History

ArchiAfrika was founded in 2001 by a group of Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 architects that spent many years in Africa. When they returned to the Netherlands, they discovered that African architecture was relatively unknown in the Western world

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

and wanted to do something in order to change this situation. After their experience in Africa, they were convinced that African architecture and African architectural history are rich in depth and variety and that the rest of the world has much to gain from a stronger position of African architects within the international architectural debate and more knowledge of African Architecture in general.

Mission

ArchiAfrika's aim is to put African architecture on the map, to ensure that African Architecture is represented within the international architectural debate, to contribute to the understanding and development of African architecture by offering a platform for the exchange of knowledge and information on activities, people and projects dealing with architecture in Africa, and to stimulate the dialogue between Africa and the rest of the world on African architecture.

For whom?

ArchiAfrika's target group consists of architects, urban planners, teachers, students and academics involved in architecture and cultural, governemental and housing institutions.

Strategy

ArchiAfrika aims to reach the above mentioned goals by:

• collecting data on African architecture and making this data accessible to the target group through
  • a website
  • a search engine on African architecture
  • a newsletter on African architecture
• organizing conferences around different subjects linked to African architecture
• stimulating research on African architecture
• working on projects that introduce African contemporary architecture into the discussion and practice of Western Architecture.

Projects

• African Perspectives
  • July 2005 – Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Modern Architecture in East Africa around independence
  • June 2007 - Kumasi, Ghana: African Architecture Today\
  • December 2007 – Delft, The Netherlands: African Perspectives 2007 – Dialogues on Urbanism and Architecture
  • September 2009 – Pretoria/Tshwane, South Africa: African Perspectives 2009 – The African City CENTRE: (re)sourced
• The African House - Past, Present and Future
• Documentation centre on African Architecture
• Mtoni Palace Publication
• Searching African Architecture

External links

• ArchiAfrika Website
• Searching African Architecture: Online portal to documents on African Architecture
• African Perspectives: A series of conferences on Urbanism and Architecture in Africa
• Film Many Words for Modern: Survey of Modern Architecture in Tanzania

See also