FROM AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE TO CONTEMPORARY CLOTHING
Architecture and fashion share a common vocabulary: structure, volume, proportion, envelope, material, rhythm, and function.
In both disciplines, the question is ultimately similar: how do you build a form around a space or a body?
Contemporary African architecture now offers a particularly rich ground for this reflection. It cannot be reduced to a single aesthetic. From Burkina Faso to Ethiopia, from Nigeria to South Africa, architects work with very different contexts, climates, materials, and traditions.
What often brings them together, however, is a desire to transform local constraints into an architectural language: heat becomes ventilation, earth becomes structure, a textile pattern becomes a façade, a landscape becomes volume.
And this principle can also be applied to clothing.
1. FRANCIS KÉRÉ — GANDO PRIMARY SCHOOL, BURKINA FASO
Architect: Francis Kéré
Project: Gando Primary School
Location: Gando, Burkina Faso
Completion: 2001
Francis Kéré is one of the major figures of contemporary African architecture. Born in Burkina Faso and trained in Germany, he develops an architecture in which material, climate, and community contribute directly to the building's form.
The Gando Primary School is an excellent example.
Kéré uses a locally available material: earth. This is mixed with cement to produce bricks that are sufficiently resistant while retaining good thermal inertia. But one of the most interesting elements of the building is its roofing system.
Instead of placing a metal roof directly on the classroom—which would have heated the space intensely—Kéré separates the different layers of the building. A perforated brick ceiling allows hot air to rise, while a large, raised roof protects the entire structure from the sun and rain. (Pritzker Prize)
WHAT FASHION CAN TAKE FROM IT
The building shows that a structure can be designed in layers.
In clothing, this logic is found in:
the layering of materials, visible linings, yokes, overlapping panels, or volumes that do not rest directly on the body.
Technical function can also become aesthetic.
A seam that reinforces a garment can become a graphic line. A pocket intended to be functional can become an architectural element of the silhouette.
AT KAARA LU
This logic appears particularly in the structured jackets.
The large patch pockets are not just practical. They form autonomous volumes placed on the main construction, almost like modules added to a façade.
The waist, which is tighter, then creates a contrast with these volumes.
As with Kéré, the structure does not seek to be hidden: it becomes part of the piece's visual language.
2. LIDETA MERCATO — ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
Architect: Xavier Vilalta / Vilalta Studio
Project: Lideta Mercato
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In Addis Ababa, the Lideta Mercato proposes another way of associating local heritage with contemporary architecture.
Its façade is made up of perforated concrete modules. The patterns are inspired by geometries found in traditional Ethiopian textiles. But they are not merely decorative.
They filter the light, limit direct sun exposure, and promote the natural circulation of air through the building. (Vilalta Studio | Arquitectura sostenible)
The pattern therefore has two simultaneous functions:
a visual function
and
a technical function.
This is precisely what makes the project interesting.
FROM PATTERN TO STRUCTURE
In fashion, the pattern is often considered a surface added to the garment.
But it can become much more.
A pattern can dictate:
the cutting of a panel, the placement of a seam, the shape of a pocket, the alternation between transparency and opacity, or even the overall rhythm of a silhouette.
The Lideta Mercato thus shows how a textile reference can leave the textile itself to become architecture.
Fashion can take the opposite path: taking an architectural principle and bringing it back to clothing.
AT KAARA LU
This reflection is particularly relevant in the work around jacquard.
The textile is not chosen solely for its design. Its relief, its thickness, and its rhythm contribute directly to the perception of the garment.
The material thus becomes almost a façade.
Depending on the light, the distance, or the movement, it does not present exactly the same surface.
3. MAPUNGUBWE INTERPRETATION CENTRE — SOUTH AFRICA
Architect: Peter Rich Architects
Project: Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre
Location: Limpopo, South Africa
Completion: 2009
The Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre shows yet another approach.
The project is set in the rocky landscape of Mapungubwe National Park, near the borders of Botswana and Zimbabwe. Peter Rich develops a succession of stone-covered vaults that seem to emerge directly from the terrain.
The buildings notably use locally produced stabilized earth tiles. The vaulted forms are inspired by the landscape and ancient construction techniques, while using contemporary engineering methods. (PeterRichArchitects)
Here, the major characteristic is therefore not a vertical façade.
It is the volume.
The forms are rounded, swollen, almost organic.
VOLUME AS A LANGUAGE
In fashion, volume has the same capacity to transform the perception of a silhouette.
Balloon trousers, an amplified sleeve, or a structured shoulder immediately modify the relationship between the body and the space around it.
The garment no longer just follows the body.
It builds a new geometry around it.
AT KAARA LU
This idea appears notably in the work of the balloon trouser.
Its shape is not obtained by a printed pattern or a decorative detail, but by the cut itself.
The volume becomes the identity of the piece.
Like an architectural vault, the silhouette draws its strength from the curve, the tension between width and constriction, and the way the material retains its shape.
4. MAKOKO AND FLOATING ARCHITECTURE — LAGOS, NIGERIA
Architect: Kunlé Adeyemi / NLÉ
Project: Makoko Floating School
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
With the Makoko Floating School, the Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi looks at a completely different issue: how to design in an environment where water is an integral part of the territory?
The experimental project developed for the Makoko community proposed a triangular floating structure, designed as a response to the specific conditions of this lakeside neighborhood in Lagos. The project fits more broadly into NLÉ's research on African cities facing water, rapid urbanization, and climate change. (NLEWorks)
This project allows us to introduce another essential idea:
the form must be able to respond to its environment.
ADAPTABILITY AND MOVEMENT
A garment also responds to an environment: that of the body.
Unlike a static object, it must follow:
walking, gestures, changes in posture, and gravity.
Architecture designed for water must accept movement.
In the same way, certain pieces of clothing benefit from not being entirely constrained.
More fluid fabrics, open volumes, or layering can allow the garment to change shape slightly with the person wearing it.
AT KAARA LU
This reflection concerns particularly the softer pieces of the collection, such as those made of linen.
Where denim allows a silhouette to be fixed, linen introduces more movement.
Two materials can therefore express two different architectures:
denim builds,
linen accompanies.
FROM AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE TO CONTEMPORARY FASHION
These four projects show above all that there is no single way to be influenced by African architecture.
From Francis Kéré, we can take away:
construction in layers and the intelligence of the material.
From Lideta Mercato:
the pattern transformed into a functional structure.
From Mapungubwe:
the power of volume and the curve.
From Kunlé Adeyemi:
adaptation, movement, and the relationship to the environment.
These are architectural principles.
But they are also design principles.
BEYOND THE AFRICAN PATTERN
For a long time, when the African influence in international fashion was mentioned, the conversation focused mainly on prints, colors, or certain immediately identifiable textiles.
This reading is too limited.
Africa can also influence clothing through:
geometry, material, volume, construction, rhythm, function, and the relationship to the climate.
An African reference does not therefore necessarily need to be immediately recognizable.
It can be integrated into the creation process itself.
This is where the dialogue between architecture and fashion becomes particularly interesting.
KAARA LU: TRANSFORMING A REFERENCE INTO A SILHOUETTE
At KAARA LU, architecture is not seen as an image to be reproduced directly on a garment.
It serves rather as a starting point.
A façade can become an organization of pockets.
A succession of volumes can become a silhouette.
An architectural overlay can become an assembly of panels.
A construction material can lead to thinking differently about the stiffness or the drape of a textile.
The process then becomes:
OBSERVE → DECOMPOSE → INTERPRET → BUILD
It is this interpretation step that is essential.
Because an inspiration becomes truly interesting when it ceases to be a copy.
It becomes a language.
And it is precisely at this point that architecture meets clothing.