(L-R): Martin Kruger, Oladayo Oladunjoye & Kobina Banning
Blueprints of Paradise - June 2011
of
BLUEPRINTS PA R A D I S E the winners
(L-R): Jan Konings, Kunle Adeyemi, Joe Osae-Addo & N’Goné Fall at the BoP Debate organised by AAM & NAi
Editorial
by Berend van der Lans As of this year ArchiAfrika exists for 10 years. In this period ArchiAfrika developed into a platform for dialogue on the built future of Africa. Professionals, academics, students and all others from the continent and beyond take part in conferences, publications and projects, developed by ArchiAfrika and its’ partners. ArchiAfrika manages to reach a new and promising generation bursting with talent & ready to give shape to the Africa to come. The promises capsulated in the ArchiAfrika network are becoming apparent via events like the African Perspectives conference, the ArchiAfrika newsletters and the website. We are very proud that the network showed its’ strength by generating fantastic entries for the Blueprints of Paradise competition, held in 2010, on which we reported in the December 2010 newsletter. A selection of entries came to life in the exhibition ‘Blueprints of Paradise’, now on show (until 30 October) at the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, the Netherlands. The museum aimed to extend their attention from traditional to contemporary African architecture and city life, thus inviting African Architecture Matters in the discussion on how to realise this. AAmatters’ answer was: ‘Don’t ask us, ask Africa!’. The idea for a competition was born. A competition asking African architects and artists to visualise the future of built Africa. The participants responded with very intriguing and in some ways surprising entries. They did not choose to merely present a building or a monument, many of them realised that public space in Africa is very accommodating and that this could serve as a generator for future developments. The jury suggested that some of the ideas put forward
in the entries could also be possible solutions to design challenges faced elsewhere in the world when dealing with public space. This stimulus resulted in the organising of debates to be held alongside the opening programme of the exhibition, bringing together the prize winners, other participants and some of the jury members. This newsletter presents to you the three winners of the competition. They introduce their projects, reflect upon the meaning for Africa and on the themes of the debates held during their visit to the Netherlands. Kunle Adeyemi, Nigerian architect, urbanist and founder of NLÉ based in Amsterdam, took part in the debate organised in collaboration with the Netherlands Architecture institute (NAi), also featuring N’Goné Fall, Joe Osae-Addo, Jan Konings and moderated by Tom Avermaete. Rachel Stella Jenkins interviews Adeyemi on the role of the architect in the rapidly developing cities of the world, among those in Africa. He also reflects on the meaning this can have for planning in Amsterdam. Flora van Gaalen, project manager at the Architecture Centre of Amsterdam (ARCAM), visits the exhibition and shares with you her thoughts and ideas on the meaning of the competition and exhibition. Like Kunle Adeyemi, she notes that the inhabitants of cities play a role not to be underestimated in shaping the future cityscape. More information on the competition, exhibition and related events, can be found on the web presentation via: http://aam-blueprintsofparadise.tumblr.com You will also find short film impressions on the exhibition and awards ceremony, developed by Infofilm. It is obvious, that the debates on the future of built Africa will continue in Casablanca, during the African Perspectives conference. Do not miss out on this and follow news on the programme and registration via : www.african-perspectives.com
Report
RE DESIGNING the TEMPORAL
SHARED FIRST PRZE WINNER Oladayo Oladunjoye
Nigeria/ Holland Project Title: Redesigning the Temporal Prize: EUR 6250 Intervention In African cities, public life unfolds in the streets. These streets are not laid out according to an urban plan, and they form a constantly changing environment; people use every available meter of space, look for new places, creating room for newcomers with other occupations. Redesigning the temporal is defining a new look to the cities of Africa. It’s a design that looks into the temporality of spaces in Africa, and an intervention to an urban problem that is persistent in most cities in Africa. It looks into spaces such as road side shops, open spaces, streets, and temporal spaces. Infrastructure transportation - social interaction – permanent – temporality, are the keywords here and as an urban intervention in a city where everything happens in the outdoor space, in the open, a city where the indoor spaces are left for private activities and specific programmes and the outdoor spaces are used up by programmes that emerge out of no programmes, a city where there are no empty spaces, and where every space is used up by the people, and the people are consumed by every space, a city where spaces are temporal and where activities emerge. With the growing tensions between what is permanent and what is temporal in the cities, there is a need to address and redesign the temporal. Rather than literally designing a temporal space or structure, this project suggests that there is a need to redesign the temporal – such as shops and tents as this, in the overall, affects the image of African cities.
Design In order to effectively redesign the temporal, questions that need looking into include; how are these spaces used? how easy is the construction? Who are the people that use this space? what kind of social experience emerges? Using the conceptual logic of geometry manipulation, the design proposes one way in which the temporal spaces could be designed; a mobile facility that can easily be constructed, moved and used for other purposes, without taking much away from the fact that it’s still a temporal space. The “temporal structure” could be used and adapted by hawkers, musicians, or traders, depending on their needs. From your experience participating in the Blueprints of Paradise competition, your visions of future built Africa took public space as a feature key to future developments. What qualities of use of public space have inspired your winning proposals? For “Redesigning the temporal space” the concept of having a space that is dynamic and multifunctional is the main quality that defines the project. There is so much tension in the use of public spaces within the African cities that we need to start thinking of them as being a multifunctional space rather than a static space with just one purpose. Designers should approach public spaces as spaces that could evolve itself throughout the day. There should be room for a wide range of possibility for different activities to occur. Cities are what define most of us – half the world’s population. And our aspirations for cities are what and development is happening at a much more accelerated rate in Africa than in the Netherlands. After
sleep they go to house
24
sleep
father comes back
3
21 children goes playing
sleep
attends to customer mother doing phone business + daughter
18
6
wakes up
children doing assignment takes the children to school attends to customer sit at work
9
15 father comes to lunch cooks lunch goes to school to pick up the children
12
temporal space other space - family house
your experience learning of how public space is organised & managed in the Netherlands what in your eyes can be learnt from one another? On one hand, I think what the Netherlands could learn from African public spaces is the idea of “emergence of activities”. The public in African cities have the right to express themselves in the use of public spaces, whereas in the Netherlands, there is no room for this. There are a lot of regulations on the use of public spaces which kills the space. These regulations take away the idea of creativity, spontaneity, dynamism the element of the unknown and surprise that all defines and adds to the quality of a public space. On the other hand, what Africa could learn from the Netherlands is that there is always somebody or an organization that is responsible for public space. In Africa some of the public spaces are not well maintained. Dayo Oladunjoye, is an architect that presently works at Mecanoo Architecten, the Netherlands. Dayo has worked on numerous international projects such as the new Hilton hotel in Schipol (38,000m2), and the Calabar Convention Center, Nigeria. Born and raised in Nigeria, Dayo studied architecture at Obafemi Awolowo University where he began his early career. After Graduating with distinction and as the best design student, He joined Design Group Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria. Dayo later furthered his studies at TU Delft and graduated with honours. After his graduation, Dayo was a guest tutor at TU Delft and Academy of Architecture, Tillburg, where he taught in different master studios. Dayo has received numerous awards such as the Netherlands Fellowship
attends to customer
activity map of the woman and family
award, and the joint winner of Blueprints of Paradise Design Competition. Dayo’s work is focused on understanding the identity of a place and making an intervention that respects such identities. One of the interesting projects that I am currently working on is “The African market shed”, a project that demonstrates an innovative idea to the African markets, and rather than suggesting a whole new typology for African market stores, the projects takes out the essence that forms the market sheds and redesigns this essence. This new typology thus provides dynamic shaded spaces which can be changed based on the individual arrangement of each market stores and thus forming a collective whole - the African market shed. It’s a typology that is developed in relation to the contextual issues of African markets. It’s a typology that depicts individuality and how groups of individuality come together to form a collective. It’s a typology that could be adopted in different African markets. Pictures provided by: Oladayo Oladunjoye, Berend van der Lans & Afrika Museum
‘Redesigning the Temporal’ installation at the Blueprints of Paradise Exhibition, Afrika Museum. Oladayo Oladunjoye talking with visitors of the exhibiton opening (Left)
The
Garden City Park
Wouri
SHARED FIRST PRZE WINNER Kobina Banning
Ghana/ USA Project Title: Sankofa Garden City Park Prize: EUR 6250
Abstract Although western culture portrays Africa as a social manes that needs to be remedied, my view is to celebrate the everyday livelihood of African people. Moving to the United States 10years ago allowed me to explore cultural diversity beyond Ghana, my home country. Through my education in the West, I have had the opportunity to engage with multicultural settlements and have gained more appreciation for the importances of urbanization and place making. The competition was an opportunity to explore the qualities of the future of African Cities from multiple trajectories establishing concepts as a starting point of a global dialogue. Through imagery and abstract expressions of graphic illustrations, the project will seek to reveal some of the characteristics of the African public space blending African traditions of the Kumasi urban fabric and western designs principles whilst defining the “Garden City from the lens of an African. Future of African Cities Today, the global phenomenon of increased urban density is changing the way cities are designed and built: Africa is no different. According to the UNHabitat, the State of African Cities Report, “projections show that by 2030 there will be 759.4 million African urban dwellers, more than today’s total number of city dwellers in the entire Western hemisphere.” This is an alarming forecast of urban population growth which Africa’s urban centers will have to support and maintain. What are African Designers doing to meet this growing urban reality?
Ghana Unlike the majority of the countries in the African Continent, Ghana has been a gate way for business and technological advancement within the sub-Saharan region. Its geographical location along the Atlantic Ocean has been a strategic point of entry for import and export of goods which explains why early European settlers built castles along the coast to support their trade. For example, the Portuguese built the Sao Jorge Castle in 1482, to help support their trade networks and fend off European competitors. Castle São Jorge da Mina (or St. George’s Castle as it is known today) was the first fortified European trade post in subsaharan Africa. Kumasi, (aka, “The Garden City”) the African City Kumasi, located in the central part of the Ghana, represents so many of the common challenges of African cities, such as rapid urbanization and traditional planning typologies is the ancient capital of the Ashanti Kingdom. Kumasi is one of the few pre-colonial urban settlements in West Africa. It is currently the second largest city in Ghana after Accra, the capital city, and is known as “the Garden City” due to the beautiful variety of flowers and plants historically found in the area. Kumasi also contains the Asante Traditional Temples, structures inspired by courtyard houses that display symbols and wall decorations handed down from generation to generation. The temples have a powerful spatial and historical presence that continues to inform the urban fabric surrounding them. The Kumasi Central Market is West Africa’s largest open market. This central commercial area is the most densely populated and the busiest spot in the city. Its constant jostle of goods and people reflects a dichotomy of organization and chaos, in an atmosphere of congestion. This congestion spills over and invades the surrounding city streets, alleys and yards with the informal commercial economy that sustains the area.
As the urban population of Kumasi continues to grow, this congestion will expand into the surrounding area requiring a central urban space of release. The site for this release space is an abandoned area next to a dis-used railway station. The site is 1.7 miles long, 19 square acres, and lies adjacent to the Kumasi Central Market. Design Strategy Kumasi, like so many African cities and the architecture in them, is characterized by historical layers of socicultural, political and economic manifestations which forming cultural identity of Kumasi. Like many urban cities in Africa, Kumasi experiences high influx due to the rural-urban migration with little guidance from the local authorities towards urban development. Informal commerce and culture pervade the interstitial spaces of the city. This informal urbanism is interwoven into the city fabric, and is a great source of strength feeding the Central Market and creating a congestion of commerce. The Garden City Park provides relief from the congestion of city life, and opens the way for a new city space and a powerful African architecture. The design embraces these urban challenges and focus on the characteristics of the urban spaces as a resource for the new public space. Like the Akan Adinkra symbol, “Sankofa” means “[you] must retrieve the knowledge of the past to prepare for the future”. We believe there is a lot to learn from past traditions as we seek to define the future contemporary architecture of Africa. We see our site as an abstract of the Adinkra Cloth. Through the conceptual imagery and abstract expression of the Adinkra cloth, the project will blend traditional and western designs while defining the “Garden City” from an architectural perspective. The design seeks to simultaneously restore a prominent public space within Kumasi and create an identity for the Garden city.
To quote Juhani Pallasma, “… a culturally specific design is a result of profound subjection within a specific pattern of culture, and of the creative synthesis fusing conscious intentions, unconscious conditions, memories and experiences in a dialogue between the individual and the collective.” Thus the Garden City Park draws inspiration from place, pleasure and diverse people to create a culturally specific park, where encounters, engagements and unexpected elements are interwoven, enriching the everyday life of the users. Sustainability The sustainability of the site is essential, both from a civil longevity perspective and also an environmental one. The design uses local materials and indigenous plantings for ease of maintenance and to reduce environmental impact. The site takes advantage of the natural grading of the site, yet any soil removed for grading will be reused on the site for plantings and berms for water control and collection. In addition, rainwater harvesting system collects rainwater for use during the dry season to reduce the park’s dependence on local water supply. With the chaotic experience at the central market, the garden seizes the commuters experience to provide moments where users can engage with other community members, provide urban furniture for relaxation and solitude contemplation. The integrated local floral are designed according to seasons so that different parts of the park bloom at different times. Finally, paved pedestrian walkways coupled with a variety of forms, textures, tropical seasonal plants and shade structures with vibrant colors help stimulate the cultural heritage of African urban life.
Fig 1_ Old photo of street scene Akwa, Douala
Intertwined Architectures
By Danièle Diwouta-Kotto
From your experience participating in the Blueprints of Paradise competition, your visions of future built Africa took public space as a feature key to future developments. What qualities of use of public space have inspired your winning proposals? It is very common to look at the future of Africa from a perspective of lacking certain qualities that perhaps exist in western societies. Growing up in Ghana, the best place to buy food is street food and I’m not shamed of that. If we wanted to play football, we played on the streets as long as we took turns to watch for vehicular intrusion. I was fortunate because my Dad was a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and we had the opportunity to live in university bungalow designed as part of the master planning by Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. However, five minutes walk down my street in an informal settlement where we, the neighborhood kids, would gather for story telling by some of the elderly folks. We would sit on the street at dusk, chat and enjoy the outdoors. Emphasis is placed of the use of outdoor open areas. You live in the outdoor area. There is a synergy between the formal, informal and nature. These are some memories that exist now in most African urban cities. Sankofa, the Ashanti Adinkra symbol teaches us “you must retrieve the knowledge of the past to prepare for the future”. We believe there is a lot to learn from past traditions as we seek to define the future contemporary architecture of Africa. Hence, rather than complaining, we can embrace and abstract the unpleasant and create an architecture worthy of liberating the African People. The “Sankofa Garden City Park (SGCP) seeks to do exactly that. It draws strength from the spatial aspirations of the informality that exist in African urban cities, and charges a disused colonial railway site by implementing varied programs that connects people from all walks of life. SGCP creates a culturally specific park, where encounters, engagements and unexpected elements are interwoven, enriching the everyday life of the users. Within the park, open plaza’s similar to the prehistorical Ashanti courtyards, represents a public domain where festivities such as durbar, funerals, wedding and major community gatherings occur. The inter-connected pathways, interwoven into the Garden City Park, represents the narrow streets and walkways located in the informal areas, which are the main artery for pedestrian, livestock, vehicular movement. Together with the public infrastructure, they all co-exist, quite literally. The edges of the inter-connected pathways are treated with shades and intermittent open areas to make room for venders, private areas for worship and prayer, an amphitheater for drumming and dancing, art viewing gallery for temporary art installation, children’s play area with tactical playing features to promote kinesthetic activities and urban park furniture for relaxation and flexible use of space for users. The Garden City Park stretches over almost 25acres with multiple urban gardens, utilizing local floral and integrating the natural with the built environment. With Kumasi being the
second largest city in Ghana after Accra, we hope that the Sankofa Garden City Park might have some leadership role in promoting new urban model for Ghana and West Africa. Cities are what define most of us – half the world’s population. And our aspirations for cities are what make these spaces vital. The process of reinvention and development is happening at a much more accelerated rate in Africa than in the Netherlands. After your experience learning of how public space is organised & managed in the Netherlands what in your eyes can be learnt from one another? I’m not sure if I am qualified to answer this question since lesson learned from public space organization and management in Netherlands were not only architectural related but also policy driven. In addition i can not speak for the continent of Africa but rather lessoned learned from Ghana, my home country. I must admit that, the Netherlands was beautiful. It was nice to see the projects that are currently going on in the city outskirts. It was liberating to see some projects with emphasis on the appropriation of public spaces and sustainable communities. One thing I though was very important that I think we can learn from our visit is the current dialogue among professional and some of the leading institutions like the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) to maintain the spirit of architecture and for that matter, the role of the architect to lead, educate and engage the public about the quality of life within the urban landscape. I was also impressed with the work by Free House, an organization committed to creating spaces where local entrepreneurs, youth and artists / designers can come together to exchange knowledge, experience and ideas. This is very similar to Fusion Architecture, a non-profit organization I founded in 2007 to engage designers and cultural practitioners on socio-cultural complexities facing our communities today. Rural-urban migration has produced interesting phenomenological spaces with the African urban space, where both formal and informal settlements are permanent fragments of city scape. Public spaces starts to blur the boundaries where the event space is paramount, and the built environment becomes the facilitator. Historically, public spaces have long been a part of the village life in Africa. It is where entertainment, bereaving, burial, community announcement, story telling, prayer gathering all takes place. It is very unfortunate to see todays shopping malls in Ghana depicting/duplicating the western malls, completely enclosed, air-conditioned under one roof. We need to understand that in certain climatic regions, the weather allows for more open architectural typology. Rather than duplicating, we can learn from how some of these villages and become towns and towns into cities. Villages are small contained settlements where there is a sense of identity, closure, intimacy and connection, both with the villagers and dwellers and the architectural typology. When rural people move to big cities, their informal settlements created reflect that of the characteristic of intimacy and connection. The will know when an outsider visits their community. A walk through the “zongos” (informal settlements) reveals the idea of the
tactical use of urban space. The Garden City Park project allows for the unexpected as well as the planned strategies of public space. The Living Kiosk codifies the tactical selling/dwelling units of the kiosk, accepting the idea of semi-permanence in urban space. The ideas of the temporal and the transient are normative in Ghanaian understanding of city-making. This allows for unimagined, spectacular and advantageous events that are the catalysts for creative solutions to societal and economic issues (i.e. commerce and cultural norms). Kobina Banning, is founder of Fusion Architecture, a non-profit organization with a mission to collaborate with young designers and non designers to critically engage in contemporary issues facing formal and informal urban environment. A Recipient of George Christensen Travel Award, Kobina graduated at the top of his class with a graduate research thesis that examined how displaced persons from other cultures can adopt architecturally into new urban settings. His passion and research throughout his professional career has been to examine how the design of architectural space can reflect a culture, a community, and an identity. A native of Ghana, West Africa, Kobina started his architectural training at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. He has travelled widely to various regions in Africa, Europe and South America establishing first hand perspective of global architecture, with particular interest in changes in formal and informal urban realities. Banning has been nominated for several design awards and the recipient of the Design Excellence, a graduate research in Mexico City, lead by Teddy Cruz, developing a sustainable community for the Santa Fe favelas (shanty towns), a team project that was later published in the SALA journal. He has also received
recognition for his work with the refugee community in Arizona and teaches at a technical institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Pictures provided by: Kobina Banning, Berend van der Lans & Afrika Museum
‘Sankofa’ Garden City at the Afrika musuem Exhibtion (Left) Kobina Banning with the Fusion architects team (Top right) Kobina Banning giving an interview for Radio Netherlands at the exhibition opening (Below right)
Urban market
Transport Inter-change
Urban Housing
THE AFRICAN AGORA AS URBAN GENERATOR THIRD PRZE WINNER Martin Kruger
South Africa Project Title: The African Agora as Urban Generator Prize: EUR 2500
What are African Aspirations? Africans, as all people, aspire to enjoy peace, shelter and security; and to live independently from financial and political exploitation. They aspire to both self and community actualization. They aspire to take advantage of networks of opportunity, to be educated and to enjoy and develop familial and social connections in the context of unique cultural environments.
Individualistic aspirations have no place in Africa. In the context of widespread poverty, the concept of community is essential. The process of rapid urbanization threatens African community structures, thereby necessitating the future of African development to be founded on humanistic principles of settlement making. Ideas that revert to the principals of “civitas”, a society based on shared knowledge and democratic values, allowing for inclusion of all citizens and an equitable distribution of public facilities. How does one design in African Space? ‘African Space’, outside of a specific context, is too broad a concept to define, design, create or control. Therefore the question we, as African architects, are grappling with is how does one design in African space.
Successful African architects do not design in isolation. Instead, they recognize the value of adaptation and change and choose to accept and embrace the reality of “African ingenuity”, a process whereby the collective African people have the ability and creativity to add to and enrich formal designs. Control is futile in an environment where people build incrementally as and when they can afford to, in order to get a foot in the door towards the opportunities of urbanity. The idea of the African Agora The ancient Greek agora was a collection of buildings that demarcated public space for purposes of gathering. It was a marketplace, a place for the exchange of democratic values, ideas and goods for trading. With the absence or shortage of amenities, formal housing and infrastructure in Africa, the public realm assumes an elevated status in the everyday lives of Africans. It is the African Agora. With it’s beginnings in the rural landscape, the African Agora is the open space beneath a tree. The tree is this landmark, a place of shade and shelter, and therefore a place for all kinds of public functions. A structure for shade and shelter in a rural and urban context becomes a space for education (a school); a town hall (elders meet to share concerns, governance and ideas); a marketplace (to trade and sell produce or goods); cross-roads (where people arrive and go from); a place where festivals and political rallying could take place and a place for recreation (for sports and concerts). The African Agora gives new meaning to society – fulfilling basic needs while facilitatin integration, equity, complexity, balance and urban identity. Our competition entry, entitled ‘The African Agora as Urban Generator’ illustrates how an inclusive design approach could be put to use in the African context. The planning and implementation of a simple organizing structure protects the public realm while allowing for expansion, diversity and expression as people colour-in the landscape in the way that need and circumstance dictate. The animation did not aim to provide an all-inclusive proposition. We felt that ‘African Space’ outside of a specific context, is too broad a concept to define, design, create or control. What we rather sought to illustrate is that the role of architects
within the informal African city is to provide a point of reference: A structure similar to the tree in the vast African landscape – as depicted in the opening scene. The animation continues to explore what architectural form this point of reference could take on for the Urban Market, the Transport Interchange and Urban Housing. In each of the tree typologies we aimed to depict a formal structure onto which the existing informal activities could latch. The process of incremental growth and the allowance for ‘African Ingenuity; was seen as essential for the evolvement of the subsequent dynamic design. From your experience participating in the Blueprints of Paradise competition, your visions of future built Africa took public space as a feature key to future developments. What qualities of use of public space have inspired your winning proposals? The idea of multi-functional spaces and structures has been conveyed, using the medium of video to indicate timeand therefore incremental development and participative involvement from communities. Cities are what define most of us – half the world’s population. And our aspirations for cities are what make these spaces vital. The process of reinvention and development is happening at a much more accelerated rate in Africa than in the Netherlands. After your experience learning of how public space is organised & managed in the Netherlands what in your eyes can be learnt from one another? In the Netherlands: The density (compactness) of cities in the Netherlands. Efficient and well-organised public transport prevents the invasion of cities by cars and allows equitable access to the city for all. The tight scale of streets encourage pedestrian dominance. The respect for historical morphology. In Africa: The relaxedness and informality of public space. The freedom of incremental development. The importance of urban markets in the informal sector. The street as community space.
Martin Kruger, urbanist, architect and artist, studied at the University of Cape Town, and the University of Pretoria. He was born in Paarl in 1957, and established an architectural and urban design studio in Cape Town in 1993. The studio has since been involved in a diverse array of urban, architectural and cultural projects. Projects vary from rural interventions; such as farmsteads, breweries, wineries and villages, to large-scaled urban interventions and urban architecture; that include an olympic village, housing, university precincts, corporate head offices, hotels and civic projects. The studio is constantly involved in projects that define the house, singular or collective, within diverse contextual surroundings with unique budgets and programs.
Over the years his studio received numerous awards and citations for design excellence and also won competitions that led to the construction of significant buildings in South Africa. Martin is an invited lecturer at various national schools of architecture in SouthAfrica. He is a founding member of the Urban Design Institute of South Africa and is the first past chairman. His paintings have been exhibited in Cape Town and are held in private collections in South Africa and Europe.
Over the years his studio received numerous awards and citations for design excellence and also won competitions
Stills taken from ‘The African Agora’ concept video. To view ‘The African Agora’ film: http://aam-blueprintsofparadise.tumblr.com
Martin Kruger and family talking with N’goné Fall at the opening of the Blueprints fo Paradise Exhibition
Pictures provided by: Marftin Kruger & Afrika Museum
Kunle Adeyemi in his office in Amsterdam. Photo by Rachel Stella Jenkins
‘There is value in
noise’
AN INTERVIEW WITH KUNLE ADEYEMI. BY RACHEL STELLA JENKINS
You were a panellist on the Blueprints of Paradise Debate hosted by African Architecture Matters (AAM) and The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in Rotterdam. N’goné Fall, an architect by qualification and acting independent curator, stated in her keynote lecture that public space in African cities collectively belongs to its inhabitants and that the city needs to adapt to the people’s needs. This prompted the Director of the NAi, Ole Bouman, to ask where the ‘vision’ was? In essence, a question about what the role of the architect should be - how the architect can remain a relevant actor - when it is the public that shape the city. You have worked in some of the biggest and fastest developing cities in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, at the debate you spoke of the architects role adapting to more of a ‘cultivator’ opposed to ‘prescriber’, it would seem there is an apparent predicament on the predominantly western outlook on the role of the architect and how public space should be organised and shaped in our increasingly urban societies. In a world where a majority of the world’s urban population lives in cities where the greater part of the built environment is generated without architects or planners, can you expand on the changing – or rather unchanging – role of the architect? I can remember at a team meeting with Rem (Koolhaas) at the OMA, I showed my proposal and started by saying, ‘These are the clients needs… what the client wanted us to think about…’ Rem responded, ‘Clients needs? Haven’t heard that in a long time!’
N’goné gave a strong position: the street belongs to the people. I have been presenting and doing lectures over the last 5 years on the way rapidly forming cities are evolving and the way we need to adjust the mental attitude and perception about cities – and towards development. The whole question of public space, how people use space in cities, is not a question peculiar or strictly to African cities, it is more peculiar to developing cities still not under the influence of a very formal kind of governance , or formal type of governing structure. What I would say is that they have their own Westernised idea of governance, organisation, planning and thinking. They also have their own problems; one of the main issues would be how they are not properly capitalised. They have a lot of assets but one of the main issues is how the cities have not properly capitalised on their assets. Can you give me an example what you mean by that? There is a lot of wealth in these cities, a lot of wealth in Africa, but the wealth is not useful wealth, it is almost invisible and so not capitalised properly. It’s not all documented - such as land ownership. In Lagos there is a lot of very valuable property that doesn’t have titles. Due to long histories of ownership and titles lost, there are many pockets of very valuable land with no titles. They are sitting right in the heart of the city and no one can recapture them – this is something the state government is looking into. This is something developing cities have to face up to in terms of finding ways to capitalise their assets. And one of the main assets of such places, I believe, would be its people. How do you capitalise millions of people? There are cities that have
done very well. Looking at China, one of the main things it has been able to do is to capitalise its population. And I think a city like Lagos, with up to 16mllion people, is now coming to terms and understanding that notion, the fact that they are that many is a big asset. At the last presentation of Governor Fashola I attended, I understood that Lagos wants to introduce a proper identity card. No one knows who is in Lagos - not everyone is properly registered and documented. How can you begin to tax people when you don’t really know who they are? How can you begin to order people in a certain way if you don’t know who they are? This may sound a bit counter intuitive to the idea of informality, but I think this is where the bridge needs to be made between how capitalisation has been done in the West and what is appropriate in these parts of the world that we live in. How do you still enable people to have freedom to do what they want to do? To appreciate spaces that have not been harnessed so to speak, because people are constantly harnessing the spaces themselves, they are making the best uses of these spaces themselves. As N’goné was saying, the liberty of the street is an important part of a development of a city - of an environment. This is one of the things, here in the West that can be relearnt. The capitalisation, formalisation, regulation, has gone too far – or rather has gone to an extent to where people have lost a certain degree of freedom that is necessary for creativity and necessary for resourcefulness for the city. There is a lot of resourcefulness for the individual, but there is no resourcefulness for the city. The city has been given over to ‘a governance’, whereas the city should be a place for the people. City should belong to its inhabitants… Yes, I think that is still a very important issue needing reconsideration. Basically the West, including the Netherlands, needs to understand how to undo some of these orders. In terms of redefining architecture for a contemporary context, would you say the question is not only a matter of how to find ways to formalise and regulate – which facilitates, as in the example you gave, in finding better ways to capitalise on urban societies - or a question of opening up cities, to re-find and maintain the fundamental nature and essence of cities in creating opportunities, but instead and more importantly a question of finding a middle ground. And how to adapt this middle ground to the given context? Exactly it is a middle ground. They have said the city is man’s greatest invention. In our contemporary societies the city is man’s greatest invention because I think man has really evolved a lot into an aspirational being – and the city is the engine for that aspiration. It is what allows man to pursue his aspirations the most. That’s why there is the influx of people to the city - into the urban population - because we have become aspirational beings. What do you think has influenced that? It is an evolution; man has been able to create a lot more connections. The internet, information, connections, the
world has evolved into a much more complex network. Everybody sees everything, everyone is connecting to everyone else, it is not like 50 years ago when they were all on the farm - there is now a pull to become a part of that. At the same time, isn’t it interesting that the first thing people want when they are well enough off is to own their own plot of land – space. It’s a cycle. Yes it is. The urban population has outgrown the rural – that is a fact. It is no longer something that is being projected, it is established. But what would happen after cities? I find this very fascinating. This whole thing about cities, I’m not in love with cities as they are right now, I think they all need a certain kind of intervention or evolution to make them properly habitable. But I love cities from an intellectual point of view because I think there are inputs we can have in it, but otherwise I love the village. I love Amsterdam because it is a village – the cosmopolitan village; it is perfect in that sense. But at the same time it is losing some sort of character. How do you create an Amsterdam with a certain large population that is a city? These are the questions, how does Amsterdam grow itself? When Amsterdam starts to get the pressure from a growing number of people who really want to be here and it starts growing into a city like Lagos - and it strives to offer all the opportunities - how do you deal with that? On that note, If the Mayor of Amsterdam city was to call you up and say, ‘Kunle with your experience having lived in both Lagos and Amsterdam, what one determining factor would you recommend to put a lot of energy and attention into researching and working out to best allow this city to grow in a sound way, where we would minimise the loss of character?’ Tough question. I would say there is value in noise. I haven’t quite developed what that means completely, but I would say he should think about how to harness energy from noise. And this noise is one characteristic of say, African cities, there is visual noise, oral noise, social noise – it doesn’t have to be literal noise, but there is something about noise that generates energy, and the question becomes: how do you then tap this energy? So you mean, city spaces are not only about looking like a picture-perfect magazine or museum, in all cities there is always an underbelly, so deal with this and confront it with the intention of finding a way to capitalise on it? And encourage it actually! The great thing about the Netherlands – and I’m sure the mayor knows about this, the city regulates itself a lot more say than other cities. So all the places where liberties have been allowed have become points of noise that are allowed. That has been a successful part of the city. But now, I imagine they are trying to reinvent the city, but then it’s a selection of what kind of noise should be permitted. I think they should go to Lagos and check it out. That again can be interpreted as listening to what the people want and where the people are going. As an architectural approach – in terms of use of space, the approach you took in designing the Mainland bridge in Lagos, where not only vehicles are accommodated but
‘Lagos Photo’ Photographic exhibition in public space in Lagos city Project led by Kunle `Adeyemi (photo taken from www.nleworks.com)
also people and trade – is this something that could be adopted as a model – such as here in the Netherlands? Definitely. I have to say I have not spent a lot of time researching the people here in the Netherlands, though I have lived and worked here and I have to say people are primarily the same. There are certain values we all want, and one of the most common – but also stereotypical - is man has become an aspirational being. And so of course people have aspirations also in Amsterdam. And the city is what is it is because it is a city, an aspirational village. In my view a place you can get around on your bicycle yet have the feeling I want to be creative – it is an interesting environment where you can think local and act global. So that quality I think is something the city should look at; what people need to make that happen. I am not sure if the mainland bridge is an exact model on how to do things, but we have to be able to read where the people are going. It is that simple. Kunlé Adeyemi is an architect and urbanist. Born and raised in Nigeria, he studied architecture in Lagos, where he began his early career before joining the world renowned Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). At OMA, working closely with founder Rem Koolhaas, he led the design, development and execution of numerous projects in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East including the Prada Transformer in Seoul
(Korea) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Shenzhen (China). In 2010, after nearly a decade at OMA, he moved on to start his own practice NLÉ, focusing on ‘the architecture of developing cities’. Adeyemi is also the Distinguished Visiting Lecturer of the University of Washington, teaching and researching ‘The Modern City in the Age of Globalization’ in Chandigarh – India’s first planned modern city. Find a full profile of NLÉ and Kunlé Adeyemi’s professional experience at http://www.nleworks.com To listen to the full Blueprints of Paradise debate with Kunle Adeyemi, Joe Osae-Addo (ArchiAfrika Chairman of the Board and the Blueprints of Paradise Chairman of the Jury), N’goné Fall, Jan Konings and Tom Avermaete (debate moderator), along with the keynote lecture by N’Goné Fall please visit the Blueprints of Paradise website: http://aam-blueprintsofparadise.tumblr.com/Debate
1:1 Installation of Winning project by Oladayo Oladunjoye at the Afrika Museum (photo: Berend van der Lans)
‘An inspiring presentation that gives a feel of the contemporary African city & at the same time makes one rethink his own urban environment’ A Review of the Blueprints of Paradise Exhibition at the Afrika Museum (Berg-en-Dal, NL)
by Flora van Gaalen (ARCAM)
“Traders are busy along the road where benskins (motor bike taxis) speed alongside the wild traffic of cars, trucks, nonmotorized transport and people. People walk gingerly in the street to avoid the pedestrian pathways. On the pathways there are large gaps in the storm water drainage system. In the shadow of the traders to one side, the river flows by. Nearby, a multi-storied hotel is in the process of expansion.” This quote from Zayd Minty about Doula, the largest city of Cameroon, gives an impression of the overwhelming dynamic atmosphere in the streets of Africa. The African metropolis seems to be the place where the intensity of life can be experienced at every corner of the street. What a contrast with the strictly planned cities in The Netherlands! Anno 2011 we live in an era in which the Dutch planning tradition is under fire. The economic crisis had a massive impact on the building sector and all the parties involved. The government must urgently find new ways to direct planning with less means. Can lessons be learned from the urban development practice in African cities? For the African people though, the reality in their cities is seldom a blessing. Expectations are that around 2025 most Africans will live in cities and the problems that this massive urbanization brings about are real. African Architecture Matters and the Afrika Museum took a positive stance and organized a competition for African architects to share their ideas and dreams about
a better future for Africa. Of the 43 entries, 12 were selected for the exhibition ‘Blueprints of Paradise’. The result is a very positive, inspiring presentation that gives a feel of the contemporary African city and at the same time makes one rethink his own urban environment. Because of the broad creative call, the submissions were very different in subject and in scale. The curators did a good job in making these nuances tangible by presenting the selected projects in their own specific way. For example, the shared first prize winning project by Oladayo Oladunjoye, a multifunctional mobile accommodation meant for the side of the road, is actually built in the museum, just like the ‘living kiosk’ by Kobina Banning and partners. Both are very practical solutions that honour the existing dynamics while offering tools for a more organized public space. One of the designs with a broader scope is the other joint first prize project, the Sankova Garden City Park. This plan, as well by Kobina Banning, is about redeveloping a wasteland into a high quality green environment that shows a merge of Western and African planning traditions. The third prize winner, Martin Kruger Associates, feels that the multifunctional African market should be used as a generator for a more fluent urban development that respects public space. A thing that the jury states as a surprising fact is that most of the contestants focussed on public space. But noting
Exhibition space at the Afrika Musuem (photos: Berend van der Lans, Rachel Stella Jenkins & Afrika Museum )
that public space feels the pressure of the masses the most because it is the ultimate place for people to meet and trade their goods and ideas, it is maybe not that surprising at all. A good public space makes a good city! In The Netherlands it is a hot topic as well. How to design an inviting public space that reinforces the social web and connects with the built environment? A crucial difference between The Netherlands and the African cities is, of course, the amount of people involved. Where in Africa, the huge mass just ‘forms’ the city and seems to make a predesigned space impossible, the Netherlands copes with a ‘lack’ of people and an ‘overdesigned’ urban environment. Besides the public space the jury identified a couple of other important themes: agriculture and its position in the city, the desolate atmosphere in suburbia and the translation from concept to form and from history to contemporary. All these issues are very relevant in The Netherlands as well, but again, often seen from a whole different perspective. This makes the global discussion none the less interesting, since it dawns on the notion that solutions to global problems have to be sought on a local level. When architects and urban planners are not the only ones in charge anymore, what seems evident is: when an emergent multidisciplinary approach takes the spontaneous creativity of the people into account, a whole different palette of solutions possible.
Sources: African Architecture Matters & Afrika Museum, exhibition ‘Blueprints of Paradise’ (Afrika Museum on show until 30 October 2011). Lucia Babina & Marilyn Douala Bell (eds.), Douala in Transition (Rotterdam 2007).
Flora van Gaalen is currently working as a project manager and editor at ARCAM, Amsterdam Centre for Architecture. Her editorial work includes articles for the website www.arcam. nl, for the website of newspaper Het Parool (file City Sights/ Stadsgezichten) and publications Amsterdam Architecture 2009-2010 (2010), Architecture in Amsterdam-Noord (2011). She is responsible for a broad range of projects like the Day of Architecture (2008, 2009) and the exhibitions: A City for the Future (2009) and Fashion & Architecture (2010). Flora is currently working on an exchange project between architects and urban planners in Recife (Brasil) and Amsterdam.
Agenda
5th African Perspectives website: http://www.african-perspectives.com
Agenda 9 April - 30 October 2011 Blueprints of Paradise Exhibition @ Afrika Museum (The Netherlands) 19 - 21 July 2011 West Africa Built Environment Research (WABER) Conference (Ghana) Text Kobina Banning Flora van Gaalen Rachel Stella Jenkins Martin Kruger Oladayo Oladunjoye Art Director & Design Colofon Rachel Stella Jenkins Text Editing Design Berend van der Lans Editing Stella Jenkins Rachel Translation Anne-Marie van den Nieuwenhof-Damishimiro FONDATION SHIMIRO, Pointe-Noire, Congo
CĂŠlia Koet-Tchengang
7 - 9 September 2011 South African City Studies Conference (South Africa) 3 - 5 November 2011 5th African Perspectives Conference (Morocco)
Supported by ArchiAfrika receives support from the following institutes and organisations: Stichting Doen Delft University of Technology De Twee Snoeken Automatisering FBW Architecten bkvdl BKvdL Dioraphte Foundation
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