image: Jean Francois Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin, FIDAK - Foire Internationale de Dakar, 1974, Dakar (Senegal). Photo © Iwan Baan.

Architecture of Independence: African Modernism

January 29– April 9, 2016

6:00pm: Talk by curator and author Manuel Herz
7-8:30 pm: Opening Reception

This exhibition is based on the book project African Modernism: Architecture of Independence by Manuel Herz in cooperation with the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Throughout the run of the exhibition the exhibition will be presenting a robust program of public talks and other events that will feature: filmmaker Frances Bodomo with film scholar Jacqueline Stewart, architecturalhistorian Nnamdi Elleh, architect and novelist Lesley Lokko, architecturalhistorian Ola Uduku, and designer and scholar Mabel O. Wilson with architect Peter Tolkin. For more information about foundation's program of related events, please click here. 

When many countries in sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence in the 1960s, experimental architecture became one of the key ways in which many young nations expressed their new identities and signaled a departure from their colonial pasts. The ambitious and distinctive designs of new parliament buildings, stadiums, universities, central banks, and other major public buildings and housing projects mirrored the forward-looking spirit driving their construction and declared the new nation-states’ presence on the global stage. At the same time, while numerous local designers, planners, and builders participated in this period of building, the majority of architects commissioned for these projects came from countries such as Poland, Yugoslavia, Scandinavia, Israel, and even the former colonial powers.

This exhibition explores the complex history and legacy of modernist architecture in sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring nearly 80 buildings in commissioned photographs by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster, as well as archival material, Architecture of Independence imparts a new perspective on the intersection of architecture and nation-building in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia  and investigates some of the most compelling yet under-studied examples of 1960s and 1970s architecture worldwide.

Manuel Herz is an architect based in Basel, Switzerland. His recent projects include the Synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Mainz, Germany. He has taught at the ETH Zürich and at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and is currently professor of architecture and urban design studies at the University of Basel. Manuel's research addresses the relationship between migration, architecture, and nation-building and the spaces of refugee camps. His publications include Nairobi: Migration Shaping the City (with Shadi Rahbaran and supported by a Graham Foundation grant; Lars Müller Publishers, 2014); From Camp to City: Refugee Camps of the Western Sahara (Lars Müller Publishers, 2013); and African Modernism: Architecture of Independence.

> via grahamfoundation.org