From 05 to 08 January 2007, the Department of Architecture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, in association with The Ghana Institute of Architects, hosted the conference African Architecture Today.
From 05 to 08 June 2007, the Department of Architecture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, in association with The Ghana Institute of Architects, hosted the conference African Architecture Today.
ArchiAfrika was asked to participate in the organisation of the conference by joining the working party. We were very pleased to do so.
The conference was part of an attempt to define and propagate African architecture.
The dearth of literature in African architecture, especially by Africans, has tended to perpetuate some kind of mysticism about African architecture. Recent developments challenging Eurocentric focus on architectural development education world-wide have also tended to produce rather romantic and exaggerated accounts of African architecture. The aim of the conference African Architecture Today was to help define and establish what African architecture really is and means today or in the 21st century and how it can be sustained into the future.
Conference Objectives
- To bring together major stakeholders to map out a common agenda to define
African architecture and create a forum for its sustainable development.
- To provide the opportunity for African experts to share locally developed
knowledge and expertise with each other and the broader international
community.
- To establish a network of African experts on sustainable building and built
environments for future cooperation on research and development initiatives
on the continent.
The papers presented at the conference are currently available online via www.mudonline.org/aat. Full proceedings are meanwhile being prepared.
