If you can’t make it to Berg en Dal on 18 June, you are able to follow the debate via http://www.ustream.tv/channel/blueprints-of-paradise and contribute to the debate via Twitter with hashtag #BOP. Join us in real or virtual!
18 June 2011 - 15:00hrs.
Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal (NL)
image from the entry Garden City Park from Kobina Banning
It is a pleasure to invite you for an introduction to the Blueprints of Paradise exhibition, developed by African Architecture Matters in collaboration with the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, the Netherlands. You are welcome for a programme, organised with the Afrika Museum and ZAM magazine on 18 June from 14:30hrs. onwards. Please confirm your attendance through office@aamatters.nl. There is limited capacity for the event, so we advise you to be fast.
Programme
14:30 auditorium open
15:00 introductions and debate
16:00 visit of the exhibition with curators Siebe Rossel (Afrika Museum) and Berend van der Lans
17:00 drinks at the restaurant ‘De Kleine Kalebas’
The exhibition is based upon the results of the competition ‘Blueprints of Paradise’, which invited African architects and artist to make proposals for the built future of Africa. An international and multi-disciplinary jury selected 12 projects to be presented in the exhibition, among which the prize winning projects. See more information on the competition and exhibition via http://aam-blueprintsofparadise.tumblr.com.
Many entries addressed the city and more precisely the multi-disciplinary way public space is used in African cities. The jury concluded that some of the solutions brought forward in the entries could provide fruitful inspiration for addressing planning challenges in western cities. A surprising statement, since in many western eyes African cities are synonymous for poverty and problems.
Based upon quotes and statements by the participants of the competition, the debate will touch upon the quality and challenges of life in African cities. Can African cities set an example for the rest of the world?
As mentioned above, please confirm your attendance via office@aamatters.nl, indicating your name(s), organization and phone number. Registered guests can enter the museum for a reduced entrance fee (€ 5,00 per person). If you are a Museumkaart holder, the museum entrance is free. You will find the Afrika Museum at Postweg 6, 6571 CS BERG EN DAL. (See for directions www.afrikamuseum.nl)
We look forward to seeing you on the 18th June!
Kind regards,
Antoni Folkers and Berend van der Lans
Directors African Architecture Matters
The special print of the artwork Mandela Landscape by Anton Corbijn and Berend Strik for ZAM international will be on show.
Information on the participants of the debate:
Femke van Zeijl is a Dutch freelance journalist and writer who focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa. She studied history at the University of Utrecht and then switched to the Academy for Journalism in Tilburg. She travels to the African continent several times a year, staying for prolonged periods of time in for instance the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Nigeria, Mozambique or Burkina Faso. From a socio- economic and cultural perspective she portrays people and their everyday lives, thus giving a human face to global developments. She writes for various Dutch newspapers and magazines and her work has been published in American, British and German media. In October 2010 her book Gin-tonic & Cholera on city life in Sub-Saharan Africa was launched, for which she stayed in six different cities all over the continent. In 2007 she published Een nacht in een vijzel, a book about the position of women in Africa. Visit also www.fvz-journaliste.nl
Bart Luirink lives in South Africa since 1993. He was correspondent for Dutch newspapers and radio stations. Also he contributed to magazines like Vrij Nederland, HP/De Tijd and Nieuwe Revu. Since 2004 he is editor in chief of ZAM Africa Magazine. He published among others Zingende pijnbomen, een kroniek van Amsterdam in Afrika (1996) and Moffies (1998). In 2008 he edited the collection Voor Nelson Mandela, Verhalen en voetnoten bij zijn negentigste verjaardag. With Madeleine Maurick he works on the struggle for homosexuals Africa. In 2010 his book Puur goud was launched, describing his experiences in South Africa.
www.bartluirink.nl
Antoni Folkers is an architect and urban designer. His professional career started 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 he founded FBW Architects with Belinda van Buiten en Geoff Wilks [www.fbwarchitecten.nl]. The firm has won various awards for their innovative projects in the field of technology, culture and the public realm in African and Europe.
Antoni Folkers is co-founder of ArchiAfrika and 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, was also subject of the PhD research under supervision of Wytze Patijn, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology.
In June 2010, the Afrika Museum and African Architecture Matters organised an international design contest for African architects and designers. They were asked to produce a blueprint for the Africa of the future. The 12 best designs are on show at the Afrika Museum in Nijmegen up to October 2011 as part of the Blueprints of Paradise exhibition. Last weekend, the exhibition opened and the winners received their awards.
(photo Afrika Museum)
Public space
The jury awarded a third prize (€2500) and a shared first prize (2 x €6250) to designers from South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. The organisation was surprised by the fact that the entrants did not focus on designing new buildings, but rather sought solutions to overcrowding in cities by redesigning the public space.
Village square in the city
Traditional African rural life revolves around market squares that are not only used for commercial purposes, but also for meetings and festivities. These meeting places, often in the shade of a big tree, give people the opportunity to participate in village life. The village market is basically a home for the entire community. In urban life, such a meeting place is lacking, says South Africa’s Martin Kruger. He made a short film depicting migration from rural areas to the city. The film shows the unique character of African public space to the catchy tunes of Miryam Makeba’s Pata Pata Song. His design entitled The African Agora as Generator landed Martin Kruger third prize in this contest.
Multifunctional street furniture
In order to prevent African cities from succumbing to total gridlock due to the proliferation of permanent buildings and reduced mobility, Oladayo Oladunjoye claims facilities are needed that can easily be moved elsewhere or used otherwise. His entry entitled Re-designing the Temporal Spaces stresses that public space is far too important to surrender it to ill-considered random usage. A life-size realisation of this shared first-prize winning project is on display as part of the exhibition.
Garden City
Kumasi, the old capital of the Ghanaian Ashanti kingdom, is home to West Africa’s busiest and largest market. This market is bursting at the seams and the commercial hustle and bustle is pouring into surrounding streets and neighbourhoods. Kobina Banning came up with a solution to this problem in a design that involved using a piece of wasteland right next to the market. This design merges western planning with African traditions. The plan entitled The Garden City has been fully tailored to the needs of people, and encompasses facilities for public transport, personal care, and relaxation. Nature plays a major part in this design, as Banning has selected a wide array of different kinds of plants to ensure the park is in bloom all year round. This overall project earned Banning first prize, which he shares with Oladayo Oladunjoye.
more information on the exhibition follows on this website soon!
(photo Afrika Museum)
The ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ exhibition at the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal will run through to 30 October 2011.
Afrika Museum, Postweg 6, Berg en Dal (close to Nijmegen)
Opening hours
Debate on 8 April at the NAi in Rotterdam with N’Goné Fall, Joe Osae – Addo, Kunle Adeyemi, Jan Konings and the prize winners
Debate on 10 April in LUX in Nijmegen with Joe Osae – Addo and the prize winners
The African continent is developing rapidly. Over half of the 1 billion Africans will be living in a city or its suburbs by 2025. Just like in the other cities of the world, African cities are struggling with issues such as waste disposal, housing shortages and spatial planning. How could Africa deal with these problems? A number of ideas are presented in the ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ exhibition, which can be seen from 1 April 2011 at the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal. Together with African Architecture Matters, the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal organised a competition to let Africans present their visions on the layout and construction of their cities. African architects and designers were asked to produce a blueprint for the Africa of the future. The international jury selected 12 entries to feature in the exhibition. Two of the designs will be on display in a life-sized format, whilst the others will consist of scale drawings, photographs and film. It was striking that most entrants developed solutions for the public space instead of for buildings. The entries recognised the importance of the multi-layered use of public space in Africa as an important driver for future Africa. The three winning designs, including a proposal for an urban park in Kumasi (Ghana), were produced by architects from South Africa, Ghana and Nigeria. They will receive their prizes of € 7,500, € 5,000 and € 2,500 during the exhibition’s official opening ceremony on Saturday 9 April 2011 at 3pm (entry on invitation only). Jury members were: Lesley Lokko (architect, editor, author of the jury report, Johannesburg, South Africa) Femke van Zeijl (journalist and author of books such as Gin-tonic & Cholera, Utrecht, Netherlands), Joe Osae-Addo (architect, Accra, Ghana), Manthia Diawara (writer, film-maker, lecturer at New York University, New York, USA)
The exhibition is curated by Berend van der Lans (AAmatters) and Siebe Rossel (Afrika Museum). Exhibition development and design was in the hands of Berend van der Lans in collaboration with the Afrika Museum and Infofilm. ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ can be visited in the Afrika Museum from 1 April to 30 October 2011. See the Afrika Museum website for more details. Debate 8 April 20:00hrs - Rotterdam THE FUTURE OF BUILT AFRICA / AFRICAN STRATEGIES FOR THE NETHERLANDS with N’Goné Fall, Jeo Osae-Addo, Kunle Adeyemi, the prize winners of the competition and moderator Tom Avermaete In the ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ competition, African designers were asked for their visions for the built Africa of the future. The Senegalese architect and art curator N’Goné Fall reflects on their approaches. What potentials do existing economic, cultural and social structures offer for rapidly growing African cities? How can the ‘informal’ African city be integrated into planning strategies? What can such strategies teach us for urban challenges in the Netherlands? During the days prior to the debate, the participants will visit the city of Rotterdam with a specific focus on the last question. For more info and registration click here Debate 10 April 15:00hrs. - Nijmegen DUTCH ARCHITECTURE THROUGH AFRICAN EYES With Joe Osae - Addo, the prize winners and moderator Farid Tabarki Africa is often associated with poverty, misfortune and problems in the West. The western audience is less known with contemporary and urban Africa. A large part of the African population lives in cities, just like anywhere else in the world. These cities look different than ours, but they are modern and well fit to the living cultures of the inhabitants. Via the competition ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ the Afrika Museum and African Architecture Matters challenged African architects, artists and visionaries to design the future of built Africa. Many of the entries addressed the public space and its multiple use. The debate will explore the possibilities to use African architecture and its solutions as an inspiration source for design of Dutch public space. What are the differences between African and Dutch planning of public space? What can we learn from each other? But foremost: what is the importance of well developed public space? When & Where
Fall’s lecture is followed by a discussion between her and the architects Joe Osae-Addo, Kunle Adeyemi and Jan Konings about what we can learn from this African strategies for urban challenges in the Netherlands. The evening is moderated by Tom Avermaete.
N’Goné Fall graduated from the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. She is an independent curator, an art critic and a consultant in cultural engineering. She has been the editorial director of the Paris-based contemporary African art magazine Revue Noire from 1994 to 2001. She edited books on contemporary visual arts and photography in Africa including An Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century, Photographers from Kinshasa and Anthology of African and Indian Ocean Photography: a century of African photographers. Fall curated exhibitions in Africa, Europe and USA. She was one of the curators of the African photography biennale in Bamako, Mali, in 2001 and a guest curator at the 2002 Dakar biennale in Senegal. Fall teaches curatorial process, communication strategies and methodology in the master department of cultural industries at the Senghor University in Alexandria, Egypt. She is also a founding member of the Dakar-based collective Gaw-Lab, a platform for research and production in the field of new media and visual arts. She is also Awards Committee member of the Prince Claus Fund.
When & Where
Friday April 8, 2011
Start: 8.00 pm. Doors open: 7.30 pm
Language: English
Location: De Dépendance, Schiekade 189 Rotterdam
Entrance Fee: €5. Students and Friends of the NAI: €3.
Please keep in mind: tickets can only be payed in cash
Sunday April 10, 2011
Start: 15.00 pm.
Language: English
Location: Villa LUX, Oranjesingel 42, Nijmegen
Entrance Fee: €7,50
For more information click here
competition entry by Oladayo Oladunjoye, one of the prize winners
Antoni Scholtens Folkers has the pleasure of inviting you to the defence of his doctoral thesis: ‘Modern Architecture in Africa’.
The public defence of his thesis will take place on Friday March 18, 2011 at 10:00a.a. in the ‘Senaatszaal’, Aula, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 5, Delft.
Prior to the defence Antoni Folkers will give a short lecture on his thesis at 9:30a.m.. After the graduation ceremony there will be a reception. You are cordially invited to attend the ceremony.
Supervisor: Prof. ir. W. Patijn
This special edition of the ArchiAfrika newsletter brings to you the Call for Papers & Call for Pictures of the African Perspectives 2011 conference, taking place in Casablanca from 3-6 November this year.
The focus of the 5th African Perspectives conference is the ‘African Metropolis’.
In recent decades, many cities on the African continent have experienced unprecedented urban growth. They are described as booming cities or mega-cities. Most of them make concerted efforts to pluralize their relationships with the larger world and with each other and to play an effective role within the network of leading metropolises. As such, they no longer function primarily only as political coordinators of national space or as the fulcrum of national economic productivity but exceed this role. This ‘metropolisation’ trend of the African city encompasses a two-fold process. It refers to changing positions and leveling up to enter a global urban system competition. This essentially relates to local processes of urbanization and urban experience, including the definition of new territorial boundaries and the emergence of new urban identities and centralities.
In this Special Edition further:
A book presentation of ‘Colonial Modern: Aesthetics of the Past, Rebellions for the Future’
by Tom Avermaete, Serhat Karakayali, Marion von Osten (eds.)
Articles written by TU Delft architecture students as part of the Public Realm Studio:
- The Mosque, the Void & the Square: Understanding Public Space in Casablanca by Jiaxuan Huang, Joep Kuys & Sara Navrady
- Gender & Public Space in Casablanca by Lisa Floor, Per Kaatman & Niels Krämer
Read the English or French version!
The ArchiAfrika newsletter is developed by African Architecture Matters in collaboration with the ArchiAfrika network.
Journalist Seada Nourhussen published an article on the rapid urbanisation processes in Africa and the challenges for architects and urban planners in Trouw newspaper on 8 January 2011. The article was based upon interviews with Kunle Adeyemi and Antoni Folkers, director of African Architecture Matters, as well as Antoni’s book ‘Modern Architecture in Africa’. The exhibition Blueprints of Paradise, open between 1 April and 30 October 2011 in the Afrika Museum, will show some ideas on the future of built Africa. the exhibition is based upon the entries of a competition for African architects and designers, and is developed by African Architecture Matters and the museum. Read the full article (in Dutch) here.
Als we de kranten en het nieuws mogen geloven is Congo verloren. De problemen zijn immens en het land loopt enorm achter. Maar is dit beeld niet hopeloos achterhaald? Wie zijn westerse bril af zet, ziet in verscheidene Afrikaanse landen een nieuwe stedelijkheid zich in ongekende snelheid ontwikkelen. Nieuwe sociale verschijnselen en culturele dynamiek wisselen elkaar in een hoog tempo af. Ondertussen is een nieuwe generatie geboren die op grote schaal het hoofd biedt aan deze hypermoderniteit.
Tijdens Congo Later staan we stil bij de vraag hoe Congo er in de toekomst uit gaat zien. Wordt het een land volgens Europees model, of zien we een compleet nieuw soort staat met bijbehorende steden ontstaan?
En wat kunnen wij eigenlijk leren van de dynamiek in Congo?
Met onder andere:
Filip de Boeck (antropoloog, video-interview), Seada Nourhussen (Trouw), Luce Beeckmans (architect, urbanist, promovenda), Francois Tshimpuki (jongerenwerker te Londen) en Antoni Folkers (architect, oprichter platform ArchiAfrika).
Onder leiding van Patrick van der Hijden.
Voertaal: Nederlands en Engels
The Prince Claus Fund, together with African Architecture Matters, invite you for an evening with Malian film-maker and scholar Manthia Diawara and Ghanaian architect and chair of the ArchiAfrika network Joe Osae Addo.
Manthia Diawara will present his new book, African Film, New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics, as well as his film Maison Tropicale. Manthia Diawara is former jury member of the Prince Claus Awards and director of the Africana Studies Program at the New York University.
Following the screening of Maison Tropicale, there will be a public discussion about Ownership and Belonging in African Art, Architecture and Film.
Due to the large number of registrations, the venue has changed. The evening will take place at Flemish Art Centre ‘De Brakke Grond’ instead of at the Prince Claus Fund.
Read further below.
