Architectures of Colonial East and North Africa

 Both Italy and France were complicit in the colonization of Africa, like many other countries. But what makes these two colonial powers interesting is the way that they organized the areas that they occupied.

The Italian fascists would completely rearrange the cities that they occupied, including the architecture within. For example, areas that were further elevated were reserved for government and military structures, of which were made in an Italian style. A motivating factor behind their imperialism was to further the idealized connection between Mussolini and the Roman Empire. Italian architects enforced these connections through their architecture, using their constructed buildings as a symbol of power. 

France, however, was much less rigid in their colonialist philosophies. Towards the more recent years, the French respected the indigenous cultures to some extent, meaning that they would value and preserve related aspects, but was regarded as lower than the mighty French imperialists. While still incredibly troubling, this mindset thankfully was much less destructive to the local areas, instead building and filling in caps. This idea of assimilation was in contrast to their original approach of enforcing the French culture as the global unifying concept. 

My project does not have direct ties with any of these countries, however, does have ties with Portugal through the pasts of the Afro-Brazilian folk who emigrated to Nigeria. Their architecture is extremely prominent through the style of the Susanne Wenger House.