INNOVATION AT THE SERVICE OF COMMUNITYPROJECTS IN AFRICA_ Part 1

The African continent is human to the human race and civilization, a civilization reflected in its ancient architecture. From the Pyradis in Egypt to the Nubian pyramids at Meroe to the ruin of the temple at Yeha, Ethiopia. Architecture has served African societies in multiple ways throughout history. In recent years, Africa is well known and depicted mainly on the humanitarian side by the mainstream media, blurring the rich architectural heritage the continent has brought to the world. However, the continent is home to breathtaking sustainable designs. The uniqueness of some buildings currently designed in Africa by various local as well as foreign architects is the sustainable aspect of the building and the impact they have on local communities.

Challenges Africa presents vary from a climate with an intense hit to acquiring necessary materials, yet the know-how of some remarkable architects has helped to design sustainable buildings which do respond directly to the local climate, the site, and make usage of local materials in including the local culture in the design. Taking inspiration and re-interpreting traditional and ancient local architecture, with contemporary methods and structure, the innovative architecture being implemented throughout the continent is providing immediate solutions to communities in Africa with easy access to basic services, such as education, health, water.

Empower local communities...

To illustrate the impact of the innovative architecture has on local women communities, the “Women’s Opportunity Centre’’ was designed by Sharon Davis Design, located in Katonza, Rwanda to empower one small community of women that dedicate their days to small subsistence farms, fetching freshwater, and scavenging wood for fuel. In the architect’s words, the design “revives a lost Rwandan design tradition with deep spatial and social layers. Its circular forms radiate outward, from intimate classrooms at the center of the site to a community space, farmer’s market, and the civic realm beyond. The center’s circular structures are modeled after the historic King’s Palace in southern Rwanda, whose woven-reed dwellings were part of an indigenous tradition that the region had all but lost.

The design draws on the delicacy of this vernacular Rwandan construction method with rounded, perforated brick walls that allow for passive cooling and solar shading, while maintaining a sense of privacy. Architects, in partnership with local companies, have been able to create water purification, biogas, and other sustainable systems that can be produced and maintained by the locals themselves.

Africa has not only brought to the world a rich architectural heritage, the innovative architecture being implemented on the continent continues to pursue solutions to provide a better service to local communities by inspiring itself from the cultural history of the continent through sustainable and vernacular ways to truly modify places and give people better-living conditions and also answer to poor societies, not only in Africa, but all around the world.