Adobe architecture west africa

Princeton Architecture Press, Download Citation. Abstract: Many think that sub-Saharan African architecture is little more than mud huts.

Mud, yes--but certainly not huts. For centuries, complex earthen structures, many of them quite massive, have been built in the Sahel region of western Africa, an area encompassing parts of Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. Made of earth mixed with water, these buildings display a remarkable diversity of form and originality. In and , Morris spent several months in Africa traveling to remote villages and desert communities to photograph these organically shaped, labor-intensive structures.

Several images of ambitious religious buildings—like the Friday Mosque in Djenne, Mali, the largest earthen building in the world; the towering Friday Mosque in Agadez, Niger; and the iconic Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu, Mali—flaunt a grandiosity that seems to push the physical limits of earthen architecture.

Photographs of more humble structures, like private homes or neighborhood mosques and churches, display highly expressive and stylish buildings, often decorated with intricate painting, grillwork, or relief designs. Interestingly, these African buildings share many qualities now much discussed in contemporary Western architectural circles: sustainability, sculptural form, and the participation of the community in their conception, fabrication, and preservation.

The term butabu—which describes the process of moistening earth with water in preparation for building—emphasizes the human presence as intrinsic to the creation and maintenance of these structures.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. HARDWIRED Spanish Pueblo Style The characteristics include earth-colored stucco walls; adobe or facsimile bricks; rounded corners at intersections; brick flooring; flat roofs drained by canales; rows of vigas on the ceiling, which often project through the exterior walls and provide structural support for the flat roof; casement windows, typically recessed, with roughly hewn lintels; and stepped-back rooflines that imitate Pueblo architecture.

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