Building the future: Africa's architectural movement will benefit the world

构筑未来:非洲的建筑运动将惠及世界

Editor's Picks from The Economist

2025-06-11

7 分钟
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A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. A new generation of African architects are looking to nature for inspiration to create climate-friendly buildings, and doing so on the cheap. Their innovations are getting noticed abroad, while their influence is spreading. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
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  • The Economist.

  • The first thing you notice,

  • stepping from the scorching Sahelian sun into the laterite stone dome, is how cold it is.

  • There is no air conditioning, just shade and natural ventilation.

  • Nor is there plaster.

  • Diabedo Francis Kere, the architect behind the new mausoleum in Huagadougou,

  • Burkina Faso's capital, strives to use only what can be sourced nearby.

  • I'm a construction material opportunist.

  • He says,

  • I look around at what is most abundant and how people use it and try to do something new.

  • The result is a building so austere,

  • low-tech and elegant that it is like entering a temple of the ancient world.

  • In 2022, Mr. Carey became the first black architect to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize,

  • considered architecture's equivalent of the Nobel.

  • He is the best known of a cohort of African architects whose ideas are at the profession's cutting edge.

  • In particular, they are showing how to build sustainably for a warming, changing planet.

  • Once more, they are doing so on the cheap.

  • At a time when African-made music,

  • art and TV is crossing into the global cultural mainstream,

  • the continent's architecture and design are becoming increasingly influential too.