Building Protagonists: Modernist Senegalese Architecture and Its Material Articulations

“The CCA c/o Dakar program was launched in the form of a roundtable discussion that looked at the legacy that the École d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme de Dakar, in operation from 1973 to 1991, had on the concept of modern Senegalese architecture. Several key themes emerged over the course of these discussions, namely the political will to provide a national education in architecture which, at its core, defines an African architecture that is not only rooted in its context but can also respond the socio-economic challenges and realities of Senegal.”

As we prepare for the third public event of the CCA c/o Dakar program this week, and coinciding with the Dakar Biennale, program curator Nzinga Biegueng Mboup recounts the discussions that took place in May when we launched the program, in our recent article “The Legacy of the École d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme de Dakar, 1973–1991.”

“After nearly twenty years of existence and the emergence of a new generation of architects trained in Senegal thanks to the political will of Senghor (the first president of Senegal) for a national architecture, the École d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme de Dakar sadly closed its doors in 1991 by ministerial decree, due to government budget shortfalls. The E.A.U. had also welcomed many non-local students from the subregion, and aside from the EAMAU in Lome (Togo), it was the leading school in French-speaking Black Africa. The repercussions of this closure left the country with no architecture-based educational institutions for more than fifteen years, forcing Senegalese architects to train abroad in France, the United States, Morocco, Turkey, Togo, or elsewhere. [...] Today, the E.A.U.’s academic program seems utopian, given the richness of its curriculum and how it invested in its students and future architects in the building of their country. Now, more than ever, it’s important to draw from this memory, to recentre a political vision in accordance with current challenges to establish academic and cultural institutions that enable us to train Senegalese architects now and into the future.” —Nzinga B. Mboup

On November 9, we invite you to join us at Hôtel Saint-Louis Sun in Dakar for Building Protagonists: Modernist Senegalese Architecture and Its Material Articulations, an event that will focus on the designs of four members of the first generation of Senegalese architects. Nzinga B. Mboup revisits these buildings and interviews their architects to understand their approaches, methodologies, material choices, and styles. The aim is to begin defining the different expressions of modernism in Senegal by questioning the intentions of their authors directly, but also by placing them in a wider context of ideological and material production.

Participants include
La Tour de la BCEAO—Cheikh Ngom (DESA), presented by Nzinga B. Mboup / Immeuble Faycal—Cheikh Ngom (DESA), presented by Nzinga B. Mboup / Le Contrôle Financier—Cheikh Ndiaye (DPLG-F), presented by Mouhamadou Fall / Le Palais de Justice—Cheikh Ndiaye (DPLG-F), presented by Mouhamadou Fall / Espace Vema—Nicolas Cissé (DPLG-S) / Immeuble Niagara Falls—Nicolas Cissé (DPLG-S) / Immeuble GIABA/CITAMOL—Emile Diouf (DPLG-S), Oscare Afrique / Universités du Sine Saloum—Emile Diouf (DPLG-S), Oscare Afrique.

This event is free and open to the public and will be led in French.
Hôtel Saint-Louis Sun, 68 Rue Felix Faure, Dakar.
To reserve your place, please RSVP by writing to rsvp@cca.qc.ca before November 8, 5pm (EST).

The CCA c/o Dakar program is a means of activating the formulation and dissemination of knowledge to prepare the ground for the collective appropriation of new building forms and practices that respond to contemporary concerns and the development of Senegalese and African society and culture. Dakar is the fourth city to anchor our CCA c/o program, to engage new contexts and reveal thematic convergences across perspectives. Through a dispersed network, we have questioned our own points of view by asking to hear those of others; from Lisbon (curated by Artéria), Tokyo (curated by Kayoko Ota), Buenos Aires (curated by Martin Huberman), and now Dakar, curated by Nzinga B. Mboup. 

CCA c/o Dakar expands on the CCA’s own investigations into questions related to the African continent and to the environment, including the multi-disciplinary research project Centring Africa: Postcolonial Perspectives on Architecture and the recent publication Fugitive Archives: A Sourcebook for Centring Africa in Histories of Architecture: a collection of micro-archives, each an argument for the role of primary research in locating, accessing, and constructing the new forms of evidence needed to create African architectural archives that are situated (2024, CCA / Jap Sam Books). 

If you aren’t in Dakar, please follow the CCA c/o activities for updates on the project’s developments, and subscribe here to find out about upcoming conversations.