Personal Collections

African State Architecture

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1 March, 2021

The principal intention of African State Architecture is to open up discussion around understanding statehood through architecture through a comparative study of state buildings in a selection of African countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa. Quoting from the research summary of this project based at SOAS, London:

Public buildings help define and articulate politics. They are commissioned by political elites to represent the state; but they are often viewed and used by the public in very different ways – sometimes as old and familiar family members, and sometimes as overbearing and oppressive objects of distrust and fear. A study of buildings can tell us a lot about how politics works and a lot about the nature of state-society relations.

This collection was put together by the Women Writing Architecture editors from the African State Architecture website, and our attention was drawn to this research project by Nana Biamah-Ofosu, a member of our first Advisory Board (2020-1), who is also investigating this subject through her teaching and with Bushra Mohamed in their design and architecture practice, Studio Nyali. The contributions of various women to the project are included here, gathered at the beginning of March 2021.

African State Architecture

The principal intention of African State Architecture is to open up discussion around understanding statehood through architecture through a comparative study of state buildings in a selection of African countries, inclu...