ProjectsAfrican Perspectives Pretoria 2009In the 3rd week of November ‘Ora Joubert, Head of the department of Architecture of the University of Pretoria, was visiting the Netherlands for preparatory meetings on African Perspectives 2009, taking place between 21 and 28 September next year. An update on the main theme and subthemes, as well as on the structure of the event, will follow soon, including information on call for papers. ‘Ora also addressed a group of students and staff at the Delft University of Technology, and also a group of en-thusiastic architects at ARCAM gallery in Amsterdam on her book to be published soon on recent developments in architecture in South Africa. The lecture was well received. As a navigating site for the events which took and will take place under the umbrella of African Perspectives, we have launched: www.africanperspectives.info. Watch this closely on the developments in Pretoria! A link to the specific conference site will be available soon.

Special

NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2008

commercial centre, it is now almost solely the home of an increasingly dense ‘Ga’ community.

When the idea of a tourist brochure and walking tour was proposed to Ghana’s then Minister of Toruism, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, he seized on it, but added that it would be necessary to have a community guiding sys-tem as well. M.U.D. Ltd., advisors on the hotel project and proposers of the Guide with Elsie Owusu Architects UK, set about writing the brochure and selecting and training the guides. The area is densely packed with people, houses and history. It contains the whole of modern Ghana’s story from the slave forts to the still existant dynastic families which are descended from mixed European and African parentage, to the sites where Kwame Nkrumah made some of his most his-toric speeches in the movement towards independence.

The port and administrative hub of the ‘Gold Coast’ col-ony began to move from the area in the 1930s, leaving a gradually more inward-looking community comprising the seven Ga towns, which include both of the former ‘British Accra’ and ‘Dutch Accra’ areas. There can be some hostility to visitors, particularly those determined to capture images without first developing relationships with, and getting agreement from, their subjects. The guiding system works to alleviate these problems and enable visitors to come closer to local inhabitants. The overall chief or ‘Ga Mashie’ was keen to ensure that the walking tour and the benefits of tourism were spread evenly across the area. Although there are huge poten-tial trading opportunities with visitors (road-side food, a whole range of local crafts and manufactures from high quality hand-made leather shoes to tin trunks etc etc. remaining from the area’s port and commercial days), these are almost totally cut off from ‘the tourist dollar’.

The encounter with visitors also has the potential to encourage residents to look outwards and to coun-ter the downward spiral of an inward-looking and de-prived community. The ingredients of redundant for-mer port area, wealth of historic sites and buildings, deprived and inward-looking indigenous community can be found in similar situations world wide. The walk-ing tour is one of the components which could help to turn this round, but here as elsewhere will be ineffec-tive if not co-ordinated with other regeneration initia-tives, which is not an easy task when resources are thin.For further info please contact Christopher Cripps through http://www.mudonline.org

The origin of a walking tour in Old Accra, Ghana, in 2006, lay in the need to find a new use for a historic building. Having decided that a small hotel would be ideal for ‘Adorso House’ the question arose as to how visitors could relate to the vibrant and somewhat chaotic his-toric area where it was located. Formerly the country’s main port and

“The Heart of Old Accra; Where History and Culture Meet”. By Christopher Cripps (MUD Ltd)

Special on the <<Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction 2008 Africa & Middle East>> held in Marrakech, Morocco. By Berend van der LansOn 13 November the winners of the second Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction from across the region Africa Middle East were announced at a ceremony in Marrakech. ArchiAfrika was present at the ceremony, not only with its team from the Netherlands, but the jury of the prestigious competition was also headed by Joe Osae – Addo, one of ArchiAfrika’s Advisory Council members. There was a total prize money of USD 270,000 shared between eleven projects in Africa and the Middle East.

Joe Osae-Addo presenting at the Holcim Awards ceremony.

The Holcim Foundation conducts the competition in paral-lel across five regions of the world and focuses on appli-cation of sustainable construction approaches to the built environment across public and private architecture, urban planning and environmental remediation.

The winning project shows that solutions are not only to be found in built structures; the revitalisation scheme of the Fez river in Morocco, proposed by a team of Moroc-can architect Aziza Chaouni and American based Japanese planner Takako Tajima, combines a comprehensive socio-cultural and economic programme within the core envi-ronmental remediation initiative. It includes water quality improvement, remediation of contaminated sites, creation of open spaces and enhancement of existing resources for economic development.

Gold Prize 2008 River remediation & urban development scheme, Fez, Morocco

The Silver Award was presented to a truly poetic develop-ment for a low-cost Mukwano Home in Rakai, Uganda by Japanese architect Koji Tsutsui. The new homes for chil-dren orphaned by the impact of HIV/AIDS, reflect social traditions and habits, provide shelter and offer health care, education spaces and leisure facilities. The long-term goal is to provide the children with basis building skills and a chance to future work and to develop effective social and contextual impact by providing a solid community.

Reports

Amongst the other prices there were many beautiful so-lutions for a more sustainable practice. In the category ‘Acknowledgements’ is to be mentioned the integrated theatre and orphanage in Moshi, Tanzania, proposed by Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects (Finland) and Arm-strong + Cohen Architecture (USA), and a Stabilised Earth Visitors’ centre for the Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa, designed by architect Peter Rice and his team.

In the ‘Next Generation’ category some truly visionary proposals were found; there was the scheme for float-ing low cost housing for the lagoons of Lagos, Nigeria, a project to stop desertification in the North of Nigeria and a proposal for sustainable development of the coast of Kenya near Mombasa.

Despite of the many beautiful projects, we hope that we can work on more balanced figures regarding the coun-tries of origin of the projects. Many of the projects were send in by teams from other continents than Africa. From within the continent, a vast majority was coming from South Africa and Morocco. It is time to make sure that the next competition will reflect a more balanced repre-sentation of initiatives all over the continent.

For more information on the Holcim Foundation, the Hol-cim Awards and the winning projects, you can visit http://www.holcimfoundation.org.

Silver Prize 2008 Low-cost school and home for HIV orphans, Rakai, Uganda

Silver Prize 2008 Low-cost school and home for HIV orphans, Rakai, Uganda

Gold, Silver and Bronze Prize Winners 2008 with awards

In the SpotlightCurrent

Agenda

21 - 28 September 2009 Conference African Perspectives Pretoria

19 March - June 2009In the Desert of Modernity

Exhibiton, Visits, Art Installations

This month we bring to the spotlight the website: http://www.casamemoire.org

Having recently visited Casablanca in Morocco, we came into contact with local architect and Casamémoire chairman Abderrahim Kassou. Having taken us on an architectural tour around the city, exploring the various styles and examples of the city’s diverse architectures, we learnt of the organisation Casamémoire. An organisation aiming to explore and bring attention to the future plight of the built heritage in the rapidly growing city. The organization organizes guided architectural tours around the city and conferences, such as the upcoming collaboration with a Tango festival to be held in Casablanca, amongst other activities. These actions aim to support the development of a sensible and sustainable future for the collection. For more information and images please visit the website.

Purchased V. d. Houwer, E. v. Impe, L. Verpoest (2004) Handleiding Architectuurarchieven Inventarisatie. Centrum Vlaamse Architectuurarchieven, Antwerpen.Mohammed El Faïz (2002) Marrakech: Patrimoine en Péril. Actes Sud/ Eddif, Marrakech.Granted by Els van der Plas: Mukhtar Husain (2006) 100+1: Pakistani Architects and their own Houses. FNMH Architecture, Karachi.Sandro Bocola (1994) Afrikanische Sitze. Prestel, München. Granted by Martien de Vletter: Netherlands National Tourist Office (date unknown) Africana in Holland. ANVV, The Hague. Granted by Institute for Tropical Architecture: J.Aravena, L.Letelier, J.Ugarte (eds.) (2005) La Bioversidad en el Diseno del Paisje caso de Estudio en el Trópico: Hacienda Navarro. Institute for Tropical Architecture, San José/ A.Tzonis, L.Lefaivre, K.Yeang (eds.) (1999) BrunoStagno: An Architect in the Tropics. Asia Design Forum Publications, Ampang/B. Stagno and J. Ugarte (eds.) (1998) Arquitectura Rural en el Tropico: Enclaves Banneros en Costa Rica. Institute for Tropical Architecture, San José/ B. Stagno and J. Ugarte (2006) Ciudades Tropicales Sostenibles: Pistas para su Diseno. Institute for Tropical Architecture, San José.

Stichting DoenDelft University of Technology

De Twee Snoeken AutomatiseringFBW Architecten

bkvdlArchiAfrikaP.O. box 141743508 SG Utrecht Netherlandstel +31 (0)30 223 23 20 fax +31 (0)30 251 82 78www.archiafrika.org

COLOFONText Rachel JenkinsChristopher CrippsBerend van der LansDesign Rachel JenkinsEditingBerend van der LansTranslationAnne-Marie van den Nieuwenhof-Damishimiro FONDATION SHIMIRO, Pointe-Noire, Congo Supported by

ArchiAfrika receives support from the following institutes and organisations:

Acquisitions

In the last two months we have received an unprecedent-ed influx of volunteers including requests for study intern-ships at ArchiAfrika. And gratefully a few of these mem-bers have joined the ArchiAfrika team. The new members are assisting mostly with the massive task of digitizing our archives and library and organising our categorizations. They are helping also with day to day tasks in the office.