Edited by Luis Fernández-Galiano, this volume gives insight in some of the interesting projects of the African continent and the Middle East. AAmatters director Antoni Folkers contributed to this publication with a chapter on Central and Eastern Africa, but also ArchiAfrika friends Iain Low, Nnamdi Elleh, Suha Ozkan, Hassan Radoine and Farrokh Derakhshani contributed to this book. Among many others you will find work of Daniela Diwouta-Kotto, Francis Kéré, Noero Wolff architects, Jose Forjaz, KILO architecture, Peter Rich and FBW Architects. You can flip through the book here. 

The ArchiAfrika newsletter on the National Museum of Ghana is just spread, with contributions from Rachel Stella Jenkins, Rafael Chikukwa, Mae-ling Jovenes Lokko and Fatric Bewong. Does the role of National Museums in Africa have to be reviewed? In this newsletter, through the case of the museum in Accra, this question is discussed. In Accra this discussion is continuing through the activities of the Friends of the National Museum. You can download the newsletter here in English and French.

(photo Elena Cattani)

The exhibition Learning from Casablanca is dismantled over last weekend, but it lives on through some reviews and a facebook page. Casamemoire and AAmatters are preparing for the next steps in this journey. We will explore what the lessons from Casablanca could mean for contemporary planning challenges. We keep you updated.

Meanwhile read the reviews at Archdaily and Made in Medina and follow Learning from Casablanca on Facebook.

Opening session during the key-note lecture of Saskia Sassen (photo Rachel Stella Jenkins)

Nearly 4 weeks ago, the 5th African Perspectives conference opened in Casablanca, Morocco. Another successful gathering of students, academics and professionals in the fields related to architecture and planning in Africa, organised by the network organisation ArchiAfrika.

The conference closed after a number of very interesting interventions, exhibitions and debates, in search for new ways of approaching the challenges of planning for the future, not only restricted to Africa. More news on this will follow.

This photostream will give you a glimpse of the events taking place.

Read about the latest news and activities of African Architecture Matters in the newsletter via http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a985ccc339a56cccb87d5c9a5&id=dedadaa6da&e=7d3fe8663b.

There is news on African Perspectives 2011, the exhibitions Learning from Casablanca and Stars of Dar as well as the announcement of lectures / debates at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. 

Happy reading!

With projects in Sao Paulo and Ghana, students from the academy in Amsterdam are intrigued by the position of the architect while working abroad. Heinrich Wolff, highly successful prize winning architect from South Africa is often crossing borders in his country. After his lecture for ‘designers of the future’ in Delft on 10 November (see www.designersofthefuture.nl), he shares his ideas on border crossing with the Amsterdam crowd. Kunle Adeyemi (to be confirmed) has been key member of Rem Koolhaas’ OMA team for many years. After his involvement in OMA’s innovative projects in his home country Nigeria, China and elsewhere in the world, he started NLé, focusing on shaping the architecture of development cities. AAmatters director Berend van der Lans is co-founder of ArchiAfrika, the network organization with focus on architecture in Africa which has border-crossing in the core of the veins.

After three short introductions on the basis of their work, the speakers will be in discussion on the pros and cons of working in other environments. You are all invited to join. You will find the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture here.

After a successful opening of at the Urban Dreamscape project, part of the event ‘Global City – Local Identity?’ in Dar es Salaam, Stars of Dar is moving on and actually is now on display at one of its Stars! The exhibition is being built up at the Slipway in Dar es Salaam and can be visited for free most part of the day.

Moreover you will be able to find everything about the Stars of Dar on the dedicated web page starsofdar.tumblr.com. You can see the videos on Dar es Salaams most important public spaces already now.

Stars of Dar is a project developed by the Architects Association of Tanzania and African Architecture Matters, in close collaboration with the ARDHI University.

Casablanca served as laboratory for European architects to experiment with modernist mass housing in the 40’s and 50’s. The visions of modernist architecture spread all over the world, suggesting new structures in housing, work, transport, and leisure. 

The spatial structure in Casablanca has been extremely transformed and appropriated by the inhabitants over time to respond to the requirements and aspirations of everyday life. The exhibition Learning from Casablanca shows the results of multi disciplinary studies undertaken in the previous year by students from Morocco and various parts of Europe. Films, multimedia presentations, posters and models present the stories behind the transformation. 

The ‘debates on tour’, organised with the Netherlands Architecture institute as part of African Perspectives 2011 on 4 November at the Sacre Coeur and on 5 November at the Ecole Superieure de l’Architecture, will use these unplanned developments as starting point for a debate on the possibilities of adaptation in contemporary planning issues. . 

Learning from Casablanca is developed by Casamemoire and African Architecture Matters, with contributions from the Ecole Superieure de Casablanca, Université Hassan II, Delft University of Technology, the universities of Utrecht and Stockholm, ARCAM, the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Morocco and the City of Amsterdam. The project is generously made possible by the Netherlands Architecture Fund.

African Perspectives 2011 in Casablanca is about to start. The 5th conference of ArchiAfrika, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is again going to be special. From 3 to 5 November an international crowd will gather and visit places in Morocco’s largest city for lectures, debates, exhibitions, films and more on ‘the African Metropolis’. Many countries in Africa but also from elsewhere in the world are represented. Find the programme – with Saskia Sassen, Farrokh Derakhshani, Iain Low, Abderrahim Kassou, Jord den Hollander, Ola Uduku, Tom Avermaete, Joe Osae-Addo, Antoni Folkers and many others -  on www.african-perspectives.com.

We are confident that we can organize streaming of at least part of the African Perspectives event. Keep an eye at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/african-architecture-matters if you want to be with us over long distance!

When the Dutch Afrika Museum wanted to give its visitors an idea of current day Africa, African Architecture Matters advised them to ask people on the continent themselves how they wanted to be represented. An interesting experiment involving an architectural competition with an outcome unknown to the museum’s planners: ‘The time a Western ethnographic museum could say “this is how it is over there” is over.’

Read Femke van Zeijl’s article here.