On people’s needs
building on top of brokenness — the notion that, if we do not leverage any power and privilege we have,
The reality of gentrification comes with a deeper segmentation along class lines, as well as a more severe rural/urban divide, while offering no solutions to extreme poverty, alienation and inequality. Looking at models provided by African architects and city planners who are working under similar conditions to resist displacement and inhumane living conditions is a possible answer.
Many are agents whose ideas are grounded in the basic idea of architecture’s power to transform. We need to look at social innovators who have not given up on the idea of cities as places that present opportunity — to the extent that they can be sustainable, livable and more humane.
Ethiopian architect Rahel Shawl is one such agent of change. She is an architect, educator and mentor based in Addis Ababa and, in 2004, started one of the leading architecture firms in Ethiopia, RAAS Architects. In 2007 she was awarded the Aga Khan award in recognition of her contributions to architecture and she has been honoured numerous times by the Association of Ethiopian Architects. Her approach to architecture is one that inspires hope and imagination.
Her many contributions to Ethiopia’s existing landscape can be traced in various building projects, including international councils and embassies, low-cost housing projects and, most notably, the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.
She is continually finding new ways of building that are grounded in experimentation and a deeply local approach, so that vernacular and contemporary architecture coexist and interact in complex ways.
With a focus on collaboration and empowerment, Shawl’s involvement in the field of architecture extends to mentorship and training. Her offices have been transformed into a space for inspiration and a training ground for young architects, many of them women.
If we are to move towards more humane ways of living, we need to stop judging our successes by the number of units we build — in the case of the reconstruction and development programme — and start thinking about the number of lives that have been enhanced.