African Modernism

When African Modernism was first published in 2015, it was showered with international praise and has been sought after ever since it went out of print in 2018. Marking Park Books’ 10th anniversary, this landmark book will now be available again.

Over the course of the 1950s and 1960s, most African countries gained independence from their respective colonial powers. Architecture became one of the principal means by which the newly formed states expressed their national identity. African Modernism investigates the close relationship between architecture and nation-building in Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia. It features 100 buildings with brief descriptive texts, images, site plans, selected floor plans and sections. The vast majority of images were taken by Iwan Baan and Alexia Webster especially for the book’s first edition, documenting the buildings in their present state. Each country is portrayed through an introductory text and a timeline of historic events. Additional essays on specific aspects and topics of postcolonial Africa, likewise richly illustrated with images and documents, round out this outstanding volume.