Venice Biennale and the IUAV August 2023

Published on 8 September 2023

Head of the Liverpool School of Architecture, Professor Ola Ola Uduku, recently chaired part of the debut session of the African Architectural and Urban History Network (AFRAUHN) at the Venice Biennale.

Curator Lesley Lokko introduced the session which had two parts, the first involving speakers Ikem Okoye (Delaware, USA),  Kuukuwa Manful (Michigan University, USA) and Neal Shasore (London School of Architecture), with Ola Uduku (Liverpool University) chairing. The session focusing on a discussion on the remit of AFRAUHN which is to help encourage and advocate for Architectural Research in Africa, and support new generations of indigenous historians and researchers in Architectural History and urbanism. After Ikem Okoye’s introduction both Kuukuwa and Neal were able to discuss their different approaches to, and hopes for Africa-related Architectural Research. 

The second session, chaired by Huda Tayob (Unversity of Manchester), involved all speakers from the earlier session and also Murray Fraser (University College London). This session was a roundtable where the speakers responded to Huda Tayob’s questions which considered specific issues and challenges to scholarship in African Architectural History and its situatedness within the wider context of global research and challenging normative notions of historical research and scholarship.

The entire session was recorded and will be published by the Venice Architecture Biennale before the end of September 2023. 

You can read more about Ola's visit at the Transnational Architecture Group website.