Venice Biennale of Architecture 2021
Italian Pavilion / Global South section
The African Fabbers School
project by
paolo cascone + maddalena laddaga / CODESIGNLAB
video by
Studio Antani
in order to respond in an ecological way to the frenetic development of african cities, surpassing any humanitarian rhetoric, a decolonization of cultural and productive processes is needed. within this premises almost 15 years ago paolo cascone has started his on-site investigations on synthetic vernacular architecture across different cultural and climatic contexts between mali, burkina faso, morocco, senegal, cameroon etc. such activities have generated the african fabbers school [AFS] : an itinerant laboratory of ecological design and self-construction for community-oriented projects between europe and africa. this ecosystem of site-specific projects has structured an abacus of paradigmatic design to build modus operandi based on a learning by doing methodology. thanks to the interaction between people from different backgrounds (african artisans, local communities, european students etc.) the [AFS] has investigated the relation between traditional knowledges, advanced design processes and digital manufacturing. for this reason, the critical understanding of the social of technology is crucial in order to develop new models of circular economy towards climate sensitive solutions
the african fabbers school video-installation project, curated by paolo cascone and maddalena laddaga, wants to reconstruct and disseminate such experimental path with the aim to propose an innovative research by practice agenda for next generation of european and african architects.