‘Dela Villa’ is a single storey two-bed bungalow proposed for the maiden international design competition initiated by the Community Planning Design Initiative Africa. The brief called on artist, architects, designers, planners and practitioners involved in the built environment to “design perfect residential prototypes, of contemporary African architecture, that reflects the culture, aesthetics and sustainability for community design and development in today’s Africa.
My design stands for a new approach and vision on the built heritage of the traditional West African tropical vernacular architecture which, over the course of time has ceased to evolve in functionality and formal aesthetic. It explores the tropical vernacular typology where building evolves around a courtyard space and landscape blurs the boundary between interior and exterior. In a contemporary perspective and in its own local context, the building straddles tradition and modernity to achieve a design that is modest yet sophisticated, using native material, patterns and symmetrical form inspired not by a single culture of a particular country, but by the arts and crafts of West African tapestry designs.
