When the Pan-African Biennale opens in Nairobi this September, it will mark a historic moment for architecture and spatial practice across the continent. For the first time, Africa will host a continental architecture biennale conceived, curated, and led from within the continent itself, bringing together architects, designers, researchers, collectives, material practitioners, and spatial thinkers from nearly every region of Africa.
Scheduled to take place from 7 to 11 September 2026 at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), the inaugural Pan-African Biennale arrives not simply as another architecture exhibition but as a significant intellectual and cultural intervention. Conceived as a long-term platform rotating between African cities every two years, the Biennale seeks to reposition Africa from the margins of global architectural discourse to its centre, asserting the continent as an author of its own spatial knowledge, architectural histories, and future imaginaries.
Founded and directed by Somali-Italian architect Omar Degan, the Biennale unfolds under the curatorial theme Shifting the Center: From Fragility to Resilience. Rather than presenting architecture as a singular discipline, the Biennale embraces a broad understanding of spatial practice, one that includes architecture, urbanism, ecological research, vernacular knowledge systems, material experimentation, and collective modes of making.
The inaugural edition is structured around three curatorial strands: Land Under Pressure, which explores climate change and environmental transformation; Inherited Knowledge, focusing on vernacular intelligence and indigenous building traditions; and Worlds to Come, examining African futures through architecture and spatial imagination. Together, these strands provide a framework through which the continent’s diverse architectural realities can be understood not as peripheral narratives but as critical contributions to global conversations on the built environment.
Below, Africans Column highlights the practices participating in the inaugural edition of the Pan-African Biennale, organised by region to reflect the extraordinary geographic breadth of this historic gathering.
North Africa
North Africa’s representation reflects a rich landscape of architectural experimentation, urban research, heritage preservation, and contemporary design practices shaped by centuries of exchange across the Mediterranean, the Sahara, and the Sahel.
The region’s participants include Djamel Klouche from Algeria, whose work has long examined urban transformation and metropolitan conditions; Egypt’s Megawra – Built Environment Collective (BEC), internationally recognised for its work in heritage conservation and community-led urban regeneration; Pulse Design Group from Libya; Morocco’s Belyas.Co; Mauritanian architect and researcher Cheikhani Nahwi; and Tunisian practice Bled El Abar, known for its exploration of architecture, craft, and cultural memory.
Together, these practices bring perspectives shaped by dense urban histories, desert landscapes, contested heritage, and rapidly evolving cities.
West Africa
West Africa presents one of the most diverse regional representations within the Biennale, bringing together architects, designers, researchers, artisans, and community-led initiatives working across issues of sustainability, material innovation, and cultural continuity.
The selected participants include Larry Tchogninou, Olufemi Hinson Yovo and Armel Sagbohan from Benin; Association La Voûte Nubienne (The Nubian Vault) from Burkina Faso, renowned for promoting earthen architecture across the Sahel; Ramos Castellano Arquitectos from Cabo Verde; Studio Ndaanan, collaborating with historian Hassoum Ceesay from The Gambia; Ghanaian ecological building practice Hive Earth; Guinean practitioners Aboubacar Sidiki Komara and Amadou Camara; Marinho Pina from Guinea-Bissau; Côte d’Ivoire-based collective Moyésoa; Liberian designer and cultural strategist Nu Goteh; Malian artist and master dyer Aboubakar Fofana; Nigeria’s NANA Collective Studio; Senegalese practice Worofila; and Studio Neida from Togo.
Collectively, these participants embody the region’s longstanding engagement with earthen construction, craft traditions, ecological thinking, and socially responsive design.
Central Africa
Central Africa’s delegation foregrounds practices working across architecture, cultural production, urban research, and material experimentation, reflecting a region whose built environments continue to evolve through complex social, environmental, and historical conditions.
Participating practices include Angola’s Banga Coletivo; Cameroon’s Barla Barla Architectes; Archi Infini & Partenaires from the Central African Republic; Afrostudio from Chad; Basabose Studio from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Maissa Architectures from Gabon; and multidisciplinary artist and designer EdwIne Neto from São Tomé and Príncipe.
Their presence highlights a broad spectrum of approaches, from community-driven design and architectural research to artistic practices that expand conventional understandings of spatial production.
East Africa and the Horn
Stretching from the Great Lakes to the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa, this regional grouping brings together some of the continent’s most influential contemporary architectural and spatial practices.
Participants include Burundi’s Remesha Design Lab; Nadia Moussa from Comoros; Waiss Associates from Djibouti; Lauge / Laboratorio de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de Guinea Ecuatorial representing Equatorial Guinea; the Eritrea Collective Team; Ethiopian practice Raas Architects; Madagascar’s Joan Razafimaharo; Mauritian collective Jugaad; internationally acclaimed MASS Design Group from Rwanda; Add.Locus Architects from Seychelles; Somalia’s Daar Studio; the South Sudan Collective (SSC); Sudanese architect Studio Ola Hassanain; and Uganda’s Design Without Borders.
The region’s participants reflect a remarkable diversity of approaches, from humanitarian architecture and social infrastructure to critical research, cultural preservation, and future-oriented design.
Southern Africa
Southern Africa’s contribution brings together architects, designers, and collectives working at the intersection of landscape, identity, climate, and community.
Representing the region are Moralo Designs from Botswana; Lebala from Eswatini; Lesotho-based practitioner Mokhethi Gerard Rampeta; Malawi’s Liminal Design; Una Stuurman Architects from Namibia; South African practice Lemon Pebble; Lucid Concept from Zambia; and Zimbabwean architect and researcher Craig Muyambo.
Their work reflects the region’s deep engagement with questions of sustainability, indigenous knowledge systems, public space, and socially engaged architectural practice.
Recentring African Spatial Knowledge
More than a list of participants, the inaugural Pan-African Biennale represents the emergence of a new institutional framework for African architecture and spatial practice. By convening studios, collectives, researchers, artists, and material practitioners from across the continent under a shared curatorial vision, the Biennale seeks to establish a new centre of architectural discourse—one authored from within Africa itself.
As Nairobi prepares to host this landmark inaugural edition, the Pan-African Biennale signals not only a new exhibition platform but the beginning of a long-term continental project dedicated to reshaping how African architecture is produced, discussed, archived, and understood. In doing so, it offers a powerful reminder that the centre, as Omar Degan has argued, has always been here.
