'Modernity' hampering sustainable architecture

A modern house. Few of the traditional, sustainable African huts remain on the continent.

In the traditional African society, there were very few construction options. Ideally, most homes, if not all, were mud-walled with a straw roof. The houses remained cool during the day and warm during the night.

Fast forward to the 20th Century and this ideal house was slowly replaced by the brick and mortar home that came with colonial progression. Well to do Africans fell over each other as competition for the best designed and biggest house gained momentum.

Very few of the traditional, sustainable African huts remain on the continent. In most cases, such homes are looked down upon as being inferior to the massive edifices being erected today.

While modernity is to be embraced, local architects ought to look at ways of copying the values of the traditional home, incorporating ideas that made the house attractive and healthy to live in.

Unfortunately, most of our architects look to the Western world for inspiration, egged on by clients who want the aesthetic aspects of Western technology. Paradoxically, the same architects have no problem using the traditional architecture in designing hospitality structures at the coast that cost one an arm and a leg to spend a night.

Francis Kere, a Burkina Faso born architect has been in the forefront in using clay based materials in the construction of an entire school in his home country. “When I first proposed building a school out of clay, the village community was skeptical. They were doubtful as to whether a clay building could withstand the rain season. In order to persuade them, I had to build models, inviting the villagers to test their strength, and demonstrating its durability,” he writes.

But the school was built out of clay and requires little maintenance. A Secondary school was later added on site. Both have won global awards for using sustainable materials.

According to Kere, all we need to do is accept that our African traditional architecture can compete with any modern forms of designs and win. However, time will tell if such methods will be used to provide mass housing projects in the continent.