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Title:
Agadir: Building the modern Afropolis

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On February 29, 1960, a catastrophic earthquake devastated the Moroccan coastal city of Agadir, erasing it almost entirely and killing a third of its population. The world was shocked, and very quickly large amounts of international aid arrived. Following an emotional speech by King Mohammed V, the reconstruction of Agadir also turned into an undertaking of national and international solidarity. A new and unprecedented process of urban construction was developed that allowed many architects—national and international—to simultaneously design the new city. The result of this joint effort was astounding. In a very short time, the new Agadir rose from the ashes. The best Moroccan and international architects experimented with novel housing typologies, which mediated between ultramodern and vernacular ways of dwelling, complemented by innovative public structures, such as schools, dispensaries, and cinemas. All of these combined into an original urban reality: a modern Afropolis.

Title:
Critical neighbourhoods: the architecture of contested communities

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This book contributes to the development of new architectural approaches to informal neighborhoods and to a better understanding of human habitats that relate spatial issues to broader economic and political questions. The contributors analyze feasible and effective practical actions located in Africa, Latin America, and India, drawing upon empiric work to contextualize existing neighborhoods. Complementing essays explore the deeply intertwined nature of spatial practice, cultural identity, and social engagement. Together, the contributors AbdouMaliq Simone, Paulo Moreira, Elisa Silva, Julia King, and Ines Weizman uncover new modes of making architecture; map new ways for architects to engage with contested communities; address geographic differentiations on a local scale, rather than between various continents only; and explore interconnections between particular neighborhoods and their wider contexts. A conversation between the five contributors, moderated by Matthew Barac, rounds out this volume.

Title:
African modernism and its afterlives

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This edited collection of essays and image-driven pieces by anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, and historians examines the legacies of African architecture from around the time of independence through examples from different countries. Drawing on ethnography, archival research, and careful observation of buildings, remains, and people, the case studies seek to connect the colonial and postcolonial origins of modernist architecture, the historical processes they underwent, and their present use and habitation, adaptation, and decay. Deriving from a workshop in connection with the 2015 exhibition ''Forms of Freedom'' at the National Museum in Oslo and the Venice Biennale, the volume combines recent developments in architectural history, the anthropology of modernism and of material culture, and contemporary archaeology to move beyond the admiration or preservation of prized architectural ''heritage'' and to complicate the contemplation—or critique—of ''ruins'' and ''ruination.''

Title:
Oran : ville & architecture 1790-1960

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C'est à la découverte de près de deux siècles d'architectures que nous convient les auteurs de cette publication. Deuxième plus grande ville d'Algérie, Oran possède un patrimoine architectural exceptionnel, témoignage des différentes strates d'occupation qu'elle a connues. L'ouvrage permet de découvrir un large éventail de programmes architecturaux : constructions militaires espagnoles, monuments ottomans, immeubles de style Art déco, logements et équipements modernistes des années 1950-1960. La publication se présente sous la forme de six promenades regroupant de courtes monographies de près de 250 édifices, bâtiments publics et immeubles privés. Elle contient également les notices biographiques de plus d'une centaine d'architectes actifs durant la période. Résultat d'un inventaire de terrain minutieux croisé avec des recherches dans les archives algériennes, espagnoles et françaises, l'ouvrage est à la fois une publication scientifique de référence et un guide d'architecture. Il s'adresse autant aux spécialistes, architectes et historiens, qu'à un public d'amateurs des deux rives de la Méditerranée.

Title:
Architecture and development: Israeli construction in sub-saharan Africa 1958-1973

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In this volume, Ayala Levin charts the settler colonial imagination and practices that undergirded Israeli architectural development aid in Africa. Focusing on the ''golden age'' of Israel’s diplomatic relations in and throughout the continent from 1958 to 1973, Levin finds that Israel positioned itself as a developing-nation alternative in the competition over aid and influence between global North and global South. In analyses of the design and construction of prestigious governmental projects in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, Levin details how architects, planners, and a trade union--owned construction company staged Israel as a new center of nonaligned expertise. These actors and professionals paradoxically capitalized on their settler colonial experience in Palestine, refashioning it as an alternative to Western colonial expertise. Levin traces how Israel became involved in the modernization of governance, education, and agriculture in Africa, as well as how African leaders chose to work with Israel to forge new South-South connections. In so doing, she offers new ways of understanding the role of architecture as a vehicle of postcolonial development and in the mobilization of development resources.

Title:
Metabolism of an emerging town in Ethiopia: the case of Amdework

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The emergence of densely populated towns within extremely rural landscapes is the hallmark of urbanization in Ethiopia. This book examines one such town, Amdework. The authors construct a profile that reveals a broader geographic view of the processes that underpin the functioning, growth and development of this town.

Title:
Under construction: technologies of development in urban Ethiopia

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Over the past decade, Ethiopia has had one of the world's fastest growing economies, largely due to its investments in infrastructure, and it is through building dams, roads, and other infrastructure that the Ethiopian state seeks to become a middle-income country by 2025. Yet most urban Ethiopians struggle to meet their daily needs and actively oppose a ruling party that they associate with corruption and mismanagement. In "Under Construction" Daniel Mains explores the intersection of development and governance by examining the conflicts surrounding the construction of specific infrastructural technologies: asphalt and cobblestone roads, motorcycle taxis, and hydroelectric dams. These projects serve as sites for nation building and the means for the state to assert its legitimacy.

Title:
Addis Ababa: a manifesto on African progress

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This publication is centred around twelve manifesto points towards a people-centred urbanism and an architecture of belonging in times of rapid global urbanisation. Based on the authors’ eleven year research experience, the book draws conclusions from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, as its case study. It contains essays on the historic development and the current housing situation of the city by local experts and numerous project examples. Adressing policy makers, architects and urban planners alike, the manifesto gives a series of clues and guidelines for a sustainable urbanisation of contemporary African metropolis.

Title:
Casablanca : colonial myths and architectural ventures

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Celebrated by colonial writers, filmed by Hollywood, magnet for Europeans and Moroccans, Casablanca is above all an exceptional collection of urban spaces, houses, and gardens. While it is true that Casablanca developed as a port city well before the introduction of the French in 1907, it unquestionably ranks among the most significant urban creations of the twentieth century, attracting remarkable teams of architects and planners. Their commissions came from clients who were interested in innovation and modernization, thereby fostering the emergence of Casablanca as a laboratory for legislative, technological, and visual experimentation. Having studied the city for ten years, Jean-Louis Cohen and Monique Eleb trace, from the late nineteenth century to the early 1960s, the rebirth of a once-forgotten port and its metamorphosis into a teeming metropolis that is an amalgam of Mediterranean culture from Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, and Italy. The extensive presentation of the significant buildings of this hybrid city -- where, alongside the French, Muslim and Jewish Moroccan patrons commissioned provocative buildings -- is drawn from French and Moroccan archives, including hundreds of previously unpublished photographs.

Title:
To build a city in Africa: a history and a manual

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$65.00
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Africa’s population and economic growth make it the world’s fastest urbanizing continent. While some might still associate Africa with rural development, the future of Africa is, in fact, very urban. This urbanization is a huge challenge in areas with fragile institutional frameworks and chronic poverty. Many migrants moving to the city end up in self-organized settlements without basic services. ''Urban Africa'' brings together authors from various academic, political, and design backgrounds: as well as case studies on new towns in Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Kenya etc. In this way, the book provides a critical narrative about contemporary ''Urban Africa'' and the western world’s role – if any – in the radical transformations happening today.