Architecture - Africa - The "triple Heritage" Architectural Concept, The Roots Of Indigenous African Architecture, Western (european Colonial) Influences On African Architecture
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Sketching a comprehensive history of African architecture remains a daunting task because of the enormous size of the continent, the thousands of distinct ethnic groups that inhabit the vast lands, the differences in climate, and the various colonial, economic, political, and religious experiences. Yet, African geography, characterized by the large size of the continent, which encompasses multiple population and cultural distributions, can provide the methodological and temporal means for studying and understanding the continent's architectural history, practices, and scholarship.
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Looking at the floor plan of a family dwelling in Africa, one needs to ask: Who lives there? Is it a Muslim family, a Christian family, or a family that believes in ancestor worship? Is there an extended family ancestors' shrine? Is the dwelling laid out as an extended family compound or as a single-family bungalow in an exclusive wealthy section of the city? When examining the tectonics&#x…
The most challenging task for scholars of African architecture is determining its historical sources. This task is compounded by the nuances of intellectual historiography that bifurcate the continent into two parts comprising an "uncivilized" black Africa occupying sub-Saharan regions and an Arab North Africa
fairly "civilized" because of its proximity to the Western …
The second phase began much later, during the fifteenth century, when European explorers began to look for a sea route to the Orient. Pioneered by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, who sailed around the West African Atlantic coasts on their journey to India and the Far East, numerous trading fortresses began to dot the West African coastal landscapes as trade between Europe, Africa, and the Orient…
While the triple heritage concept is an important starting point for understanding African architectural history, scholars have to look beyond the traditional sources by exploring the influences of late-twentieth-century capitalism in order to understand the forces that are propelling contemporary African architectural practices. Following the independence movements of the 1960s, leaders of the ne…
Aradeon, Susan B. "Al-Sahili: The Historians' Myth of Architectural Technology Transfer from North Africa." Journal des Africanistes 59, nos. 1–2 (1989): 99–131. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times. Trenton, N.J.: African World Press, 1991. Denyer, Susan. African Traditional Architecture: An Historical and Geographical …
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