ARCHITECT OF THE MONTH: ANTONI FOLKERS

“We are not looking into Africa anymore as the poor place where they need our help but as the place where there is people who can be our business partners, with whom we can work together, and from whom we can learn certain things.” Antoni Folkers

Antoni Folkers is a Dutch architect who is working in Africa for almost 30 years, in the field of architecture.
Graduated in 1986 as an architect and urban planner at Delft University, his engagement to African architecture started in the eighties when he was living and working as an architect in Tanzania and Uganda and has never left him ever since, now he is a resident Architect for East Africa.

He has been a cofounder of various offices and foundations: in 1992 FBW Architects with offices in the UK, the Netherlands, and Uganda; in 2001 ArchiAfrika; and recently, in 2010, he cofounded African Architecture Matters. The main aim of these organizations is the promotion of African architecture and the conservation of it.

The aim of ArchiAfrika, where he is the director, is to give more attention to African architecture as a whole and of course in promoting and improving African architecture through academic exchange, education, and through professional input. The target of ArchiAfrika is to put (modern) African architectural culture on the world map.

He wrote the renowned book “MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN AFRICA”, one of the few studies on modern African architecture. The work raises the discussion about the place of the often moralizing and simplified period of western modernism, while also providing a wide-ranging survey of the many-sided and colorful architecture from different regions in Africa. Using practical, illustrated examples, Folkers documents and describes the different hybrid architectural forms that have arisen out of a confrontation with western architecture and city planning and in so-doing tells an alternative history of African architecture.

PUBLIC LECTURE: RWANDA_THE VERNACULAR MATERIALS


It is our pleasure to invite you to the next arctalk of the department of Architecture in FAED. This Wednesday March 28th the arctalks will present the lecture Rwanda_The vernacular materials presented by Alice Tasca.

“Vernacular” in the architectural context is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources.

The lecture tries to define classify and explain which are the materials that can be called “vernacular” in Rwanda. We will describe which are the techniques used locally to build with them and how can they be interpreted and adapted to answer the contemporary needs.
Bamboo, wood and earth as materials are only some of the topics: lots of different fibers and common used techniques can be translated and applied to build small and useful structures.
The lecture will use a design example that used vernacular techniques to improve the existing.
The talk will take place this Wednesday March 28th at 4.30pm at FAED building.
We hope to find you all there.

SECRET CINEMA: SHANGAI SPACE


Welcome to a SECRET CINEMA event.

OK you are suffering from deja vu. Cinestar have assured me that the projector is finally working.If the projector breaks down again we can gather around a laptop. So with that.......we're back with the rescheduled screening of 'Shanghai space' We hope you'll join us again.


Cities on Speed, GLOBAL VISIONS FOR an urban FUTURE is a documentary project commissioned by The Danish Film Institute and the national broadcaster DR . The project is a series of four films – Bogotà Change, Mumbai Disconnected, Cairo Garbage, Shanghai Space-, selected through a call for submissions, directed by four different filmmakers who tell character-based stories on four of the world’s largest megacities: Bogotá, Cairo, Mumbai and Shanghai.

We started with Cairo, looking at the disparties between the cities waste management plan and its increasing population. We then moved onto Mumbai , focusing on the cities choked transport network and the various actors which moved along with, inbetween and at the edges of the stifling flow of traffic.

Shanghai will be the second last of this series titled 'Shanghai Space'. This will be shown on 8th May at 8pm , at CINESTAR cinema in Nyamirambo. (Running time is 60 minutes). The following week (15th May) I will screen the final of the series 'Bogotà Change' with a special suprise short screening from Beirut.

'Shanghai is an explosion of transformation. Every other day a new building is completed, and every year the city's population grows by half a million people. Authorities are desperately seeking out more space, while the city's inhabitants must adapt to constantly changing surroundings. In an office on the 20th floor, government advisor Professor Shu prepares the next generation of young urban planners for Shanghai's future. In order to find the space needed for Shanghai's millions of inhabitants, planners are now looking underground.' Danish Film Institute

These films are in conjunction with KIST Urban Design Studio Year 4 and there will be a short introduction by tutor Killian Doherty. The future intention is that this film series relating to architecture and urban design will be screened to the public at KIST.

Free entry for the KIST Students. ALL STUDENTS AT KIST SHOULD BE ATTENDING THESE
FREE CINEMA EVENTS.