Vernacular Architecture of West Africa

Vernacular Architecture of West Africa
Author: Jean-Paul Bourdier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Adobe houses
ISBN: 9780415585439

"The dwellings of hundreds of African ethnic groups offer a variety of ideas and construction practices which contradict the widespread image of the primitive huts comonly atributed to rural Africa... The cultural dimension and its application using different architectural practices are illustrated in this work."--Book jacket.

Butabu

Butabu
Author: James Morris
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2004
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1568984138

This volume examines the complex technique of wet earth construction, as practised in parts of West Africa. It includes a variety of structures, ranging from small huts to mosques, including the mosque at Dougoumba which dates from the 12th century.

African Architecture

African Architecture
Author: Nnamdi Elleh
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1997
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

Provides an extraordinary account of the evolution, transformation and development of architecture across this continent. It is examined and evaluated from a wide range of ethnic, climatic, political economic and religious factors.

The African Dwelling

The African Dwelling
Author: Epée Ellong
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2019-09-06
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1476634890

Housing has changed in Sub-Saharan Africa since the Europeans arrived. Africans no longer live in traditional homes. This historical transition from "hut to house," from traditional to Western style, reflects slavery, colonialism and other social influences. This book focuses on Cameroon, known as "Africa in Miniature" because of its geographical and cultural representation of the continent at large. Architectural styles, materials and construction techniques are discussed within a larger context, examining how lifestyle changes and architectural trends influence each other. This work is a rich examination of the challenges and opportunities for a new generation of African architects to integrate the lessons of the past and create a future more responsive to the region's needs.

Architecture in Global Socialism

Architecture in Global Socialism
Author: Łukasz Stanek
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0691168709

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Introduction Worldmaking of Architecture -- Chapter 2 A Global Development Path Accra, 1957-66 -- Chapter 3 Worlding Eastern Europe Lagos, 1966-79 -- Chapter 4 The World Socialist System Baghdad, 1958-90 -- Chapter 5 Socialism within Globalization Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, 1979-90 -- Epilogue and Outlook -- A Note on Sources -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Image Credits.

Villages of West Africa

Villages of West Africa
Author: Steven House
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780764354816

Art and especially architecture are often seen as the exclusive realm of formally trained experts. Award-winning architects Steven and Cathi House explore the other side of that reality in a part of the world that has been at the crossroads of history for thousands of years. With more than 500 photographs and insightful commentary, they reveal the remarkable beauty of the people, land, villages, textiles, and vernacular architecture across seven countries of West Africa, situated between the Sahara Desert and Atlantic Ocean. The book celebrates the artisanship of tribal people who use building methods that are both practical and ingenious and that respond not just to local climate, materials, and topography, but also to the needs of the inhabitants with poetic insight, creating environments that are stimulating and sustainable. With their clarity, function, and beauty, these villages are living models of what community life can be.

Architecture, Islam, and Identity in West Africa

Architecture, Islam, and Identity in West Africa
Author: Michelle Apotsos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2016-05-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317275551

Architecture, Islam, and Identity in West Africa shows you the relationship between architecture and Islamic identity in West Africa. The book looks broadly across Muslim West Africa and takes an in-depth study of the village of Larabanga, a small Muslim community in Northern Ghana, to help you see how the built environment encodes cultural history through form, material, and space, creating an architectural narrative that outlines the contours of this distinctive Muslim identity. Apotsos explores how modern technology, heritage, and tourism have increasingly affected the contemporary architectural character of this community, revealing the village’s current state of social, cultural, and spiritual flux. More than 60 black and white images illustrate how architectural components within this setting express the distinctive narratives, value systems, and realities that make up the unique composition of this Afro-Islamic community.

Drawn from African Dwellings

Drawn from African Dwellings
Author: Jean-Paul Bourdier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1996
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

This exquisitely illustrated study takes us into the traditionally built dwellings of African society. This life-in-architecture material culture reveals the socioeconomic and cosmological organization and the world views of these societies. Bourdier and Trinh connect structural patterns - setting, design, decoration, orientation - to factors such as kinship, gender, history, religion, poetry, and oral traditions. The authors focus on a variety of African peoples, including the Fulbe, Tokolor, Sereer, Joola, Soninke, Mandingo, Jaxanke, and Bassari. Through photographs, beautifully detailed drawings, and theoretical reflections, Bourdier and Trinh challenge the common perception that traditional dwellings are static artifacts.

African Modernism

African Modernism
Author: Manuel Herz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 640
Release: 2022-10-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9783038602941

A new edition of the most comprehensive survey of modern architecture in Africa to date. When the first edition of African Modernism was published in 2015, it was received with international praise and has been sought after constantly ever since it went out of print in 2018. Marking Park Books' 10th anniversary, this landmark book becomes available again in a new edition. In the 1950s and 1960s, most African countries gained independence from their respective colonial power. Architecture became one of the principal means by which the newly formed countries expressed their national identity. African Modernism investigates the close relationship between architecture and nation-building in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia. It features one hundred buildings with brief descriptive texts, images, site plans, and selected floor plans and sections. The vast majority of images were newly taken by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster for the book's first edition. Their photographs document the buildings in their present state. Each country is portrayed in an introductory text and a timeline of historic events. Further essays on postcolonial Africa and specific aspects and topics, also illustrated with images and documents, round out this outstanding volume.