African Perspectives started off in July 2005 in Dar es Salaam. The conference on Modern Architecture in East Africa around Independence was jointly organised by ArchiAfrika, the Architects Association of Tanzania (AAT) and the University College of Lands and Architectural Studies (UCLAS). The conference was preceded by a students’ workshop on modernist Tanzanian architecture under guidance of ArchiAfrika and tutors of the Universities of Leuven (KUL), Eindhoven (TUE) and Delft (TUD).

The outcome of the debates in Dar es Salaam a query into the identity of contemporary African Architecture became main theme at the second African Perspectives event in Kumasi, in June 2007: African Architecture Today. This conference was initiated by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and co-organised by ArchiAfrika.

The Kumasi debates unveiled the multifaceted richness of contemporary architectures spread over the African continent. This variety stood, in turn, at the basis of the inventorisation of north-south dialogues on the various disciplines within the architectural profession ranging from building technology to urbanism during the third African Perspectives event in Delft in December 2007.

The organisation this time was in the hands of Delft University of Technology (TUD), ArchiAfrika and Verstegen & Stigter and entailed not only a conference, but also workshops, a film programme, food explorations, an art exhibition and music performances. This multidisciplinary cultural approach, going well beyond the scope of the architectural profession, was commonly approved and seen as basis for future African Perspectives to be.

At the core of African Perspectives in Delft was the work of Titus Matiyane, an autodidact artist from Atteridgeville in Tshwane, who paints vast panoramas of urban landscapes from all over the world. With the fourth dialogue on African architecture in Tshwane-Pretoria, Titus’ work returns home. This time, African Perspectives is organised by the Pretoria Institute for Architecture (PIA), the University of Pretoria (UP) and ArchiAfrika. The annual South African Students’ Congress takes place simultaneously and is focussed on the same subject.

That the focus of African Perspectives would this time be on the city centre, is a logical consequence after Delft. The debate in Delft circled around the heart of the African City. What defines this heart, is it a historical core, a business district or no physical location at all? Food for a lengthy palaver.

Out of the central theme, three sub-themes were distilled to enable in-depth debate: (1) the African City Centre in contemporary global context, (2) the (historic) identity of the African City Centre and (3) the future life of the African City Centre. It is on these three sub-themes that entries were called-in.

Entries that range from art work, film, architectural projects to scientifically reviewed academic papers. These are included in the following presentation.

The fourth dialogue on architecture does not limit itself to talks about architecture. The city of Tshwane-Pretoria, being the physical location of African Perspectives, is involved in the event through student’s workshops and tours to which the Administration of the City of Tshwane has contributed.  As at African Perspectives in Delft, other cultural expressions play their prominent role. There is a film programme organised by the African Film Festival, and an art exhibit by MAP, with the African City Centre as leitmotiv.

At the closure of the fourth African Perspective, the next stop of African Perspectives will be introduced, and some first thoughts will be tabled that may influence the focus of the fifth dialogue in Casablanca in 2011.

Candidates for the sixth African Perspectives, to be held in 2013, are herewith invited to make themselves known, because we will not have finished our dialogue in Casablanca......

Henri Comrie PhD Urban Design Practitioner
AbdouMaliq Simone PhD Professor, Goldsmiths University, London
Gaëtan Siew IPP Union Internationale des Architects
Abdelmoumen Benabdeljalil Director, School Architecture, Casablanca
Livin Mosha PhD Dean ARDHI University, Fac Architecture, Dar es Salaam
Lazare Eloundou-Assomo Director Africa Section – UNESCO WHC
Lindsay Bremner PhD Tyler School of Art, Dept Architecture, Univ Philadelphia
Suha Ozkan Chairman World Architecture Community, Istanbul
George Intsiful PhD Professor and HOD, KNUST, Dept Architecture, Kumasi
Hilde Heynen PhD Professor and HOD, ASRO Catholic University, Leuven
Nnamdi Elleh Assoc Prof, University of Cincinnatti
Paul Meurs PhD Professor, DelftTU, Fac Architecture, RMIT
Ola Oduku Edinburgh College of Arts
Iain Low PhD Professor, Dept Architecture, University of Cape Town

Master keynote address

	Title and Author
	Imagining Urban Futures                                                                                                                  Heinrich Wolff
	Economic heterogeneity and the return of the central city Abdumaliq Simone