Website

  • Africa Architecture Network
  • GRANTEE
    Adil Dalbai & Livingstone Mukasa
    GRANT YEAR
    2021

Atelier Masōmī and Studio Chahar, “Hikma” Religious and Secular Complex in Dandaji, Niger, 2018. Courtesy Atelier Masōmī. Photo: James Wang

The discourse on African architecture is fragmented and lacks global visibility, partly due to the absence of a platform for exchange and contact among the many experts in Africa, the African diaspora, and across the globe. This has become even clearer over the past six years during the production of the seven volumes of Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa. To fill this gap, the Africa Architecture Network aims to actualize, decentralize, and visualize the existing network of more than 300 authors that collaborated on the publication, by setting up a trilingual website as the starting point for an evolving online platform. At its core are the members’ pages, where participants present ideas related to African architecture and share their latest work within the community and with a broader audience. The Network serves as a platform that fosters exchange in order to further develop, manage, and communicate knowledge about architecture in Africa.

Adil Dalbai graduated from Humboldt University of Berlin with a master’s degree in modern history and cultural theory, specializing in the architectural history of Eurasia and (post)colonial contexts. He worked as an editor and author for DOM publishers, focusing on architecture and urbanism. He went on to study architecture at the Technical University of Berlin and worked at Meuser Architekten on architecture projects in Western Africa. He researches and writes about architecture in Central Asia and Africa and its global interconnections. Additionally, he is a guest critic and lecturer, as well as (co)editor and author of several articles and books on architecture, including Theorising Architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa (DOM publishers, 2021). Since 2014, he has been managing editorial director of Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa (DOM publishers, 2021, with Philipp Meuser and Livingstone Mukasa), a seven–volume documentation of the architecture of all 49 African countries south of the Sahara.

Livingstone Mukasa’s career has included architectural practice, urban design, master planning, real estate development, and sustainable development consulting. He founded and managed Archability, an online architectural crowdsourcing start-up, and Afritecture, an online platform on architecture in Africa. He is currently principal of Mahali, a collaborative design studio focused on cultural and contextual architectural engagement, and a frequent guest reviewer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Architecture. Passionate about architecture in Africa, he is coauthor and associate editor of Theorising Architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa (DOM publishers, 2021), and Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa (DOM publishers, 2021, with Philipp Meuser and Adil Dalbai), a seven–volume documentation of the architecture of all 49 countries south of the Sahara. Born in Kampala, Uganda, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from New York Institute of Technology, and graduate certificates from the Graduate School of Architecture, Harvard University in Urban Housing and Mixed–Use Developments.