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Below the curation of architect and tutorial Lesley Lokko, this 12 months’s Venice Biennale of Structure put a strong highlight on the constructed surroundings of Africa, particularly on housing, a urgent concern for the continent’s dense cities in addition to its far-flung villages. In a present stuffed with surprises, 5 exhibitors—their work starting from rising applied sciences to intriguing historic insights—stood out, providing a panoramic view of the housing scene in Africa right this moment.
Because the founding precept of Atelier Masomi, Mariam Issoufou Kamara, a Niger-born and -based architect, has racked up a powerful record of initiatives, particularly within the nation’s capital of Niamey, the place her 2016 Niamey 2000 Housing challenge superior a brand new mannequin for high-density residing within the metropolis. Kamara and her workforce used Lokko’s invitation as a possibility to display the deeper springs of her observe, not simply within the housing discipline however throughout a spread of typologies, making a mural-like illustration that includes a sampling of their portfolio. The same tactic, this time rendered in textile, appeared within the set up from the South African-based workforce of Heinrich and Ilze Wolff, recognized for his or her 2013 Home within the Mountains amongst different initiatives.
No much less exceptional than the work on show on this 12 months’s Biennale was the style wherein it was displayed. On the behest of the Biennale curator, contributors had been inspired to share their initiatives through the medium of video, a low-carbon different to the bigger and extra complicated installations seen in earlier exhibitions. The designer-engineer workforce of Doudou Déme and collaborators Nzinga Biegueng Mbpou and Chérif Tall responded with “Burnt Ban”, a brief movie documenting their ingenious system for constructing homes, social initiatives, and extra utilizing an modern rammed-earth brick know-how. One fan of the fabric is Sir David Adjaye, who has included it in latest initiatives as a part of his mission (as he put it throughout a public look throughout the preview week) to get architects “critical about constructing in Africa.”
With all of the challenges going through housing in Africa right this moment, it appears solely becoming to ask: How did we get right here? From London, an fascinating reply got here by means of the Victoria & Albert Museum, whose impartial set up “Tropical Modernism: Structure and Energy in West Africa” makes use of video and archival supplies to have a look at the complicated cultural change between the U.Ok. and its former African colonies in Ghana after independence. Says the museum’s Chris Turner, “We wished to point out the ability behind the concrete.”
Transferring past typical concepts of the house, designers in Venice explored the broader problems with land use and livability which can be key to what’s occurring right this moment within the international South. “PlugIn Busua” from designers Glenn DeRoché and Juergen Strohmayer is an adaptive-reuse scheme for a multi-functional group facility within the Ghanaian city of Busua, situated on a slim stretch of coast the place scarce land and supplies for housing leaves little room for collective gathering areas. “It was about creating a spot the place the group can come collectively with out these pressures,” says DeRoché. Via their collage-like set up, composed of castoff odds and ends, the architect and his accomplice introduced a bit little bit of Ghana to Italy.
Wolff Architects, Tectonic Shifts
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