AFRAUHN at the 'Ongoing and Emerging Themes in African Architectural Practices' Conference

Members of AFRAUHN led by Professor Nnamdi Elleh were closely involved in organising and running a ground-breaking conference, titled 'Ongoing and Emerging Themes in African Architectural Practices', at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Held from 3rd–9th July 2024, this 7-day major international conference is to date by far the largest and most significant event hosted in Africa about the historical and contemporary architecture of that continent and its diasporic populations. As such it attracted a wide range of leading scholars in the field from Africa and worldwide. A total of 60 speakers came from 35 institutions and organizations, travelling to South Africa from 16 countries including Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda, as well as from the UK, Europe, and North America. These speakers included architects, architectural historians, design tutors, curators, planners, heritage experts, political scientists, philosophers, and sociologists.

Sponsorship from the UCL-Wits Fund paid for many up-and-coming academics and architects to present their research at the conference, which was held in the idyllic location of the Wits Rural Campus in the Eastern Cape region. The initiative is part of the African Architectural and Urban History Network (AFRAUHN) whose aim is to support younger African scholars to write the architectural and urban history of their own continent.

View photos and a video from the conference below.

Further details of the conference can be found at: https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/-engineering-and-the-built-environment/architecture-and-planning/documents/conference-handbook_3-9July2024.pdf

[Photography credits: Niyaaz Aysen]