Indigenous African Architecture

“This pictorial and narrative guide to traditional building and life-style in West Africa is based on René Gardi’s lifetime involvement with African culture. Building techniques, the creative talents, the incredible versatility and the beauty of the traditional African indigenous architecture are described in detail and presented in pictures and plans.

The author shows how African architecture still reflects men’s life-style, and he points to the problems of making welcome improvements without endangering the beauty and appropriateness of the vernacular architecture. He discusses too, the effects of misbegotten notions of ‘progress’ upon architecture, and the loss of tradition that often accompanies change in a society. …”