Memorial Arch was unveiled during the finale of the Design Indaba 2017 conference in Cape Town.

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Inspiration Gallery I Island – PART III

Inspiration GALLERY Nosy Be region. Madagascar, November 2016.

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Exhibition reveals role of modernist architecture in liberated African nations

A current show at New York’s Center for Architecture reveals how several sub-Saharan African countries used modernist architecture to assert their identities, following a break from colonial rule in the 20th century. The exhibition, Architecture of Independence – African Modernism, explores the history and legacy of modernist architecture in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and

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“Poverty should never be an Instagram filter”

by Phineas Harper

Iwan Baan’s arresting images of the Kenyan school built by architect duo Selgascano are a typical example of the slum porn that has infiltrated western media, argues Phineas Harper in his latest Opinion column. As a racist president settles into a newly gold-curtained Oval Office and a wave of xenophobia sweeps Europe, dramatic racial inequality has

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Toshiko Mori uses compressed earth and bamboo for cultural hub in remote Senegalese village

This cultural centre in Senegal by Japanese architect Toshiko Mori was constructed using exclusively local materials and techniques – and has been recognised in the architecture category of the 2017 AIA Awards. Located in the remote village of Sinthian, the building performs several programmatic roles for the local community, including as a gathering space, performance centre and residency for

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Selgascano-designed pavilion transformed into school for Kenya’s Kibera slum

by Lysiane-Marie | LINES MANNER

A colourful pavilion designed by Spanish architect duo Selgascano has been shipped from a Copenhagen art museum to Africa’s largest slum, where it now serves as a school for 600 orphaned children. As revealed in these exclusive photographs by Iwan Baan, the pavilion constructed by José Selgas and Lucía Cano at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art has been

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Inspiration Gallery I Island Part II

Inspiration Gallery. Isalo Desert. Eco Hotel ‘Princesse du Lagon’, Mangily. Tutelar, Madagascar, October 2016.

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La Voûte Nubienne revives ancient building technique to “transform housing” in Africa

by Ben Hobson

Future Makers: in this movie, Thomas Granier explains why his organisation La Voûte Nubienne believes the future of housing in sub-Saharan Africa can be transformed by reviving a 3,500-year-old building technique. Called Nubian vault, the technique originates from the ancient civilisation of Nubia located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It enables

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Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge provides luxury getaway in remote African beauty spot

by Dan Howarth

A+Awards: the African armadillo influenced the curved, scale-covered form of this boutique safari lodge in Botswana – one of the winners at this year’s Architizer A+Awards. Designed by South African firm Nicholas Plewman Architects and UK studio Michaelis Boyd, the Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge sits in the heart of the Okavango Delta – a UNESCO More

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Designer Lekan Jeyifo imagines vertical shanty towns for central Lagos

by Eleanor Gibson

Designer Lekan Jeyif has created a dystopian vision of shanty-town towers in Lagos, Nigeria, to highlight the poor standard of living in the city’s impoverished areas (+ slideshow). Entitled Shanty Megastructures, the designs transform shanty dwellings into sleek high-rise towers in the centre of Lagos – Nigeria’s largest city, and the location of its main industrial and commercial activities. Jeyifo has created a video outlining More

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What Design Can Do to examine design’s role in Europe’s “identity crisis”

by Anna Winston

Dezeen promotion: this year’s What Design Can Do conference will focus on European identity and how the continent can learn from new initiatives emerging in Africa (+ slideshow). Taking place in Amsterdam from 30 June to 1 July, the annual design conference will this year coincide with the end of the Dutch presidency of the More

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A House On A Rock Overlooking A Dam

by Anna Ker

London-based architecture practice Studio Seilern worked with Muzia Sforza to designed the Gota Dam House near Harare, Zimbabwe.
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Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform creates mobile workshops for world’s largest e-waste dump

A team of architects have launched an initiative to build a network of “makerspace” structures at Agbogbloshie, Ghana – the world’s largest dumping site for electronic waste (photos by Julien Lanoo + slideshow). Low Design Office founder DK Osseo-Asare and French architect Yasmine Abbas began the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) to demonstrate the potential of More

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Local Architecture transforms 1960s house into Swiss embassy for Ivory Coast

Angular concrete columns surround this extension to a 1960s villa in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan, which Local Architecture has reconfigured to house the Swiss embassy (+ slideshow). The mid-century residence was once home to the Norwegian ambassador, and stands in grounds dotted with mature trees in the city’s affluent Cocody district. Lausanne-based Local Architecture’s primary challenge was to convert and More

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Timber and granite residence by Sforza Seilern stands on a rocky slab above an African dam

This home and recording studio for a musician perches between overhanging slabs on a huge boulder overlooking a dam in east Africa (+ slideshow). Gota Dam Residence: A House on a Rock is designed by Sforza Seilern Architects – a collaboration between London-based practices Studio Seilern Architects and Muzia Sforza Architecture. The 1,500-square-metre dwelling is sandwiched between two More

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Phillip Lühl uses “bagged concrete bricks” to build two extensions to a Namibia house

Architect Phillip Lühl has added a pair of extensions to a Modernist house in Namibia, using cement brickwork textured with the coarse fibres of hessian fabric (+ slideshow). Lühl, a lecturer at the Polytechnic of Namibia, wanted the new additions to stand in contrast with the original 1960s property, which features smooth white-rendered walls. To achieve More

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Concrete garden pavilion by Metropolis offers outdoor dining to a Cape Town villa

South African studio Metropolis has completed a concrete pavilion in the grounds of a house in Cape Town, featuring sheltered seating and dining areas with views of nearby Table Mountain (+ slideshow). The Midden Garden Pavilion was designed by Cape Town-based Metropolis as part of the renovation of the villa and its grounds in the affluent suburb of Constantia. The More

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SelgasCano’s Louisiana Pavilion to be reused as a school in Kenya’s Kibera slum

by Marcus Fairs

A pavilion designed by architects SelgasCano for a Copenhagen art museum is being transported to a Nairobi slum, where it will serve as a school for 600 pupils (+ slideshow). The Louisiana Hamlet Pavilion has been packed in shipping containers and is on its way to Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa, where it will More

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Annabelle Selldorf designs new primary school for rural Zambia

A New York-based nonprofit organisation has commissioned Selldorf Architects to design an elementary school for a remote village in southern Zambia. The Mwabwnido School is being funded by 14+ Foundation, a charity that aims to build and operate schools and orphanages in rural African communities. Slated to break ground in 2016, the facility will be […]

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US firm announces plans to open “the Bauhaus of Africa”

MASS Design Group, a nonprofit US firm, plans to start an architecture and design training centre in Kigali, Rwanda, to help address the “dearth of professional designers” across Africa (+ movie). MASS, which has offices in Boston and Kigali, will announce its plans for the new African Design Center at the United Nations Solutions Summit on […]

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Hollmén Reuter Sandman uses local materials and motifs for Kilimanjaro women’s refuge

The culture, climate and resources of Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region informed the design of this refuge for victims of domestic violence, made up of various yellow buildings arranged around a courtyard (+ slideshow). Located in the city of Moshi, the shelter was designed by Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects for the Kilimanjaro Women Information Exchange and Consultancy Organization […]

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African architecture subject of major exhibition at Copenhagen’s Louisiana Museum

The work of architects including Diébédo Francis Kéré, Heinrich Wolff and SelgasCano features in a new exhibition about African design open the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen (+ slideshow). The show – titled Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity – is a major survey of architecture and design in Sub-Saharan Africa, which encompasses 49 countries […]

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Nkabom House is a prototypical Ghanaian home made from mud and waste plastic

This student-designed house in Ghana pairs rammed-earth walls with translucent screens made from used water packaging, demonstrating how traditional construction can be combined with recycling (+ slideshow). Nkabom House was designed by Anna Webster, a fourth-year architecture student at The Cass, London Metropolitan University’s school of art, architecture and design. The original concept was a response to a competition […]

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David Adjaye to turn Johannesburg high-rise into plant-covered apartment block

Adjaye Associates has unveiled a proposal to transform a 1970s industrial building in Johannesburg into luxury apartments and a hotel, with balconies covered in plants (+ slideshow). David Adjaye’s firm – which has also just revealed a £600 million scheme for London’s Piccadilly – will overhaul the 17-storey building known as Hallmark House, in the South African city’s fast-developing […]

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into plant-covered apartment block appeared first on Dezeen.

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Hewn limestone walls and an overhanging roof enclose a hillside home in Nairobi

Jonathan Woolf Architects used chiselled limestone to construct this family home near Nairobi, which is built into a hillside and topped by a heavy sloping roof (+ slideshow). London-based Jonathan Woolf Architects designed Lost Villa as a home for 11 inhabitants in a forest outside Kenya’s capital city. Related story: Slot windows offer starry views from Swartberg House by […]
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Solar-powered housing by Louise Braverman accommodates medical staff in an African village

Solar panels provide all the energy needed to power this colourful brick dormitory designed by architect Louise Braverman to house medical staff at a rural village in Burundi, Africa (+ slideshow). The Village Health Works Staff Housing accommodates an 18-bed dormitory for the healthcare workers of a medical centre in the 16-hectare village of Kigutu. It was designed by New York-based Louise Braverman as […]
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Africa’s tallest skyscraper to be built in Morocco next year