Pougdwendé Léandre Guigma is an architect and urban planner, and co-founder of Agence Perspectives, created in 2008 with Beninese architect Solange Kpogbemabou, where he works as Head of Urban Planning and Local Development Department. His thesis examined the interferences between the practices of city dwellers and public policies in the planning and urban management of undeveloped districts of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. He took part in the third edition of the Biennale d’architectures tropicales, held in November 2024 on La Réunion. For ‘A’A’, he looks back on the presentation he gave there.

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Léandre Guigma, architect and urban planner

In the heart of West Africa, Ouagadougou is home to three million inhabitants in a tropical city with two seasons: an eight-month dry season from October to May and a four-month wet season from June to September. The weather is hot all year round, with average temperatures ranging from 18°C to 39°C.

Ouagadougou’s urban landscape has changed considerably over the past two decades, with a trend towards a ‘hardening’ of the built environment, from an ochre-coloured ‘bancoville’ to a grey-coloured ‘cimentville’. This ‘hardening’ of the habitat is particularly noticeable in the precarious neighbourhoods, commonly known as ‘non lotis’, which occupy 25% of the surface area of the town.

Widespread low-quality housing

In both developed and non-developed areas, the general trend is towards a homogenisation of the popular housing style, consisting of cement block masonry houses with tin roofs. These houses, which are unsuited to the tropical climate because of the thermal discomfort they cause, are the ones that are being reproduced the most, by self-developers of housing, with the help of bricklayers. Buildings made of banco (mud brick) are becoming increasingly rare in the city. On the fringes of the working-class neighbourhoods, a few modern housing estates and business parks are springing up, where architects are mainly involved. These modern residential areas are characterised by a tendency to build at least two storeys high (R+1) and by the use of geo-sourced materials (cut laterite blocks – BLT and compressed earth bricks – BTC) by a small, well-informed elite. In business parks, the trend is towards vertical construction, with heights ranging from 6 to 14 storeys and the use of imported materials such as glass and aluminium for the facades, as well as sleek shapes inspired by Western architecture.

Most designers in Africa dream of ‘contemporary African architecture’, which seems easier to express in words and intentions than in deeds. Apart from a few isolated, remarkable architectural gestures, this tropical architecture with its own identity has yet to be conceptualised and developed on a large scale, not only to meet the growing need for housing and urban activities, but also to replace the dominant image of a city built by its inhabitants themselves, as and when the opportunity arises.

The predominance of imported and non-bio-sourced materials in construction means that architectural and construction systems need to be adapted to the requirements of bioclimatic tropical architecture. But the deployment of this architecture relies on levers that go beyond the strict conceptual, technical and architectural field, to embrace the socio-economic, cultural and environmental ecosystem.

Towards an industrialised city

One of the main obstacles to the widespread adoption of eco-construction is that the cost of local materials and skilled labour is not competitive with that of cement blocks and ordinary masons. This is due to the lack of organisation of local production chains and the loss of traditional building skills. This obstacle is linked to the international commercial, industrial and psychological systemic machinery that promotes Western materials, associating with them the mirage of modernity and the truncated image of sustainability. Reversing this trend requires a strong political will on the part of governments in the tropics, backed up by concrete action. To break free from the dictates and lobbying of the cement industry and energy-guzzling imported materials, states and local governments, with the support of investors, must set the tone and set an example through decarbonisation policies. It is possible to industrialise the production of local bio-sourced materials by marketing, for example, bags of earth or straw with well-defined characteristics. In this case, as the materials are standardised, it is also possible to standardise the dosages, so that the structures produced meet the required strengths. We would then be talking about promoting appropriate construction materials, which would be industrialised local materials. And eco-construction would consist of scrupulously installing ‘the right material, in the right place’. Industrialising the production of local building materials in this way could provide significant support for the high demand for infrastructure and housing in all tropical human settlements, while at the same time creating jobs.

Towards an inclusive city

In Ouagadougou, demand for housing is estimated at 20,000 units per year, with a shortfall of 200,000 homes to be built. There is no point in expanding the city or building ‘new towns’ by bypassing the undeveloped slums. These so-called precarious neighbourhoods are places of life, transformation and urban creativity. They are inhabited by four out of ten Ouagalais. They are an integral part of the city. They are also the most densely populated areas of the city. Consequently, common sense would dictate that the development of the city, in terms of infrastructure and structuring facilities, should not only take these neighbourhoods into account, but give them priority. In this way, the duality of the city (developed and undeveloped) will give way to an inclusive and accessible city, thanks to a denser network of transport facilities, punctuated by areas of calm within the neighbourhoods.

The development of housing systems in Africa only makes sense if they take into account the social, economic and environmental changes taking place in informal or undeveloped neighbourhoods. These inhabited neighbourhoods are just waiting for structuring investments to make a better contribution to urban development. The range of housing on offer needs to be diversified (individual, collective, rental, etc.) so that the less well-off can be taken into account, in an inclusive city that promotes living together and urban diversity.

Towards a human and green city

Most contemporary African architects incorporate plants into their designs and project presentations. Plant cover is omnipresent in computer-generated images of architectural projects. Architecture is no longer limited to the built environment, but must be in perfect symbiosis with the natural environment, so as to create spaces that offer a wide range of uses and sensations. Architectural sustainability is not a finished or fixed project. It’s a work whose functions and uses can evolve and adapt to changing needs, in phase with the changing seasons (cool, warm, wet and dry) and in phase with the changing weather.

It is also a question of promoting an ecosystem that integrates and enhances the green and blue webs according to each territorial geo-climatic context, by encouraging the planting of lines of trees, the multiplication of green spaces at different scales, and the development of retention basins, drains and green infrastructures, in order to create urban cooling. On an environmental and cultural level, the aim is to be at one with the entire living community to ensure a harmonious and peaceful life, giving space to the expression of cultural, religious and spiritual values that respect nature.

Towards architects and town planners

Nowadays, governments and decision-makers should take more advice from architects and town planners, who create and build liveable spaces. In tropical Africa, architects and urban planners are faced with three major challenges:

1) the technological challenge of producing low-energy urban spaces that are adapted to the needs and uses of modern life,
2) the cultural challenge of producing urban spaces that have a sense of identity, specific to the socio-cultural contexts of their users,
3) the environmental challenge of designing, building and living with nature, not against it.

These three challenges are combined. Architects and urban planners who create urban spaces have the genius to think and build spaces to dream about, to live in and to love.

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