CPDI Africa EXPO 2022: Workshop & Excursion

This CPDI Africa Workshop introduces participants to the concepts for developing new African architectural languages, inspired by the culture and technology of traditional and contemporary African societies. We harness solutions to today’s-built environment problems, that are sourced from African science and design philosophies.  The workshop surveys innovations in both the African and Diaspora-built environment, introducing young design professionals and students to the research initiatives of CPDI Africa, using the Art of African Architecture exhibition as a theoretical reference for the workshop outcomes. 

The Expo concluded with a tour of Afrocentric built projects in Abuja, FCT, with certificates awarded, PLUS 20 credits in ARCON continued professional development credits – Architects Registration Council of Nigeria. Highlights included: Workshop & Certificates, Meetings with CPDI Africa instructors, Excursions to Afrocentric Architecture in Abuja, Art of African Architecture Exhibition. The theme for CPDI Africa EXPO 2022 was developed around the need to identify ways of preserving heritage in the African built environment, by sourcing the solutions from indigenous science, technology, and design philosophies. 

According to our research, gathered from heritage preservation practitioners, sustainable design professionals, and cultural studies professors in institutions of higher learning, the aesthetically displeasing / lack of affordable housing / poor utilization of design personnel / disharmony in community space / poor functionality of our built spaces, are all due to the lack of an African centered pedagogy taught in our curriculums of architecture, construction and urban planning. As a result, the CPDI Africa Global Studio for African Centered Architecture, through its live and virtual workshops, has begun to resolve the current crisis, by bringing African centered education to the student and professional via its independently run academic platform. 

Defined by what CPDI Africa coins as the 5 Pillars of Afrocentric Architecture: culture, aesthetics, spirituality, materials and community engagement, our students receive insight through these African designed lenses, to counter the crippling Eurocentric curriculums used in built environment faculties and programs, not only in Africa but throughout the Diaspora.  

CPDI Africa identified that the result of a lack of inward facing curriculums, universities in Africa, graduate design professionals that have spent the better part of their educational career, imbibing knowledge of the built environment developed by and for people in cultures and geographical locations outside of African spaces. 

These ideologies, materials, aesthetics, professional processes, and regulations are then replicated and practiced throughout Africa, creating built landscapes that are dysfunctional for the people they are built for.  They create problems never experienced before on the continent, that require yet another foray into seeking solutions from Eurocentric pedagogy and practices, that further compound the already failing system. The cycle repeats itself, leaving both the end user and the design professional without comfortable, affordable spaces built, and lack of employment for the local labor force. 

The workshops were suited towards exposing how the students could use the CPDI Africa 5 Pillars of Afrocentric Architecture, to solve real issues in the environment, thereby improving on how they propose real solutions, via their design briefs in school and in professional practice.  If Afrocentric architecture does not provide solutions to the people’s problem, then it is irrelevant, offers zero value to the community.

For instance, the first pillar: culture. Students were asked to list some of the top problems they have with the way our homes are designed, or their communities were master planned. For Aesthetics, they were to list some of the unpleasant ways our buildings look, in terms of beauty, finishing, maintenance, the feeling they evoke visually. For spirituality, they were to identify some challenges they have with how faith-based practices impact the built environment, or how special sensitivities to religious practices were not being met in public spaces. 

For Materials, they listed some of the top issues they had with the type of materials, ease of use and cost of materials, and the negative impact on health and housing accessibility. And finally for community engagement, they articulated some of the ways they felt the community has been disengaged from participating in providing a safe, clean, affordable, creative neighborhood. 

For the exercise, they were to select one built environment listed and provide an African inspired solution, using either an example from their own cultural heritage, or from any other source from within the African Diaspora. Keynote lectures, group and individual activities where guided by CPDI Africa founder Nmadili Okwumbua, the event Partners and CPDI Africa team of cultural architects. 

The CPDI Africa EXPO Workshop and Excursion hosted 45 delegates and students from private architecture practices, universities throughout Nigeria, as well as the University of Amsterdam. Keynote lectures, individual and group workshop exercises were conducted, and the field trips to five Nigerian inspired built projects were completed. The educational content was innovative in its problem-solving approach.

The important takeaways from the two-day exercise were the feedback from the delegates and students, speaking on how they will incorporate this research and way of thinking about architecture and urban design, into their individual projects. Their testimonials begin to show how they will use this knowledge to tackle heritage preservation, environmental protection and sustainable development from African centered perspectives. 

The most critical areas highlighted by the students was the improvement made in sacred spaces, and the cost saving implications of using locally sourced, standardized building materials. We will continue to host internships, workshops and excursions that bring this pedagogy to a larger audience, moving the sites to countries around Africa and the diaspora. Providing the Certificates in Afrocentric Architecture also helps to validate the scholarship, as we continue to promote its inclusion in the curriculums in our major architecture programs Africa wide.