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Gary White / Marguerite Pienaar / Bouwer Serfontein Africa Drawn One Hundred Cities With a foreword by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk 280 × 300 mm, 224 pages, 300 images, Hardcover ISBN 978-3-86922-423-7 (English) EUR 48,00 / CHF 58,60 April 2015. DOM publishers, Berlin

Now available from DOM publishers:

Gary White / Marguerite Pienaar / Bouwer Serfontein

Africa Drawn

One Hundred Cities

The urbanisation of the African continent is advancing rapidly, with both African cities and metropolitan regions among the fastest growing in the world. Yet how can these mega-cities that are rapidly expanding in a manner that is out-of-control be understood?

Africa Drawn approaches highly diverse urban structures through drawings. From Cairo to Cape Town, this book – born out of a research project – presents one hundred of the largest and most significant cities in the continent. A visual feast of three hundred images and masterfully drawn plans illustrates contemporary and historical settlements in Africa. Accompanied by introductory texts, the drawings reduce the complex urban contexts to the essential structural elements, so that only the most important features of the city concerned are visible. Thus, for the first time the book renders possible a comparison of the multi-dimensional nature of the phenomenon that is the city in the African continent. At the same time it also illustrates spatial planning which has evolved over a time, a knowledge of which is needed to assess the future development of African cities.

From a visual and artistic standpoint, the study offers a fascinating documentation of urban spaces in Africa and at the same time presents a convincing and scholarly analysis of urban structures and morphologies. It is a rich source of urban spatial patterns and serves as a basis for future research on African urbanism from a city planning perspective – something which remains largely unchartered territory to this day.

Gary White, born 1966, architect and city planner. Studied in Bloemfontein and Cape Town. Extensive teaching experience and numerous construction projects in Africa. Director at the architectural firm GWA / HolmJordaan, which is based in South Africa. Marguerite Pienaar, born 1977, architect. Studied in Bloemfontein and Pretoria. Co-founder of MoMa Architects. Extensive teaching experience and numerous construction projects throughout Afrika. Director at GWA / HolmJordaan. Bouwer Serfontein, born 1977, architect. Studied in Pretoria. Numerous construction projects and teaching experience in Europe and Africa. Director at GWA / HolmJordaan.
The authors are co-founders of the Africa Drawn research project.

 

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