Architectures of belonging : inhabiting worlds in rural West Africa / ed. by Ann Cassiman.

Antwerp : BAI Pub., ©2011.

213 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

In the West, much attention is paid to the quality of housing in terms of material comfort and durability. However, houses no longer grow organically, and are no longer layered by time, or embedded in a social community and intertwined with the natural environment. The house, and even more the interior of the house, has become an expression of the individuality of the inhabitant (witness the whole marketing of lifestyle, design, interior decoration, cocooning, etcetera). Paradoxically, though, this goes hand in hand with the erosion of the house as a signifier. Houses are becoming almost generic realities, without a memory or a past, the anonymous results of mass-production, or the interchangeable, standardized products of a globalised Ikea and turnkey culture. In contrast to the poor signifier that the Western house has become, the chapters in this books analyze the rich meanings embedded in the processes of dwelling in rural West African worlds, with an emphasis on Ghana and Burkina Faso.--P. 4 of cover.

9789085865902
9085865905

Housing, Rural Social aspects Africa, West.
Architecture, Domestic Africa, West.
Dwellings Africa, West.
Logement rural Aspect social Afrique occidentale.
Habitations Afrique occidentale.
Architecture, Domestic.
Dwellings.
Housing, Rural Social aspects.
West Africa.

Exhibition publications.

Cassiman, Ann.

Localisation: Bibliothèque main 277862
Cote: BIB 212954
Statut: Disponible