African Modernism
The Architecture of Independence. Ghana, Senegal, CĂ´te d'Ivoire, Kenya, Zambia
Back-in-print, the most comprehensive survey of modern architecture in Africa to date
When African Modernism was first published in 2015, it was received with international praise and has been sought after constantly ever since it went out of print in 2018. Marking Park Books’ 10th anniversary, this landmark book becomes available again.
In the 1950s and 1960s, most African countries gained independence from their respective colonial power. Architecture became one of the principal means by which the newly formed countries expressed their national identity. African Modernism investigates the close relationship between architecture and nation-building in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia. It features one hundred buildings with brief descriptive texts, images, site plans, and selected floor plans and sections. The vast majority of images were newly taken by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster for the book’s first edition. Their photographs document the buildings in their present state. Each country is portrayed in an introductory text and a timeline of historic events. Further essays on postcolonial Africa and specific aspects and topics, also illustrated with images and documents, round out this outstanding volume.
Winner of the FILAF d'or, the first prize for Best Books on Art 2015 at the FILAF (The International Art Book and Film Festival).
Named one of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2015.
Winner of the DAM Architectural Book Award 2016.
"You really have to get Mr. Herz’s book African Modernism, a 640-page doorstop published when this show first appeared in Germany, to appreciate the breadth of modern African architecture, as well as its political significance and contemporary afterlives." Jason Farago, The New York Times
"This book has emerged from researchers at ETH Zurich, one of Europe’s leading architecture schools, and it shows how lively engagement by academic institutions with interesting questions can produce first-rate results. Very far from being a dusty tome, this large and generous book combines its photographic surveys and detailed case studies with useful historical summaries and charts, and essays by experts on specific themes." Timothy Brittain-Catlin, World of Interiors
"Documenting the grand, optimistic architecture of the post-independence era in Africa, this gorgeous book (with photos by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster) introduces us to an extraordinary collection of unfamiliar buildings." Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times
"The care that Herz and his fellow editors, Ingrid Schröder, Hans Focketyn, and Julia Jamrozi, have taken to provide a balanced and comprehensive discussion of the origins of modernism in Africa will make this a seminal work in the discourse of African Architecture. It offers intellectual rigor, fascinating insights, and marvellous visuals in equal measures. No book collection on African architecture would be complete without it." David Adjaye, Architectural Record