⁣Low Cost Housing - Kenya | 3 Apr 2014

Here are some of the housing designs from Chagga, Sukuma and Massai communities found in East Africa.

Building a house requires the strength of the whole community.

A showcase of the Bamileke people of Cameroon's interesting architecture and culture.

In Kenya, one group is combining green technology with tradition, by kitting out Maasai homes with solar panels, water harvesters and eco-toilets.

This talk features Syracuse University Humphrey Fellow Mireille Laurentine Tchakounte Tchatat discussing the Bamileke, Cameroon’s largest ethnic group. Their traditions are comprised of initiation practice and meditation, characterized by rituals emblematic of great spiritual complexity.About the speaker: Mireille Laurentine Tchakounte Tchatat is a Humphrey Fellow at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University. She was most recently Cooperation Department Assistant at the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) in Cameroon; here she initiates and develops relationships between national and international entities and promotes existing bilateral agreements with international development agencies. Mireille has also served as the Executive Secretary and as the Head of the Office for Civil Service. She earned her license in Human Resource Management from the University of Dschang in Cameroon.

Construire la communauté : de nouvelles traditions
Building community : new traditions

Lauréat du Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2009

D’abord charpentier, Francis Kéré a pu quitter le village de Gando pour étudier l’architecture à l’Université de Berlin grâce à l’ONG allemande BMZ. Il y enseigne maintenant, selon les règles d’un rationalisme régénéré par l’écologie. À Gando, il construit une architecture tout aussi rationnelle et inventive, nourrie de culture globale et d’intelligence des situations.
Car de Berlin à Gando, il n’importe plus rien sans raison. Il utilise lucidement la mondialisation et place désormais sa culture sur le même plan que celle de l’Occident en puisant dans l’expérience africaine enfin reconnue, comme dans l’écologie européenne. Il assemble, tamise ces ressources pour chaque projet, cherche la juste réponse. Cette critique globale des savoirs est neuve. Elle produit une architecture enracinée dans son microcosme et universelle par son message.

Trained as a carpenter, Francis Kéré obtained with the help of BMZ, a German NGO, a scholar ship to study architecture at T.U. in Berlin. He lives between Burkina Faso and Germany.
In Berlin, he teaches his students green architecture. In his village of Gando, he builds amenities and schools, all with the same rationality, economy and sober lines, reflecting the truth of the process and of the resources, considering African knowledge on building as valuable as those coming from Europe.
He doesn’t import eco-construction but transpose the principles: a clever use of globalization. The skills of local masons and metalworkers are employed. Materials found all over Africa are transformed into strong structures, with fine shapes. Francis Kéré believes that stakeholders need to be involved in the development process so that they can appreciate its advantages and drive it forward. “And that is equally true for architecture.”