YAA Projects designs architecture in dialogue and response to place, identity, climate, material and history.
Designed and curated by YAA Projects in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, and presented at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, this exhibition explores the development of Tropical Modernism as an architectural style in West Africa.
A 35-meter-long wall displays 80 selected images, reflecting on the imperial history, post-independence development, and the subsequent decline and reappraisal of this style. The design of the display wall references the brise soleil at University of Ibadan, designed by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
Additionally, YAA Projects co-directed a 28-minute film featuring interviews with surviving protagonists and footage of remaining buildings. This film explores how Tropical Modernism was adapted and developed by West African architects during a transitional period marked by new freedoms and a break from the colonial past through architecture.
Photography: © Alice Clancy