Kickstarting The Rise of Afrocentric Architecture: A Bottom-Top Approach
Do architecture students in Africa have what it takes to revive dying indigenous architecture through Afrocentric design?
The answer to the above question lies within the four walls of the school. The architecture education in many schools of Architecture in Africa may differ in their teaching approach but one ideal they all share in common is the constant reference to Western Architecture.
History of Architecture in many Africa universities for one is often centered around western civilizations - the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantine, the Gothic - just to name a few. And when Africa civilization is discussed, the focus is mostly on ancient Egypt while brushing past or sometimes leaving out the culture rich architecture history of other ancient civilizations in Africa. How many students are aware there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt? How many are aware of Zimbabwe Great stone wall? How many knows about the Ethiopian Coptic churches entirely hewed out of the ground? How many knows that the ancient Benin walls were about four times longer than the Great wall of China? Yet a look at the ancient Kush civilization (Sudan), Ethiopian Civilization, Songhai Civilization ( Mali), Benin Civilization etc will reveal much of Africa’s rich architecture history that rival and in some cases surpass Western Architecture history.
Another instances where focus is often on Western architecture is the design class. Many a time, the students projects are avantgarde designs drawn from the west with little or no connection with the realities in Africa societies. Also, it is not uncommon to for western design and construction methodology to be applied verbatim to design problems that needs indigenous solutions like art and cultural center, museum, palace etc and this in turn produces designs that starkly contrast the cultural ideal of the society they are meant to project.
Refocusing the attention on architecture history of ancient Africa civilizations will unravel their culture rich architecture from which design ideas and inspiration for afrocentric designs can be drawn from. Also, a case study of these indigenous civilizations will reveal traditional design and construction methodologies which can be integrated into the students' contemporary design projects.
In addition, field trips to see the indigenous architecture of local communities should be encouraged or organized as it will create a mental impression in the students subconscious mind and together with the aforementioned interventions will endear the students towards indigenous architecture, spark the interest in traditional design process and kick start the rise of afrocentric architecture.
