History of African Architecture

At the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. African architecture as a built form; 2. acknowledge its styles and forms; and 3. understand its relationship to spatial ecology and their difference of form arising there from.

The study of manifestations of the built form as shells for human activities in Africa. The course figures out how the environment and ecology shaped their forms, including the taxonomy they exhibit. For example, the paranoiac architectural traditions, the Great Walls of Zimbabwe, the royal architectures of the Ashanti, Benin, the Yoruba Kingdoms, and their impluvium and compluvium configurations, the advent of hybrid styles like Afro-Brazilian architecture, and other style fusions. The discussed objects include domestic and non-domestic architecture and other elements of the material culture that support the built form. Particular attention will be paid to how these objects functioned within such settings.