Afropolitan Architecture The Centre for Urban and Built Ecologies

Curated by Lesley Lokko, the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 invited us into the ‘Laboratory of the Future’, with a focus on Africa as a crucible of creative innovation characterized by the youth, rising economies, and increasing mobility of its 1.46 billion inhabitants. The biennale's diverse showcase captured alternative urbanities, both real and imaginary, and offered the perfect springboard for our investigation of Afropolitanism in regard to architectural culture, practice, and theory. 
 
The event series "Afropolitan Architecture" emerged as a collaboration between Mokena Makeka (Dalberg Advisors; thereafter the Cooper Union, New York) and Matthew Barac (London Metropolitan University). The British Pavilion in Venice hosted the first three of five dialogue sessions, with the fourth dialogue scheduled for September at the Africa Centre in London, and the final session in New York at a later date. The project set out to initiate and situate discussion concerning the shaping of a shared urban future. It aims to expand the biennale’s exhibition agenda into architectural debate, kickstarted by structured dialogues.  

Dialogue 1  
“Public Architect” 
A discussion addressing the expanded implications of practice from the point of view of African architects at a time when questions of leadership, innovation, and the role of culture pose significant challenges – challenges to interpretation and for the individuals involved.  

Speakers: Tosin Oshinowo (Founding Principal of Oshinowo Studio, Nigeria; Curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, 2023), in conversation with Mokena Makeka (Special Adviser at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, New York) chaired by Matthew Barac, convened at the British Pavilion, Venice, on 26 May 2023. 
 
Dialogue 2  
“Slow Topography” 
This dialogue sought to unpack the question of the land considered in regard to the African and diasporic experience in our age of hypermobility and seen through the critical prism of environmental sustainability.

Speakers: Tara Gbolade (Co-founding Director of Gbolade Design Studio, London; Mayor’s Design Advocate and Passivhaus Designer), in conversation with Mokena Makeka (Special Adviser at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, New York) chaired by Matthew Barac, convened at the British Pavilion, Venice, on 27 May 2023. 
 
Dialogue 3  
“Afropolitan Axis” 
The third of the Venice series sought to broaden the discussion with a panel addressing questions of alignment and correspondence, with an emphasis on the conceptual dialogue between the conditions of our current situation and our disposition or orientation towards the possibilities of a future envisaged speculatively by design.  

Speakers: Tau Tavengwa (Founding Editor of Cityscapes Magazine, African Centre for Cities, South Africa); Hayley Eber (Acting Dean, Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, Cooper Union, New York), and Nana Biamah-Ofosu (Director of YAA Projects, tutor at the Architectural Association and Kingston School of Art), in conversation with Mokena Makeka (Special Adviser at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, New York) chaired by Matthew Barac at the British Pavilion, Venice, on 30 May 2023, and with welcome remarks from Joseph Zeal Henry (Co-curator, British Pavilion 2023). 
 
Dialogue 4  
“London Afropolitan” 
After Venice, the series moved to London for an event that serves as the catalyst for a spin-off project which expands the architectural agenda into the sphere of urban culture across the subject areas of art, architecture and design, and bringing in several new colleagues from LondonMet. For more about this initiative (also titled London Afropolitan), see its own project page hosted by CUBE (The Centre for Urban and Built Ecologies) 

Speakers: Muyiwa Oki (RIBA President, London), Meneesha Kellay (Curator at V&A, London) and Nana Biamah-Ofosu (Director of YAA Projects, tutor at the Architectural Association and Kingston School of Art), in conversation with Mokena Makeka (Special Adviser at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, New York) chaired by Matthew Barac at the Africa Centre, London, on 19 September 2023, with welcome remarks by Oba Nsugbe KC (Africa Centre, Chair of the Board of Trustees). 
 
Read more about our London Afropolitan event convened in partnership with the Africa Centre on 19 September 2023.