We Need New African Architecture

With 600 million people expected to migrate to African cities by 2050, Africa must rethink its architecture as existing approaches have proven inadequate.

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, Demas Nwoko’s Natural Synthesis and the Rise of African Architecture. Buy the issue here.

More than ever before, and less than ever again, humanity is an urban species. It is expected that by 2050, 57 per cent of the global population will live in cities, and 90 per cent of future population growth will be accounted for by urban dwellers. This is particularly true on the African continent, where climate catastrophe and the collapse of indigenous communities will drive millions into already-strained cities. Urbanization, as we have seen it in Africa, has hardly been an encouraging process, being primarily one of overcrowding, slumification, and a lack of infrastructure development by the state: 84 per cent of the continent’s urban dwellers have access to drinking water while 54 per cent to sanitation. In the coming decades, we will only see this process accelerate, and conditions worsen.

This poses a challenge for African governments, businesses and communities: how do we address the problems of rapid urbanization? And more than that, how can we use architecture to shape authentically African cities? The solution lies in looking back to indigenous architectural methods and looking around to innovations in design and construction.

In order to address the problems of climate change and sustainability, slumification and public health, architects across the continent are embracing modern technologies and traditional techniques. I argue that this blend of tradition and innovation offers us a scalable approach to urbanization. To understand where African architecture is today, and where it might be going, it is worth understanding where it comes from...

This essay features in our print issue, ‘Demas Nwoko’s Natural Synthesis and the Rise of African Architecture, and is available to read for free. Simply register for a Free Pass to continue reading.

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