1 December 2025
Porto Novo Cultural Arena, Benin, west Africa
Design: StudioMAAC ArchitectsPorto Novo, Benin, west Africa

images courtesy of architects practice

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18 November 2024
Noom Hotel Abidjan Plateau, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Architects: SAOTA

image courtesy of architects practice

16 April 2024
Masai Mara Conservation Centre, Kenya, Kenya, East Africa
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today launched an international open design competition for a new Conservation Centre at the Oloololo Gate, Masai Mara, Kenya, on behalf of Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy, the philanthropic arm of travel company Abercrombie & Kent.

30 March 2024
The Seasons Villa Guinea, West Africa
Design: MOST Monti Studio

photo : Andrea Ceriani

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UNESCO Eritrea World Heritage Site

Eritrea World Heritage Site – Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa

On July 8 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s World Heritage Center announced that “Asmara: a Modernist City of Africa,” would become Eritrea’s very first site on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, under selection criterion ii and iv.

Asmara was once an Italian colony—from the late 1880s through World War II. As a result, Italian architects like Giuseppe Pettazzi built Modernist and Art Deco buildings in the Eritrean capital, such as the Fiat Tagliero and the Cinema Impero buildings.

Today, the city remains a well-preserved example of Italian colonial and Modernist architecture. UNESCO say the designated area includes part of the city that underwent extensive planning between 1893 and 1941, as well as the neighborhoods of Arbate Asmara and Abbashawel.

The World Heritage Committee meets once per year in one of UNESCO’s State Parties. This year the committee inscribed 21 new sites on the World Heritage List, increasing the total number of World Heritage Sites to 1,073.

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Africa Architectural Developments Archive

Significant African Building Designs 2010 to 2014, chronological:

19 May 2014
Ramzi Towers Lagos Building, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Design: SPARK Architects

picture from architects
The landmark scheme, designed from SPARK’s London studio, is SPARK’s first significant project in Africa and is scheduled to win planning in June 2014, with Construction beginning this summer.

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22 Aug 2013
Melkbos, Cape Town, South Africa
Design: SAOTA

photo : SAOTA

17 May 2013
Salam Cardiac Surgery Centre, Khartoum, Sudan – new images / information
Design: Studio Tamassociati

photo : Marcello Bonfanti
The Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery consists of a hospital with 63 beds and 300 local staff, with a separate Medical Staff Accommodation Compound sleeping 150 people. The centre is built as a pavilion in a garden with both primary buildings organised around large courtyards.

3 May 2013
Revival Sunset Chapel, Libreville, Gabon
Design: FATmaison

image from architect
Revival Sunset Chapel is a public church built in a forest in the center of the capital of Gabon, Libreville. In an extremely controversial state of central Africa the primary need is to find a reference symbol that unifies the moral area and the civil area.

29 Apr 2013
Japanese Cultural Center in Africa, Kinshasa City, D.R. Congo
Design: Beijing Matsubara and Architects
This building has built by “grass-root grant aid fund” of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan) in area of Gombe Institute of Pedagogique, the center part of Kinshasa city, D.R. Congo.

5 Apr 2013
Head Road 1815, Cape Town, South Africa
Design: SAOTA Architects

photo : SAOTA

12 Mar 2013
House in Bryanston, Johannesburg, South Africa
Design: Nico van der Meulen Architects

27 Feb 2013
United Bank of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, north east Africa
Design: Söhne und Partner Architekten with BET architects
United bank represented in units coming together in to a single entity in a seamless fashion. These units are the shares that make up the bank. Shares are the people that came together to make this bank a reality.

25 Feb 2013
Jabi Lake, Abuja, Nigeria
Design: Studio Seilern Architects
A double frontage concept: There are two distinct frontages: the road-front and the water-front. Each influences the form making of the buildings. The placement and scale of the buildings will create the identity of each and how it relates to the wider context.

28 Jan 2013
British Council Building Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Architects: The Manser Practice

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12 Oct 2012
C Spot Africa, Angola, south west Africa
Design: Segmento Urbano Arquitectos
This project comes as a reflex of a sustainable mission where the developer contributes to reduce levels of illiteracy by awarding the communities where they build roads, and viaducts, and bridges with a Spot, which is more than a school, but actually a space that foments social elevations through education.

14 Aug 2012
Clifton House, Cape Town, South Africa
Design: SAOTA – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects
The clients, a British couple living in Cape Town, requested a six-bedroom, seven-level home that makes the most of the site, the views and the mountain. The lower levels of the existing structure were totally remodelled while the upper level was demolished to allow for two new levels.

19 Jun 2012
Addis Ababa Stadium, Ethiopia
Design: LAVA with JDAW
New national stadium building will have a new FIFA and Olympic-standard 60,000 seat stadium in Addis Ababa thanks to a competition winning design combining local identity with new technology. LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) and Designsport collaborated with local Ethiopian firm JDAW to win the international architecture competition for a national stadium and sports village.

14 May 2012
Clockwork Embassy Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon, west Africa
Matteo Cainer Architects
The design of the new Swiss Embassy in Yaoundé pays tribute to its renewed presence in the Cameroon and a respect for the uniqueness of the site. The resulting proposal is an elegant ensemble that encapsulates the identity and self-image of the Swiss people and their values.

23 Mar 2012
Dakar Sow House, Senegal, western Africa
SAOTA Architects and Antoni Associates
Situated on a cliffside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Villa Sow in Dakar, Senegal was completed in 2011, with SAOTA – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects, the Architects and ANTONI ASSOCIATES doing the Interior Decor. The house was designed for a Senegalese businessman and his family.

South Africa Football Stadiums – World Cup 2010

African House Competition, Luanda Angola : Lisbon Architecture Triennale

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