Learning from Africa

I used to think that architecture and cities were made up of a variety of plans.
But in 2020, in a year when the word “plan” has been shaken and troubled all over the world, I remember my first job in Uganda and being stunned by the fact that everything was not going according to my plan…

Some of the quality modernist buildings built around the time of Uganda’s independence are finally coming into the spotlight. Many of them are still standing on the campus of the National Makerere University in the capital city of Kampala. Opened in 1922 as a technical school, Makerere University was recognised as one of the East African Universities during the British colonial period…

During the 1950s and 1960s, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa achieved independence. Many people may know 1960 as the ‘Year of Africa’, when many countries in particular declared their independence at the same time.However, it is not widely known what kind of architecture was built in Africa during this period…

Mothers cooking or working at a sewing machine, children studying, men playing games with their neighbors and old men sitting in chairs all day with beer in their hands… Walking down the alleys, you can find people spending their time in the shade, feeling the fresh breeze…

In contrast, in Uganda, whose population is exploding with an oveflowing of young workers, the assumption is that everything must be done by hand. Even if it takes ten men ten days, the cost of renting heavy machinery, petrol and drivers is much higher than the cost of manual labour…

There are many people involved in construction. Once construction begins, people come out of nowhere to look for work…

In all the sites we have designed and supervised, we have learned to “give up”. No matter how much research we do at the design stage, we can’t feel secure until we have seen with our own eyes the materials delivered to the site and the work is actually being done. There was no such thing as a “plan” on the job site, and everything we had envisioned would fall apart one after another…

The term “terroir” is a concept well known among wine and coffee producers and enthusiasts. Not only the variety of grapes and beans, but also the characteristics of the natural environment, such as the soil and the climate in which they are grown, have a significant impact on the taste and quality of the wine or coffee when it is consumed…

The city is full of informal things. In the suburbs of the capital city of Kampala, rapid change is evident as high-rise buildings and low-rise residences are being built here and there, while the people who live there seem to be living at a slower pace, neither panicked nor flattered by the changes…