IS THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN URBAN CENTRES IN ITS PAST?
I recently come across the term biophilic design as an ecologically sustainable solution to the majority of problems in urban centers in terms of design. I could help feel the familiarity of the concept to the African indigenous culture the more I researched into it. In the process, I began to see the connection to some of the social and economic issues that crop up in urban areas.
Most Africans refer to their rural ancestry place as home, while the urban areas are referred to as the working quarters. A case is seen for example, during Kenyan elections. People moved back to the rural home for voter registration and voting as well. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, most urban dwellers decided to wait out the lockdown in the countryside. The term used to define this phenomenon in African urban cities is Quasi-Urban Living.
A major cause is the need to reconnect with nature after long exposure to the concrete jungles. There is a strong relationship between nature and human biology. The African indigenous culture in particular has revered nature. In contrast with the West, hard and soft are reversed in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Hard” buildings, which were made of mud or wood, were designed to fade back into nature and be constantly remade, while “soft” vegetation is what stays and even thrives. In Ghana, for example, African urban planners planted trees first and then built markets around them. In the West, it’s the buildings that are designed to stay somewhat longer, and the vegetation is controlled, set upon.
The recent trend in sustainable construction uses the same concept.
Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupants’ connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions. Used at both the building and city-scale, it is argued that this idea has health, environmental, and economic benefits for building occupants and urban environments, with few drawbacks. I look forward to taking a deeper dive into the concept of biophilic design in relation to indigenous African Architecture in the following articles.
