Reclaiming Africa’s Architectural Story
The University of Nairobi hosted the second biennial conference of the African Architectural and Urban History Network (AFRAUHN), bringing together scholars, architects, historians, designers, researchers and built-environment practitioners from across Africa and beyond to reflect on the continent’s architectural heritage, knowledge systems and urban future.
Held in collaboration with the Department of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment and Design, University of Nairobi, the three-day conference was held from 8–10 September 2026, the conference created a platform for conversations on the histories, ideas and knowledge systems that have shaped and continue to shape Africa’s built environment.
At the centre of the conference were important questions: Who defines African architecture? Whose knowledge is recognised? Whose histories are preserved? And what happens when Africa takes greater ownership of telling its own architectural story?
The conference opened with a warm welcome from Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ayub Gitau, whose remarks were delivered by the Dean, Prof. Owiti A. K’Akumu. In his message, the Vice-Chancellor highlighted the significance of bringing together scholars and practitioners to sustain intellectual exchange on Africa’s architectural and urban past, present and future. “It is my great pleasure, on behalf of the University of Nairobi, to welcome you to the AFRAUHN Nairobi Conference. We are particularly honored that the Department of Architecture is hosting this important gathering in collaboration with the African Architectural and Urban History Network. I extend a warm welcome to our colleagues joining us from institutions across Africa and beyond, as well as representatives of the Pan-African Biennale of Architecture, the Architectural Association of Kenya, and our collaborating universities and institutions. Your presence demonstrates the growing importance of sustained intellectual exchange on Africa’s architectural and urban past, present and future.”
The welcome set the tone for a conference centred on reclaiming, questioning and expanding the ways Africa’s architectural knowledge and histories are understood.
In the session “Reclaiming Regional Identity in Kenyan Architecture,” Prof. Robert Rukwaro explored Kenyan architectural identity through vernacular knowledge systems, material intelligence and spatial order. The discussion challenged the view of traditional architecture as simply heritage to be preserved, instead presenting it as a living body of knowledge capable of informing contemporary architectural practice.
Another discussion held today critically examined the structural imbalance in architectural education in Africa, where curricular frameworks often privilege Euro-American canons while local knowledge systems remain marginalised. The conversation interrogated how these epistemic hierarchies are reproduced through studio culture, citation practices, accreditation standards and benchmarking systems, and questioned how legitimacy in architectural scholarship is constructed within African institutions.
Participants also explored how architectural education can better prepare students for contexts shaped by informality, hybrid land regimes, climate vulnerability and postcolonial spatial inequality across African cities and towns. The discussion further considered how indigenous material intelligence, oral archives and community spatial governance can be incorporated as methodological frameworks rather than treated merely as aesthetic references.
As the conference continued, attention turned to architectural history, archives, representation, indigenous knowledge and the future of architectural practice. Sessions including “Writing African Architectural History?” and “Reframing the Foundations for Considering the Historiographies of African Architecture & Urbanism” explored how African architectural histories are documented, interpreted and preserved, and how buildings, landscapes, sacred spaces, material culture and oral knowledge can broaden the understanding of architectural archives.
The programme will also consider the relationship between architecture and Africa’s diverse climatic environments, including the continuing relevance of natural cooling, daylighting, local materials, earthen construction and indigenous environmental knowledge.
The conference was supported by a number of academic, professional and cultural institutions, including the Pan-African Biennale of Architecture, Architectural Association of Kenya, British Council, Campus Innovation Laboratory, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, Department of History at the University of Delaware, USA, Liverpool School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, UK, and The Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, UK.
Looking to the past does not necessarily mean turning backwards. Sometimes, the past contains knowledge for the future.
As AFRAUHN Nairobi 2026 conference built a conversation that moved from identity to history, from history to knowledge, and from knowledge towards the future.
Ultimately, the conference asked not only what African architecture has been, but what it can become when Africa’s own histories, knowledge systems, environments and communities, placed at the centre of the conversation.
Perhaps the story did not need to be discovered. Perhaps it was always there. What is happening now is that Africa is learning to listen to it, incorporate it, document it, value it, learn from it and, ultimately, build from it.
