Archinect - News

The New York Times gives Lesley Lokko the profile treatment ahead of next week’s Venice Biennale

2023-05-10T10:56:00-04:00

Although the Biennale is hardly the first major exhibition to focus on Black and diasporic practitioners, the cascading crises of climate change, rapid urbanization, migration, global health emergencies and a deep imperative to decolonize institutions and spaces — starting with the historically Eurocentric Biennale itself — arguably make Lokko’s focus on hybrid forms of practice timely, be it planners as policy experts or artist-environmentalists.

Lokko repeated to the Times her interest in using the Biennale platform to disabuse stigmas about African identity before discussing her own experiences with identity, path to architecture, and the potential she and others are striving to present to the world.

“The ability to be several things at once — traditional and modern, African and global, colonized and independent — is a strong thread running through the continent and the Diaspora,” she told the paper. “We’re used to having to think about resources, about switching on a light with no guarantee of electricity. We’re able to grapple with change. That capacity to overcome, to negotiate, to navigate ones’ surroundings is going to take center stage.”

Events kick off May 20th with the announcement of the Golden Lion and other select award winners.

100,000-piece gargantuan afrofuturist lego sculpture acquired by Aga Khan Museum

2021-02-25T12:19:00-05:00

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has acquired a colossal sculpture made from 100,000 pieces of Lego by the Ghanian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, who is known for his Afrofuturist reimaginings of Black histories built from Lego bricks.

According the The Art Newspaper, "the 30 sq-ft sculpture Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE (2019) conceptually envisions the ancient trading town in Mauritania one thousand years in the future, as a vast and complex metropolis once again." The piece was a part of the artist's 2019 solo exhibition Building Black: Civilisations that was held at the museum.

The HBCU Africa Architecture Lecture series brings the voices of Black architects and the African Continent together for representation and discourse

2021-02-04T17:52:00-05:00

Here at Archinect, we highlight academic events and lectures that provide insight and access to public programming created by architecture schools. Year after year, these events welcome various leaders and innovators within architecture, design, and its adjacent fields of study. While in-person events are put on hold, the ability to engage and invite a global audience is possible thanks to virtual events outlets. 2021 welcomes an exciting series of talks, panels, and lectures that we've featured in our 2021 Get Lectured series and Archinect's Virtual Event Guide. However, an upcoming lecture series creates an opportunity for a much-needed platform for Black design professionals to share their work, expertise, and initiatives for change.

Archinect Feature by Sean Joyner: "Discovering a Black Aesthetic in Architecture" — An Investigation by Woodbury Grad Demar Matthews. Image courtesy of Demar Matthews

February is Black History month, and the rise in promoting and highlighting Black ex...

Detroit's P. Funk-inspired Mothership is ready to get the party started

2015-03-31T20:24:00-04:00

Most people would probably be envious of the lucky DJs that got to spin tunes in The Mothership (I know I am). Ann Arbor-based practice Anya Sirota + AKOAKI looked to legendary funk collective P-Funk and their iconic album Mothership Connection to design the swanky modular DJ and broadcast booth for Detroit's North End neighborhood and its local music scene.

Akoaki created The Mothership to mark the start of the collaborative O.N.E. Mile initiative, which brings together architects, designers, and artists to revive the public spaces along historic Oakland Avenue for a series of experimental cultural events all year long. The Mothership made its debut during O.N.E. Mile's free (and unprecedented) Mothership Launch event this past October, where 12 honorary members of Parliament-Funkadelic did a special live performance in an empty garage on Oakland Avenue. The mobile unit is still stationed there but has more future public appearances in tow.

The Mothership is constructed by an aluminu...