African Architecture Matters Team

• Berend van der Lans (Director)
• Antoni Folkers (Director)
• Rachel Stella Jenkins (Art Director)

Berend van der Lans (Director)

Berend van der Lans is an architect, trained as at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Since 1992 he has been working in various architectural practices in Europe and Africa.

In 2000, shortly after the return from 3 years of working experience in Tanzania, he started the ArchiAfrika foundation together with 4 other Dutch architects with similar experience. The organisation was set up with the aim, to put African architecture and urbanism on the world map, by spreading knowledge on the subject and enhance the architectural debate on the continent.

Berend has been core member of ArchiAfrika from the start. Since 2005 he was responsible for the secretariat and editor of website and newsletter, while also coordinating various projects and conferences. Since 2010 he is appointed Secretary of the Board of ArchiAfrika.

Recently Berend started African Architecture Matters together with Antoni Folkers, aiming at contributing to projects and research related to African architecture and urbanism, as well as supporting the ArchiAfrika network.

As an architect, Berend van der Lans has been involved in a wide range of projects, from rural hospitals in Africa to complicated European inner city designs and execution. Since 2007 he started BKvdL [www.bkvdl.nl], offering architecture, project coordination and research services. He has produced a number of articles and given lectures on various topics on architecture in Africa.

Antoni Folkers (Director)

Antoni Folkers (1960) is an architect and urban designer. He commenced his studies in art and art history at John Carroll University in Cleveland in 1978 and obtained his Masters in Architecture at the Delft University of Technology in 1986. He commenced his professional career as researcher and designer in Ouagadougou before joining the Institute for Tropical Building (IFT) of Dr G Lippsmeier in Starnberg, Germany. For Lippsmeier he became Resident Architect for East Africa in 1988. In 1992, together with Belinda van Buiten and later Geoffrey Wilks, he founded FBW Architects [www.fbwarchitecten.nl] with offices in Manchester, Dar es Salaam, Utrecht and Kampala. Since, he has been director and senior designer in the firm. The firm has won various awards for their innovative projects in the field of technology, culture and the public realm in African and Europe.

In 2001, together with colleagues Janneke Bierman, Belinda van Buiten, Berend van der Lans and Joep Mol, he founded ArchiAfrika. In 2010, after handing over the management of ArchiAfrika to network partners, he founded African Architecture Matters with Berend van der Lans.

Antoni Folkers published a wide range of articles and papers on architectural subjects.  Recently (April 2010) he published two works on African architecture: Mtoni -  Palace, Sultan & Princess of Zanzibar and Modern Architecture in Africa. The latter book, on his 25 years of building and research experience in Africa, is also subject of the PhD research under supervision of Wytze Patijn, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology.

Antoni Folkers has given guest lectures on African architectural subjects since the early nineties. He has been tutor to master studios at Delft University of Technology and is initiator and curator of the recently launched joint Master Studio Africa between the universities in Maputo, Pretoria and Delft.

Rachel Stella Jenkins (Art Director)

Rachel Stella Jenkins (1983) born in Mozambique, graduated from her undergraduate degree in Interior & Environmental design in Scotland. Following a year where she worked in film & documentary in Mozambique she completed her Masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands (2007). Graduating from the Man & Humanity department; Master in Humanitarian Design and Sustainable Style headed by Satyendra Pakhalé. Rachel focused her thesis project on identity and globalisation in modern Africa.

Since compleating her Masters Rachel commenced a multi-disciplinary design studio, gENUINEfake® [www.genuinefakedesign.com] focusing on socio-cultural dynamics. Graphic design jobs have included doing posters and the corporate identity of African Architecture Matters.

Rachel commenced working at ArchiAfrika in 2008 where she is responsible for the visual communications, developing concepts for the bi-monthly digital magazine alongside the editor Berend van der Lans, the graphic design of the magazine, researching & writing articles for the magazine and website – which includes doing interviews and attending conferences, co-ordinating the website updates and overall art direction of the public relations of ArchiAfrika. This collaboration continues through African Architecture Matters.

______________________________________________________________

Astrid Aarsen (Project Assistant)

Astrid Aarsen is an architecture critic, researcher and founder of Architectuurzaken (Architectural Matters). She is working on different projects in the field of Architecture and prefers to write, advice and do research through unusual and different perspectives looking for new approaches and cross-overs: where the new meets the old, where the aesthetic meets careful craftsmanship, where architecture meets the practice of everyday life. Recently she published on the cultural-spatial impact of managing (future) heritage, a book commissioned by The Netherlands Institute for Heritage. This semester she will guest lecture in Architecture Criticism at the University of Technology Eindhoven (TU/e) and the debate moderator of the START-UP’s , a series with young creative architectural talent, organized by The Architecture Institute of Rotterdam (AIR). At the moment Architectuurzaken supports AA Matters concerning the competition Blueprints of Paradise. See also: www.architectuurzaken.nl.