Refiguring the Archive:
A new architectural vocabulary through the hybridisation of the traditional and colonial architecture in Ndar, Senegal.
The project goal is to observe traditional Senegalese and European (French) and research the specific materials, styles and typologies of these architectures evident in Saint Louis (Ndar). This will be done to further understand the composition of architectural tropes and forms utilised within this city.
The site was chosen as due to its connection to colonisation as the first city founded by Europeans, specifically by the French colonists. The type of infrastructure and developments that occurred due to this, made the city a focal point for European typology development within Senegal. The city now stands as a historical landmark of colonisation as well as a visual representation of the loss or decrease in West African architecture. The goal of this research is to use this city and port as a starting point of celebrating the union of the various architectural typologies present within the city to allow it to be the catalyst for the merger of the multiple identities.
Drawing from the unit’s thematic of Repositories of identity in relation to the Wolof term “Diggante” which translates to “in the position or interval that separates things; in between, in transit from one to the other or connecting places, something shared in confidence, combined (by effort of ownership), something done together or reciprocally”. The project aims to generate a multi-layered architectural vocabulary that highlights the changes the country experienced and the state of “diggante” in which it currently exists, to speculate on an Architectural form that moves away from the dominant Western narrative and that celebrates this identity of diggante.
