Cluster-Based Planning: The Key to Better Urban Living

“Architecture is not the outcome of drawings but of lived choices shaped around place, ritual and rhythm.” Cities across West and Northwest Africa are expanding fast. Too often, that growth flattens local identity, fragments community life, and intensifies ecological pressure. Yet it need not. The urban cluster offers a grounded alternative: compact, walkable, and materially […]

Bamboo Urbanism So Far: Powerful Takeaways and Surprising Lessons

The enthusiasm for bamboo in West African urban design has been both exhilarating and sobering. We’ve seen workshops, pilot blocks, and research units rise. We’ve heard declarations of a “new material age.” But what has this bamboo moment really taught us? It has taught us that no single material is a magic bullet. Bamboo is […]

Build Smarter: Breakthrough Homes with Bamboo and Laterite

In this continuing series on regenerative urbanism, we dig deeper into the materials that form not just the substance of buildings, but the language of place. Previous entries introduced bamboo and laterite as more than alternatives to high-carbon construction—they are catalysts for a locally grounded architecture that speaks to climate, culture, and continuity. Today, we […]