Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Urban Africa..From an African Sweetheart...

Asmara, Eritrea


I came across these images by  Tanzanian Born London Based Architect David Adjaye the 43 year old Architect visited 46 African cities and took 36,000 pictures. Only 3,000 pictures were displayed in London's design museum, September last year ..He is one of the few people who display the images of African architecture...not many people are keen on that..mostly its just  la di da la di da..the children, the animals...the hotspots..never the man-made beauties... Yeah i get tired of seeing images of the same old year in year...yeah yeah yeah...this is Africa...war war war....NEXT..


Gaborone, Botswana
Cairo, Egypt
Dakar, Senegal
Nouakchott, Mauritania
More  Below


Adjaye is determined to look at the real Africa, not the romantic view so often invoked by artists. Although his work is imbued with African influences—his minimalist homes mimic the layout of a North African riad, and his education center in London brings the concept of the market inside using strips of blue and green glass—he steers clear of stereotypes. He is more interested in sparking debate among Africans about their future than in preserving nostalgic notions of the past. Given the continent's grim history, he says, it's a near miracle African urbanism has come so far: "It takes 100 years to train people to make a city. By that measure, these countries are doing extremely well."
Adjaye  won commission to build $500 million Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture on Washington's Mall, is at the forefront of a group of African designers returning to oversee the continent's building boom...Also he is building a a College in his native Ghana and a community center in Johannesburg...

I guess that makes him Africa's Sweetheart...dont act shocked the saying goes for men as well!
Here is the proposed plans for the National Museum of African American History & Culture scheduled to open in 2015 in the National Mall in  Washington DC.   

This a collection of images from Across Africa...

No comments:

Post a Comment