Research

  • Africa Urban, Made in China
  • GRANTEE
    Justin Hui
    GRANT YEAR
    2014

Benjamin Mkapa stadium built by Chinese contractors, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Photo: Justin Hui.

Africa Urban, Made in China documents architecture and infrastructure built by Chinese enterprises throughout sub-Saharan Africa and examines their implications for Africa's urban development and identity. China's demand for Africa's abundant supply of minerals is matched by China's ready-market construction of buildings. This mutual dependency is fueling urban change throughout the region wrought by the importation of urban management models and technology. Through fieldwork and archival research, the project focuses on projects built by Chinese enterprises and examines their links to China's meteoric urbanization back home. These findings portray the influence of Chinese investments in Africa's urban growth and provide an empirical background to understanding global urbanization at work on a regional level.

Justin Hui is an American architect currently based in Hong Kong. His work focuses on architecture and urbanism in relation to globalization and the collective memory of cities. He has worked on institutional projects for Herzog & de Meuron, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and Kennedy & Violich Architecture. Hui received his BArch from Cornell University with the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Silver Medal and led the college publication, Association. His graduating thesis asks how rail yards in Chicago can inform a more democratic urban framework for the post-industrial age.