Heritage

The African Architectural and Urban History Network AFRAUHN Nairobi : 8-10 September 2026; conference update

July 17, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, call for papers, Global Architecture, Heritage, Historiography, transnational, Tropical Architecture

The African Architectural and Urban History Network (AFRAUHN), in collaboration with the Department of Architecture at the University of Nairobi, invites proposals for papers about emerging discourses and themes in African architectural and urban practices for a major international conference being held at the University of Nairobi from 8th September – 10th September 2026.

Details here https://www.afrauhn.org/

Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by Amani Nation on Unsplash

It will be the second AFRAUHN bi-annual conference, the first having taken place at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning in South Africa in July 2024. Recognizing that discourses about African architecture and urban planning are more complex than the bifurcated ‘traditional’/‘colonial’ or ‘African’/‘Western’ models which still tend to dominate the research, writing, environmental design and spatial design practices in the continent, this conference instead welcomes contributions that critically examine the status quo(s) of these models and disciplines – be that in terms of academic, practice, national institutions or regulatory bodies, or as are imagined by policy-makers in forms of urban development which are then disseminated to the public.

This second AFRAUHN bi-annual conference is organized to coincide with the inaugural Pan-African Biennale of Architecture, curated by Omar Degan and team, and which is also being held in September 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya

TUESDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER 2026: CONFERENCE DAY 1

INTRODUCTION: 09.30–10.00 – Prof Nnamdi Elleh, AFRAUHN

SESSION 1: 10.00–12.30 – Reclaiming Regional Identity in Kenyan Architecture [4 papers x 20minutes each]

Chair: Prof Robert Rukwaro

This session explores the intellectual and philosophical foundations of Kenyan architectural identity through the lens of vernacular knowledge systems, material intelligence, and spatial order. The presentation argues that traditional architecture in Kenya is not merely heritage to be preserved, but a living epistemic framework capable of informing contemporary design practice. Indigenous construction logics across Kenya’s diverse communities, ecological adaptation strategies, and collective spatial memory are examined as repositories of theory rather than cultural artefacts.

The discussion interrogates the tension between global architectural visibility and regional authenticity within the Kenyan context. If international planning and design models and homogenised aesthetics have shaped much of contemporary built production in Nairobi and other urban centres, what would it mean to design from within Kenyan ontologies rather than around them? How can architectural historiography and design research reposition Kenyan spatial traditions as generative rather than derivative?

Given that this platform seeks to advance scholarly and professional debate on Kenyan architectural identity, we welcome papers from researchers, practitioners, and emerging scholars working on vernacular knowledge, regional historiography, climatic adaptation, material culture, and contemporary reinterpretations of indigenous spatial systems. Papers may engage historical case studies, theoretical reflections, built work, or methodological innovations. As this convening includes significant time for dialogue and exchange, participants interested in contributing to the discussion are strongly encouraged to take part.

Lunch: 12:30–14:00

SESSION 2: 14.00–16.30 – Architectural Education in Africa: When the Curriculum Leans Towards a Eurocentric Body of Knowledge [4 papers x 20minutes each]

Chair: Arch. Erastus Abonyo

This discussion critically examines the structural imbalance in architectural education in Africa, where curricular frameworks often privilege Euro-American canons while local knowledge systems remain marginalised. The presentation interrogates how epistemic hierarchies are reproduced through studio culture, citation practices, accreditation standards, and benchmarking systems, questioning how legitimacy in architectural scholarship is constructed within African institutions.

The conversation explores the professional and intellectual consequences of this imbalance. How can architectural education in African prepare students for contexts defined by informality, hybrid land regimes, climate vulnerability, and postcolonial spatial inequality characteristic of African cities and towns? In what ways can indigenous material intelligence, oral archives, and community spatial governance be integrated as methodological frameworks rather than aesthetic references?

This convening especially welcomes papers that reflect upon the following pedagogical and methodological questions:

• How have architectural curricula in Africa been shaped by inherited colonial academic models, and what remains structurally embedded?
• What knowledge systems and epistemologies construct ideas of “architecture” within African institutions, and what forms of knowledge are excluded?
• How do accreditation standards, benchmarking systems, and global validation mechanisms influence curricular design and research priorities?
• In what ways can studio culture, critique language, and research training be recalibrated to centre African socio-spatial realities?

Contributions that critically engage these questions—through empirical research, curriculum analysis, policy review, or pedagogical experimentation—are particularly encouraged.

Coffee/tea break: 16.30–17.00

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE LECTURE:19.00

OMAR DEGAN, Curating the Pan-African Biennale of Architecture: From Fragility to Resilience

Respondent: Prof Nnamdi Elleh

WEDNESDAY, 9th SEPTEMBER 2026: CONFERENCE DAY 2

SESSION 3: 10.00–12.30 – Writing African Architectural History? [4 papers x 20minutes each]

Chair: Prof Ola Uduku

This session will provide a forum for discussion amongst early career researchers involved in the recently concluded and British Academy-funded ‘Writing Campus Modernisms’ project. This project engaged a number of academic institutions and scholars/students across Africa in the creation of an open-source working collection of fiches documenting campus design in three African countries: Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda. Whilst the personal experiences of each speaker will be the focus of the four contributions, the challenges, connections and opportunities that this project produced will form the background to the discussion which the speakers will deliver.

Given that this panel is framed around the reflections of Early Career Researchers who were involved in the ‘Writing Campus Modernisms’ research project – with four such ECR presenters already identified – we welcome a maximum of two further short paper contributions from Africa-based ECRs with experience related to research writing focused specifically on post-Second World War campus architecture in Africa. As this session also includes a significant slot for audience participation and discussion, we thus welcome all participants who are interested in contributing to take part.

Lunch: 12:30–14:00

SESSION 4: 14.00–16.30 – Shifting the Ground for Thinking the Historiographies of African Architecture and Urbanism [4 papers x 20minutes each]

Chair: Prof Ikem Okoye

Does the Africa-focused historian’s familiar distrust of the archive and its orientation extend to the built environments that form a structural, symbolic, and representational knowledge apparatus? Should it? An archive implies more than a physical repository of knowledge; it also reflects a value system. Histories of built environments intervene in both. They provide tangible and knowledge-related custodianship of documentary records that confer the legitimacy of governing bodies, and they also suggest alternate archival evidence and forms of authority.

This session invites papers, especially from early-career scholars, addressing any of these issues and or questions. The aim is to bring together senior scholars and those yet at the beginning of their professional careers as architectural or art historians and/or architectural or art critics, to create a discussion in a dialogical format.

Coffee/tea break: 16.30–17.00

Plenary Discussion: 17.00–18.30

This session will include short presentations and a roundtable discussion among some specially invited speakers from among the participants who are presenting their work in the Pan-African Biennale of Architecture at the same time as the AFRAUHN conference. The session will then lead into the main keynote lecture.

Chair: Prof Ola Uduku

Conference dinner: 20.30–22.00

THURSDAY, 10th SEPTEMBER 2026: CONFERENCE DAY 3

SESSION 5: 10.00–12.30 – What happened to Tropical Architecture? [4 papers x 20 minutes each]

Chair: Prof Nnamdi Elleh

What happened to tropical architecture that is adapted to the regional climates of Africa?

In Africa’s cities, we live, socialize and work in large buildings. Each day, these buildings are confronted with needs for heating, cooling, dust protection, daylighting, maintenance etc to provide conducive environments that function well for users. The cadence of life in these large African buildings suggests there is nothing nostalgic in questioning what happened to the concept of tropical architecture? We acknowledge the work of architects like Francis Kere and Nina Maritz in providing natural cooling, daylighting, and an appropriate use of materials and construction technology.

However, in cities as diverse as Cape Town, Abidjan, Cairo, Djibouti, Luanda or Casablanca, the bourgeoning African built environment is increasingly dominated by high- and medium-rise crystalline structures that are sealed as if built in a climate zone that fluctuates seasonally between extreme cold and heat. In a period when sustainable environmental design is a buzzword, it is baffling that architects still design structures which need artificial heating/cooling.

This session welcomes papers that explore how clients and designers can become re-sensitized to by taking advantage of natural African environments.

Lunch: 12.30–14.00

SESSION 6: 14.00–16.30 – Constructing Coloniality: Nodes of Imperialism and the East African Built Environment [4 papers x 20 minutes each]

Chair: Prof Eva Branscome

This session focuses on the coloniality of architecture and heritage of East Africa in relation to the diverse empires and trading networks which historically connected that region to peoples across the Arabian Sea and on associated islands in the Indian Ocean, as well as to Europe and the Indian subcontinent or further afield. The aim is to reassess East Africa’s built environment in wake of those former colonial systems.

Building types can include yet are not limited to the following:domestic environments; landscapes and agricultural production; urban environments such as streets, squares and gardens; factories and other sites of industrial production; sites of assembly, leisure and entertainment; places of worship; buildings for colonial administration; commercial infrastructure such as ports, waterways and railways; heritage sites and current conservation practices.

The session especially welcomes papers which reflect upon the following historiographical and methodological questions:

How have the professions, disciplines and discourses of architecture, design and heritage been shaped by and participated in imperialism, coloniality and racism?
What are the knowledge systems and epistemologies that construct ideas of ‘architecture’ and ‘heritage’, and what is excluded and why?
How do financial systems, supply chains and concepts of tenure and relations to the land shape the production of built environments?
How does the coloniality of architecture and built heritage relate to histories of extractivism and energy use?

Tea break: 16.30–17.00

SESSION 7: 17.00–18.00 – Design Research in African Architectural and Urban History [2 speakers x 20 minutes each]

Chair: Prof Murray Fraser

This final session offers a forum for those involved in designing for the African built environment to discuss the kinds of design research that they are engaged upon as a component of their built or unbuilt work. Particularly welcome are those proposals for presentations by up-and-coming architects/architectural practices who are currently designing innovative and anticipatory projects for villages, towns or cities on the African continent.

AFRAUHN FUTURE STEPS: 18.00–18.30

Discussion about future plans for the AFRAUHN research network.

FRIDAY, 11th SEPTEMBER 2026

TRAVEL TO MOMBASA

Conference participants/attendees are also invited to take the train to Mombasa for a specially organised architectural and urban tour of that coastal city. Early registration is required from those wanting to take part in this tour. Costs for this will be confirmed in due course.

Supporting institutions

Pan-African Biennale of Architecture
Architectural Association of Kenya
Campus Innovation Laboratory (CIL),University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Department of Art History, University of Delaware, USA
Liverpool School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, UK
The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK.

Scientific Committee

Professor Irene Appeaning Addo, University of Ghana, Legon (Ghana)

George Arrabu Ndege, President of the Architectural Association of Kenya

Professor Eva Branscome, University College London (UK)

Dr Warebi Brisibe, Rivers State University of Science and Technology (Nigeria)

Professor Marshall Brown, Princeton University (USA)

Omar Degan, Pan-African Biennale of Architecture

Professor Nnamdi Elleh, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Professor Murray Fraser, University College London (UK)

Prof Julia Gallagher, King’s College London (UK)

Jacqueline Khairu, Chairperson – Architects’ Chapter, Architectural Association of Kenya

Dr Linda Nkatha Gichuyia, University of Nairobi (Kenya)

Professor Ikem Stanley Okoye, University of Delaware (USA)

Prof Robert Rukwaro, University of Nairobi (Kenya)

Dr Anooradha Siddiqi, Barnard College, Columbia University (USA)

Professor Ola Uduku, University of Liverpool (UK)

‘Architecture, Empire and Trade’ wins at the Architectural Book Awards 2026

By jacksoniain

July 2, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, Archives, British Colonial Architecture, European Transnational, Ghana, Global Architecture, Heritage, Historiography, Ibadan, Lagos, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

Leave a comment

Architecture, Empire and Trade wins at the Architectural Book Awards 2026

Architecture, Empire and Trade: The United Africa Company has won a category prize at this year’s Architectural Book Awards. It was named a joint winner for Best Architectural History Book of 2026. It’s free open access and now available in a paperback as well as hardback.

The awards are run by Booklaunch, the quarterly on books and publishing. Judging is anonymous. The categories change each year to fit what has been submitted and the awards are currently in their fourth year.

The judging took an unusual turn this year. For the first time the panel declined to name an overall Book of the Year. The editor, Stephen Games, said the field was too strong and too varied to rank one title above the rest. The judges took the view that serious criticism follows the evidence rather than forcing a hierarchy. So they named category winners and left it there.

Nine titles won across four categories. Between them they are the work of twenty authors, editors and photographers. Four came from university presses.

Our category, history, had four joint winners. We proudly share it with Women at Work, a study of the Cambridge School of Architecture; The Belgian Friendship Building; and Marvin Trachtenberg’s reassessment of Brunelleschi. Good company.

The book is the work of five of us: Ewan Harrison, Michele Tenzon, Rixt Woudstra, Claire Tunstall and myself. The team spans Liverpool, Manchester, Amsterdam, Delft, and the Unilever Archives. It is published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts – I’d like to thank my co-authors for their hard work, and to James Thompson and Ros O’Cleirigh at Bloomsbury for their ongoing support.

The book is part of the wider AHUWA work on British commercial urbanism in West Africa. That work continues, including current research on the timber trade across Ghana and Nigeria, working with Claire on digitising/AIing the archives, and continuing the Kingsway exhibitions. The prize puts the book in front of readers who might not otherwise come across it. That is reason enough to be pleased, and thanks to the judges for selecting our work.

Stone Town in Zanzibar: Beyond Tourism and Heritage

By jacksoniain

June 3, 2026

Africa, Heritage, Historiography, transnational, Tropical Architecture, Zanzibar

Leave a comment

Stone Town: Beyond Tourism and Heritage by Maria Lookmanji

This dissertation investigates the Indo-Zanzibari community’s daily practices that shape belonging in the historic city of Stone Town, Zanzibar, and their methods of community-based, socio-spatial maintenance of space. To address this overlooked topic related to conservation, results from a participatory photography methodology are analysed. The remote, participatory image-based research (RPIBR) allows the Indo-Zanzibaris to document their under-researched spatial priorities and negotiations, giving them agency due to the insider knowledge and co-curated documentation.

The visual analysis across 64 images shows Indo-Zanzibari belonging grounded in routine trade-focused activity, improvised contemporary additions and wide networks of circulation beyond the heritage-inscribed boundaries of Stone Town. Practices interpreted as chaos or neglect, are reframed to show the collective community familiarity and responsive knowledge to contextual constraints and the complicated conditions of the country.

By focusing on evidence of everyday practice, Indo-Zanzibari presence is shown through urban responsibility and spatial negotiation rather than a curated display of performed heritage outside of lived necessity. The dissertation questions the nature of traditional conservation guidelines, emphasising the need to shift priority away from tourism and static heritage narratives, which aim to simply preserve the built environment, and instead draw attention to community and cultural survival.

Read the full dissertation here:

Stonetown DISSERTATION 2026 Download

Lever “Ethnographic” Collection at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight

By jacksoniain

May 18, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, Archives, Heritage, Historiography, Nigeria, transnational, United Africa Company

Leave a comment

How should we catalogue, describe, present, and interpret museum objects? These are never easy questions and even more difficult when they form part of an ‘ethnographic’ collection.

The @leverartgallery in Port Sunlight has a major collection gathered by industrialist William Lever from his sojourns to West and Central Africa – but very little is known about the objects, and they rarely get displayed because of this.

Together with colleagues from @liverpoolmuseums and AHUWA / Liverpool University we invited members of the Congolese Association to join us in a workshop and to rethink how we might begin to catalogue and understand the art, instruments, weapons, fabrics… We were delighted to be joined by Congolese Ambassador Ndolamb Ngokwey and to have expert facilitation from @bluesaint .

It was only a trial , but the proof of concept worked really well. Looking forward to seeing the other objects and learning more.3 d

What Ghana’s foreign‑built landmarks tell us about its global relationships

By jacksoniain

May 6, 2026

Africa, Ghana, Global Architecture, Heritage, Historiography, India, transnational, Tropical Architecture

Leave a comment

What Ghana’s foreign‑built landmarks tell us about its global relationships

Irene Appeaning Addo, University of Ghana

The call to prayer echoes across the neighbourhood as people congregate under the sweeping domes and tall minarets of Ghana’s National Mosque in Accra. For many, it is a place of faith, community and national pride. Yet, few pause to consider that this landmark – now firmly part of Accra’s skyline – was funded and built by Turkey.

This detail points to a bigger story. Some of Ghana’s most important public buildings are shaped by global relationships as much as local needs. And those relationships are not just economic; they are deeply political.

Therefore buildings are not just functional. They are powerful expressions of political power, used to describe and project ideas about hierarchy, state authority, solidarity and modernity.

As a result, architecture can be used to explore the identity and ideology of African states and international partners who choose to finance or donate new buildings to Africa featuring western architectural aesthetics.

I am a scholar of African architecture. I collaborated with scholars from different areas of expertise, including political scientists, on a project that studied the connection between architecture and power in Africa. From Ghana, two projects were used to illustrate international relations in architecture, highlighting the interplay of power and agency. One was the National Mosque and the other was the seat of Ghana’s government, Jubilee House, an edifice funded by the government of India.

Ghana and India’s ties can be traced to their co-founding of the Non-Aligned Movement. These were a group of states not formally aligned with major power blocs during the cold war. Ghana and Turkey’s relationship goes as far back as 1957. Turkey is one of the leading investors in Ghana’s economy.

Our work established that when a country finances and constructs a major building abroad, it leaves a visible and lasting imprint on another nation’s landscape. The building becomes part of everyday life while reflecting the influence of its external sponsor. These buildings normalise the presence of the sponsoring nation and are a constant reminder of its political interests.

History written in buildings

Foreigners have been shaping Ghana’s built environment for centuries, from colonial forts along the coast to post-independence modernist projects designed by international architects.

Ghana’s architecture tells a layered story of power and exchange. During the colonial era, Europeans constructed forts and castles that dominated coastal landscapes. These were not just military structures; they were symbols of control and gateways to global trade networks, including the transatlantic slave trade. Sections of these buildings were later repurposed as schools, embedding education within spaces marked by violence and coercion.

This dual legacy highlights how architecture can carry multiple, often conflicting meanings over time.

After independence, Ghana sought to project a new national identity through modern architecture.

Foreign architects were commissioned to design housing, universities and civic buildings that would signal progress and global relevance. This moment reflected both aspiration and dependence: a desire to appear modern on the world stage, combined with reliance on external expertise and resources.

‘Soft power’

Today, Ghana continues to engage with global partners through architecture and infrastructure development. The National Mosque is one example. Backed by Turkey with the active involvement of Ghanaian Muslims, it represents both religious solidarity and diplomatic outreach underpinned by local agency.

Its scale, design and prominence make it a visible marker of Turkey’s presence in Ghana. The National Mosque Complex is modelled after the Ottoman-era Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. The national mosque in Accra features domes, semi-domes and arcaded porticos. These are the characteristics of Ottoman architecture, a predominant classical style for mosques in Turkey and the Islamic world.

Another example of political “gift” is Jubilee House, the seat of government. While financed and constructed with support from India, it incorporates the form of the Akan stool, a deeply significant symbol of authority in Ghanaian culture. This blending of external funding with local agency and symbolism shows that these projects are not simply imposed. They are shaped through negotiation.

Across the continent, similar patterns can be seen. China has funded major government buildings, including the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and the Zimbabwe parliamentary complex. These projects are often described as “gifts”, but they also reflect strategic relationships and long-term influence. Political scientist Innocent Batsani-Ncube has illustrated how China’s large-scale investment in the Zimbabwe parliament is used as a proxy for its sustained activities in and around African parliamentary institutions.

Ghana’s case

It is easy to view foreign-funded infrastructure as purely beneficial, especially given Ghana’s development needs. But architecture is never neutral. Buildings embody power relationships in terms of the scale, materiality, the architectural features and the location in urban areas.

They reflect who has the resources to design, finance and construct, and whose ideas are ultimately realised in physical form. A mosque, a parliament or a presidential palace is not just a functional space; it is a statement about identity, legitimacy and global belonging of both the sponsor and the recipient country. In this sense, architecture becomes part of diplomacy. It is a way of making relationships visible – and durable.

Describing these projects simply as soft power, however, does not capture the full picture. Soft power theory often assumes that influence flows smoothly from powerful countries to less powerful ones.

Ghana’s experience suggests something more complex. Buildings cannot simply be “exported” like films or fashion. They are rooted in specific places, histories and communities. This creates friction.

For example, Ghana’s engagement with foreign-built projects often involves negotiation over design, symbolism and use. Local government officials, religious leaders and communities play a role in shaping outcomes.

In the case of the National Mosque, Ghanaian Muslim communities were not passive recipients. Their advocacy and social influence were crucial to the project’s realisation. Similarly, the incorporation of the Akan stool in Jubilee House reflects an effort to assert cultural identity. These examples show that foreign influence is most often mediated by local contexts.

Ghanaian actors’ agency in these processes has limits, however. Many decisions about large-scale projects are made by political elites. As a result, the interests reflected in these buildings may not represent the broader population.

These examples point to broader questions. Do foreign-funded buildings contribute to long-term development, or are they primarily symbolic? How can Ghana ensure that such projects reflect local priorities and needs? And what does it mean to build a national identity in a world shaped by global partnerships?

The links among soft power, public and cultural diplomacy, and development across the continent will continue to be subjects of research.

International relations scholars Joanne Tomkinson and Julia Gallagher contributed to the research that this article is derived from.

Irene Appeaning Addo, Associate Professor of African Architecture, University of Ghana

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Accra updates April 2026

By jacksoniain

April 30, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, Archives, British Colonial Architecture, Ghana, Heritage, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

Leave a comment

We returned to Accra to take down the Kingsway Stores exhibition. It’s currently in storage at the emerging and wonderful Si Hene Foundation. The future of the exhibition is quite exciting – the details are still being resolved, but it’s certainly going to travel around Ghana and onto Nigeria (details to follow – and we’ll post updates here). Si Hene has it’s own collection of Kingsway archive material too – so it’s the ideal spot. The exhibition was dismantled and transported on the motorbike-truck.

I gave a talk to the archivist-curator-artists at Si Hene on our work, methods, practice and community engagement. This was great fun and the quality of the projects being produced here is astonishing.

After dismantling the exhibition there was time to search out some new, old, and modified structures. First on the list was the School of Law from 1959. Designed by Zdzisław Borysowicz of Nickson and Borys. I came across an archival image of the building in the Borys archives – and was eager to visit…

The kind people at the School allowed us to explore and take some photos.

Check out the curved brise soleil – how was this cast with such accuracy? It’s a similar size and proportion to the nearby Library also designed by Borys – but this time curved. This would involve some very tricky and geometrically complex formwork and there doesn’t appear to be a climatic/comfort reason for doing so? There was also the usual terrazzo and concrete with crustacean aggregate – all carefully finished. The most dramatic part of the design is the zig-zag concrete solar shading. This is projecting from the main facade – and appears to hang, unsupported. It’s audacious and brave. There’s new glazing been added behind, but the overall effect is just about retained… The brise Soleil features on the south and north facing facades – was tropical modernism becoming more of a ’style’ than a pragmatic solution by this stage?

Borys designed some of the finest buildings in West Africa. In Accra alone this includes the library, Padmore Memorial Library, PRAAD, Court extension, the law school – and as we went onto see, some excellent housing too.

There’s a fascinating villa in the Borys archive. It’s a house for “Mr and Mrs Pepera, Accra, Ghana”. Pepera was an industrialist and business owner and his family owned some large plots of land across the city. He commissioned Borys to design a house on Switchback Road in Accra. One of the facades contains a distinct mosaic mural. With the help of Allotey Bruce Konuah the family told us that the house had been redeveloped, but the mural survived. We went to take a look. It seems that the house has been rebuilt in a similar style and the mural has either been remade, or possibly partially preserved.

There’s a few other interesting dwellings on the same stretch of Switchback Road – how long they’ll remain isn’t certain – the land value and rapid development is forcing vast highrise construction here and these villas set within large landscaped gardens are at risk.

There are some smaller clinics and hospitals along this road too, with accompanying residences.

The new @adjayeassociates offices opened earlier this month in Accra. It’s an impressive structure with generous interior and exterior spaces for exchanges, meetings, displays, and studios. The gallery contains some of the most beautiful and carefully crafted models we’ve seen.

Stabilised rammed earth (swishcrete) features heavily on the exterior – mirroring the marble clad vertical fins and approach of Lasdun’s Takoradi bank . The most startling aspect of the design is the decision to raise the structure up from the ground level. The structural span is vast and courageous, with the entirely building appearing to perch on a large round concrete drum form at one end (it’s a kind of inhabitable piloti containing a fire escape). It’s quite an unusual gesture to only use as a means of escape.

The structural solution is impressive – but it left me wondering why was it done? Is it referencing the modernist piloti concept, or the colonial bungalow model, or perhaps the former US embassy in Accra ? The underpass could make for a great outside studio, exhibition space, or a spot for a planted garden and evaporation pool – but it’s only used to provide shade for parked cars at the moment… Perhaps the landscaping and activation of the space will follow – it takes time to bed into a space like this – and the roof garden and kitchen makes up for it with views to the ocean and across the city.

Going back to the ‘rammed earth’ – it would be good to know the cement content. Are we really dealing with a pigmented concrete solution here rather than adobe ?

Very grateful @phelim_owusu for kindly giving us a tour and to @k_of_i for organising the visit.

Finally a visit to the Danish embassy – a villa set in gardens in North Ridge. Architect unknown – but a careful design that blended the garden and interiors – perfect setting for the art exhibition, performance, and gathering.

New Monograph- Freetown: An Architectural Gazetteer

By jacksoniain

February 28, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, Archives, British Colonial Architecture, Heritage, Sierra Leone, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

7 Comments

Our new monograph on the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone has (finally) been published – open access and you can download it here. It’s a major output stretching to 240 pages across a chunky 250x250mm format and is the third book in our series on sharing the archives of the United Africa Company. The other two books are on Kingsway Stores and The Photocard collection.

Our approach in Freetown was to identify and write brief historical narratives on the city’s development using archival photographs mainly from the Unilever UAC collection, alongside recent photographs. Archival work took place at Unilever, Bodlean Library, UK National Archives, as well as at Fourah Bay in Freetown – and this informed our fieldwork and photography. The approach is a classic ‘before and after’ set of images with descriptions. There isn’t an architectural guide book or detailed study of Freetown and it’s architecture – which is quite shocking considering the quality of the work and the architects involved (including Nickson and Borys; Jame Cubitt; Ronald Ward and many others….)

As well as covering the major buildings in the city we include an extended essay on Fourah Bay College, and a write up on Bonthe at Sherbro that we were fortunate to visit. We’re particularly proud of the Bonthe work – and there is certainly a lot more research to undertake into its history and architecture.

Thank you to Dr Noor Ragaban for designing the book – and to Paul Robinson and Ewan Harrison for co-authoring and undertaking the archival and fieldwork with me. As always we’re super grateful to the archivists and historians at UARM – Unilever Archives and Records Management team led by Claire Tunstall.

Bringing the Kingsway Stores Home: Our Exhibition Opens in Accra

By jacksoniain

January 19, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, British Colonial Architecture, Ghana, Heritage, transnational, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

Leave a comment

Bringing the Kingsway Stores Home: Our Exhibition Opens in Accra 15 Jan – Easter

On 15th January, we celebrated the opening of “Shopping Emporiums of West Africa: The Kingsway Stores” at Jamestown Cafe and Gallery in Accra, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing research into the architectural and commercial legacy of the United Africa Company. The launch evening brought together an engaged audience including President of the Ghana Institute of Architects Tony Asare, Dr Abena Busia, and Ronnie Micallef, the incoming High Commissioner of Malta in Accra, for what proved to be a thought-provoking discussion about retail modernism, colonial commerce, and architectural heritage in West Africa. David Kojo Derban gave a wonderful opening talk to contextualise the exhibition, along with a wider welcome from cafe and gallery owner architect Joe Owusu Addo.

The exhibition represents the culmination of over 5 years of collaborative research examining the Kingsway department store chain, which operated across West Africa throughout much of the twentieth century. Working alongside Unilever archivist Claire Tunstall and colleagues Ewan Harrison, Rixt Woudstra, Paul Robinson, and Michele Tenzon, we’ve traced the fascinating story of these iconic shopping emporiums from their inception through the independence periods of West Africa and beyond.

This work forms part of our broader investigation into the United Africa Company, published last year by Bloomsbury as “Architecture, Empire, Trade.” In our recent Journal of Design History article, co-authored with Ewan Harrison, Irene Appeaning Addo, and Oluwaseun Muraina, we wrote that “Kingsway responded to independence by instrumentalizing a particularly modernist domesticity through a series of didactic marketing efforts and the construction of boldly modernist new stores.” The article reveals how these stores weren’t simply places of commerce but architectural statements where “modernism is here revealed as complexly imbricated with colonial and neocolonial profit-seeking.”

The exhibition itself has journeyed from Liverpool to Ghana, carefully packed and stored at Jamestown Cafe before being installed in early January. Two freestanding pavilions display archival photographs from the Unilever Archive, accompanied by newly commissioned 3D-printed models created by Liverpool School of Architecture students and archival films that bring the stores’ bustling atmosphere to life. The pavilions themselves, fabricated using CNC routers by our expert technical team at Liverpool lead by James Galliford, echo the modernist architectural language of the stores they document.

What makes presenting this exhibition in Accra particularly meaningful is the opportunity to share this research in the very city where the first Kingsway store stood. The ruins stand next door to the gallery – a poignant reminder of this commercial and architectural heritage. Through collaboration with Allotey Bruce Konuah, we’ve extended the exhibition beyond the gallery walls with vinyl street banners installed on both the gallery exterior, creating a dialogue between past and present. The banners also contain QR codes so visitors and passers-by can freely download the catalogue.

Our commitment to sharing this research extends beyond this single exhibition. We were interviewed on Asaase Radio morning show and it was great to share our work with a broader audience across Ghana. Following the exhibitions run in Accra through to Easter, we hope to tour the exhibition to other venues, continuing the conversation about how retail modernism, colonial commerce, and architectural heritage intersect. This exhibition reminds us that architecture is never merely about buildings; it’s about the economic, social, and political systems that produce them.

Graphic displays by Allotey Bruce Konuah

Accra: updates January 2026

By jacksoniain

January 13, 2026

Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Ghana, Heritage, Tropical Architecture

Leave a comment

A few brief updates on Accra:

I revisited the PWD Junior Staff quarters in Osu. See https://transnationalarchitecture.group/2019/02/08/housing-in-accra-junior-staff-quarters-from-1961/ for a brief history of the estate. According to Michael Hirst who worked on Tema‘s Community 1 housing in the late 1950s, the Osu estate took it’s inspiration from their work. The houses are holding up well – it’s the landscaping that needs urgent attention.

The two major projects under construction in the city that we reported on in 2022 – Cathedral and Marine Drive have both stalled, and both projects are now under-review and reassessment – leaving behind faded hoardings and large vacant sites. At least the Community Centre and Ghana Club have some reprieve.

I also visited the Rex Cinema and Opera Cinema – both still looking excellent with their small scale intriguing entrance portals hiding their vast open-air screening areas.

Shopping Emporiums of West Africa: Kingsway Exhibition – Accra Set Up

By jacksoniain

January 12, 2026

Africa, AHUWA, British Colonial Architecture, Ghana, Heritage, Tropical Architecture, United Africa Company

Leave a comment

The Kingsway Exhibition has been sent to Accra and carefully stored at the Jamestown Cafe for a few months now. We were finally able to unpack the vast pallet on Friday morning and spent the weekend constructing the two pavilions and installing the light boxes and panels.

The exhibition is being extended and reimagined through a further collaboration with Allotey Bruce Konuah on a series of vinyl street banners that will be installed on the exterior walls of the gallery space, as well as on the old ruined Kingsway Stores portico located next door.

The opening night is 15th January and all welcome. The exhibition will remain until Easter before it moves on…

Thank you to James Galliford and the Liverpool School of Architecture Technical Team for their expertise on the fabrication and installation, and to Claire Tunstall and Unilever Archives team for all their help and support sourcing the images and visuals.