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Kéré Architecture breaks ground on new Goethe Institute center in Dakar

2022-02-23T15:49:00-05:00

Senegal is taking a big step towards further establishing itself as an architectural capital thanks to Francis Kéré’s design for the Goethe Institute that has officially broken ground in Dakar.

The 56-year-old architect was on hand Wednesday for a ceremony which included German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Goethe Institute’s Carola Lentz.

Exterior view of the Goethe Institute. Rendering by Goethe Institute.

Speaking at the ceremony, the architect mentioned the shared values that both he and the Institute share, stating that his climate-oriented approach to the project was met with an “open and sympathetic” response that encouraged him to “take things further” in a collaborative effort later outlined by Steinmeier.

Architect Francis Kéré, the Senegalese artist Baaba Mal, Senegalese Minister of Town Planning and Public Hygiene Abdoulaye Saydou Sow, and Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Image courtesy Goethe Institute.

“I am optimistic that Africa and E...

Oliver Wainwright obsesses over the distinctive architecture of Dakar

2022-01-14T14:40:00-05:00

Their obsessive geometrical composition was an attempt to answer the call of Senegal’s first president, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, for a national style that he curiously termed “asymmetrical parallelism”. Senghor never quite defined what this brave new style should look like, but he spoke vaguely of “a diversified repetition of rhythm in time and space”. Forceful, faceted forms and strong, rhythmic geometries became the vogue.

Dakar is known as a regional hub of modernism, which is equally the product of Senghor’s arts-centered vision and of its past colonial linkage. Wainwright traced the history of post-independence architecture in Senegal from the 1974 International Fair to Abdoulaye Wade’s controversial outsized African Renaissance Monument in Ouakam.

The Guardian critic appeared to be impressed by the city’s variety of styles and influences, offering Philipp Meuser and Adil Dalbai’s guide to the region as his bible and saying that it “offers a glimmer of hope from a new generation of young architects and engineers rediscovering vernacular techniques.”

“It is the postcolonial architecture of the 1970s and 80s that really stands out for its originality, much of it by Senegalese architects Cheikh Ngom and Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, as well as France’s Henri Chomette. They all developed a distinctive form of modernism in tune with President Senghor’s ideas of asymmetrical parallelism. Monolithic tapering p...

The City That Made Solar Power Illegal

2014-08-13T14:09:00-04:00

The rainy season coincides with summer in Dakar, which means it’s the power-cut days. The heat goes up, A/Cs kick into gear and the power utility, Senelec, cannot cope. [...] Enter solar. This potential renewable savior is a latecomer to Dakar because until recently solar power was banned in cities, as it was considered what the French pointedly call “compétition déloyale” – unfair competition. But under pressure from Dakar’s own citizens, the ban was lifted under the last government [...].