Webinar on Architectural Wellbeing and Planning in Rural-Urban Communities

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:20:20
Speaker 1
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the third installment of our Climate Wednesday webinar series, talking about the lessons the Global North could and should be learning from the Global South. We've been working on this together with the Climate Heritage Network, as Will said, that connects people working on climate, heritage and conservation and cultural heritage from right around the world.

00:00:20:21 - 00:00:41:15
Speaker 1
We started this series as part of our run up to 27, which will be in Egypt next month because it seemed the perfect marker for in the global north to actually finally start pulling our heads out of our business as usual sand which has got the world into such a mess and to stop keeping hoping that doing more of the same with tweaks will somehow make it all come out right.

00:00:42:00 - 00:01:12:18
Speaker 1
Our cousins in the Global South can really help us here, and it's not just that they're bearing the biggest impacts of climate change, but also we need to remember that despite often very large populations, these are countries with very tiny carbon footprints. And that's a startling fact. It's not least because they haven't forgotten how to construct and operate their built environments in a low energy, low carbon way, in a way that's also sensitive to the local climate, including the variations in the local climate.

00:01:12:24 - 00:01:37:21
Speaker 1
And this is something that we forgot in the global north when we started to throw fossil fuel with gay abandon at every problem and forgot how to do things passively. So I guess it's not surprising that the lessons we've been learning in this series so far about how Global South countries continue to work with a vernacular built environment linked so closely to what we know about how buildings in the global north were originally constructed and run.

00:01:38:02 - 00:02:03:09
Speaker 1
I hope you don't mind me sharing my favorite slide here again, showing how similar a cob cottage in Devon is to a village house in South Sudan. Which means that I don't worry about how the cottage might cope with higher temperatures and different rainfall patterns, either. The grade one listed real estate paper buildings. Another matter altogether. But that does highlight how the solutions of how to build sustainably arrived in front of us.

00:02:03:09 - 00:02:28:06
Speaker 1
But we've been looking for them perhaps in the wrong place in modern market led technology, instead of the technology that developed over tens of thousands of years of trial and error in the absence of cheap and easy energy, that's why each fortnight we bring in an expert speaker from the Global South to talk about their work, and then we'll be discussing with them the lessons they we should be learning from what they found.

00:02:28:14 - 00:02:47:01
Speaker 1
And we want you to join in the discussion too. So this will set. Please post your questions and thoughts for discussion into the chat and if you could preface them with a queue for questions so we can recognize them quickly, that'd be super helpful. And with that, it gives me the very greatest of pleasure to be welcoming today's speaker MOC Lady Johnson.

00:02:47:01 - 00:03:11:18
Speaker 1
And it has an amazing number of specialisms. He's an architect and an urbanist and an educator, and he administers the University of Lagos architecture and Urbanism Research Hub, as well as coordinating their post-grad diploma program. He's also the T22 Coordinator of the South African West Africa Subregion, a competition for architectural students as part of the Great Green Wall program.

00:03:12:07 - 00:03:38:01
Speaker 1
His work on metaphor was taken from the approaches of the Yoruba to the built environment. And the way that can and does influence contemporary approaches to the public realm in northern Nigeria is just about to be published. But it was when I heard Lady speak on one of the on the important role of local dialects in the transmission of vernacular building knowledge that I knew we really had to have him to speak to us about many of his his areas of expertize.

00:03:38:13 - 00:03:57:07
Speaker 1
When we were working on the Practical Building Conservation Series, the issue of missing language, and how it seemed to equate to gaps in knowledge, which came up all the time. So it's with the very greatest of pleasure that a dollar and I hand over to Mukalla today to take us on a journey through some of the unexpected sites to connect the environment.

00:03:57:07 - 00:03:59:16
Speaker 1
So Mark, lady, the floor is yours.

00:04:01:07 - 00:04:51:24
Speaker 2
Thank you very much, Robyn. Thank you for inviting me for this program. Thank you. Flow to the rest of the team for making this happen. I'll be talking today on the language as architecture and culture of windows in the transmission of indigenous building knowledge. And that is going to be from different perspectives of what language means to transmit 18 to look at practices that affect our buildings and how they are put together really so that it can be, you have in the current global crises that we going through.

00:04:51:24 - 00:05:21:15
Speaker 2
So this slide to show you so many of the as I go through you see so many of the reasons why language is of great importance in transmitting knowledge. Thank you. So I will be I will be scrolling one by one. I'll be as fast as I can. I bring you quotes as from architecture, as cultural assets. And I looked at what Norman Foster said.

00:05:21:24 - 00:05:48:07
Speaker 2
Architecture is an expression of values. The way we build is a reflection of the way we lead. Another quote from from Tom Main that supports this position is an architecture is a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it. And from the look up perspective of shooting, they always are. Who's a philosopher? He said.

00:05:48:07 - 00:06:22:12
Speaker 2
That man in society is the architect of programs and his observations. The design template for crafting that. So we see how those three new forms are pieces to underpin this discussion. And I material studies situated in the ethnic that the map shows the map shows you the map of Nigeria and the Yoruba in the West there and how I have brought it out for you to see.

00:06:22:12 - 00:06:59:14
Speaker 2
It's a much larger space. The demographics is that you by languages spoken by an estimated 40 million people in the West Africa region behind languages such as I was Swahili in the Niger parts of Africa. The other thing that is very peculiar there is that your language has been here. The story clearly affected that music. It has. It has been so much affected by all the influences from outside its borders.

00:06:59:24 - 00:07:27:24
Speaker 2
I had to choose some historical currencies and its continues to so far the same effect. Now that leads us to the coordinates on this specific points of relevance when it comes to language. Like I said before, the green dot here shows the cosmopolitanism of the Yoruba cities on settlements that are still growing as emerging cities or towns today.

00:07:28:10 - 00:08:02:06
Speaker 2
So on, I bring you a typical of an enlargement of the the templates of a Yoruba village or town, as it used to be called former from an Oxford Indigenous Study of Europe by 1962. And this is drawn out for you in the encore inter graphics. The center shows the the palace and like I said is a coordinates of reference and of relevance.

00:08:02:23 - 00:08:28:10
Speaker 2
The outer layers the outer layers shows the the settlements around your best files in the middle there. Why the E in that middle shows the Oba's palace and as it goes in that kind of commerce. So concentric development up onto the larger outlying areas that are used for farming, you know, which is the main occupation of the Yoruba people.

00:08:28:10 - 00:09:00:12
Speaker 2
So I quickly go back to language and the challenges of language in the local setting here. That's really what happened to language and became relegated to the position where we are finding difficult to use today. Before I go for that, I let you know that some of the language, the knowledge of your body language as it is, I have no direct or equal equal meaning in English.

00:09:00:12 - 00:09:53:19
Speaker 2
It cannot be directly or or Trussell Trust littered with the same meaning, you know. But I would try my best to bring it back to you in other simpler English steps. So those are one of the problems of of language in the local setting here. And that's the imposition of foreign values in the 19th century industrialization as is 17th century religious or colonial incursions, affected language it brought with it imported architecture language you description of the many parts of the building or even the construction methods, and also the it brought it an almost total abandonment of local materials.

00:09:54:12 - 00:10:25:24
Speaker 2
Don't forget that over 250 ethnics, you know, leaving Nigeria under about 300 Dalit across the six geopolitical zones, we find out that these people do it in different ways even before they are being affected by all of these influences from outside. So you find out that the the Yoruba of Yoruba, what would I call the Yoruba language, has been affected by English.

00:10:26:07 - 00:11:20:03
Speaker 2
Most dominantly English, most dominantly. And we see how you know, that that's in these graphics as English has become more enlarged in the society that is even displacing all that locally developed language and the desperate effects to also have its own. And that is why you find out in a place like outlying areas of Africa like ever wonder in the southern parts on many of the roads that many other countries of the globe us on has bilingual and it's it's it's gets to the fact that you know apart from local dialects you have a free show of visual language that was that also overshadows developmental layers in the local cities.

00:11:20:03 - 00:11:58:02
Speaker 2
So and that that tells us how language affected each street and how language has been used to to to preserve history, you know, in the Yoruba or layer of language where the components of many proverbs, we have language in proverbs verses the oldest, we have them in the aphorisms as a medium of communication. And then language is also a form of words that we put together in order to express or communicate knowledge or transfer of knowledge.

00:11:58:15 - 00:12:50:22
Speaker 2
You know, and many Yoruba towns exhibit a legible, vernacular principles of order. Even before these colonial incursions, which means that there were there was there's a veritable there was a veritable system of doing things of construction, you know, which which were in place before the colonial effects. So we see that how language also is is a force in creation, you know, creative forces in words are put together by, you know, all kinds of reasons, religious reasons, beliefs, customs and so many other things that affected our language.

00:12:51:07 - 00:13:31:13
Speaker 2
Language as a way of knowing also is is also a component that helps us to see how knowledge, sometimes conventional wisdom, sometimes dialectical approaches are brought to other people to understand and to see the description that needs to be arrived at. You know, before we move on to do any other assignment. So language is not only a form of meaningful communication, it is also an expression of sort of an embodiment of the culture becomes also Indian allegories.

00:13:31:20 - 00:14:00:24
Speaker 2
This is simple stories. The laws and the myths that that guide language and that are also components of language. How we see some things in your body that you might not really understand. But we tried as much as possible, like this one entity out of weak people. If I go to college, I love you. It's the translation of of to building typologies you find in that idiom.

00:14:01:18 - 00:14:44:13
Speaker 2
That said we have a hot I go means hot and the illy alarm is a is a kind of bigger motion that you reach might be able to be the offerings member of the society might be able to build. So these are just constructed in the elements of poetry as in there's a look of poetry that is regarded as a form of poetry that is authority, and most of the times the key is, is the, is the inspirational poetry that that that instigates or that lays the foundation for homesteads and also for even towns settlements.

00:14:44:24 - 00:15:33:15
Speaker 2
That's why you find that the Omalu I be who because the head of the of the of the of settlements mostly become the rulers. And yet it is in that hierarchy that the society as I pointed out before, organized. So you find out you can this you can deconstruct poetry, the elements of it to re games and all the other principles are the principles of architecture as we build in in the in the in the pictures that you see, I have case studies, but I'm going to dwell on too from optimistic in the west region of Nigeria and we're talking mostly on the on the about the law which is in this to photographs the

00:15:33:15 - 00:16:11:05
Speaker 2
other ones I'm using it to support the widespread issues that surround language and architectural language among the people. So I'm having some, some buzz words that like in the Yoruba, what is our goomba and also what does it mean to architecture? What does it mean to the well-being of the people? So I'm talking about the geography. We're talking about, you know, it has its roots in the 1970s and 1947 of presentations of of space and how it is created through native wisdom across the region.

00:16:11:05 - 00:16:35:04
Speaker 2
Or just use this time in in this country captures the use of the geo architectural knowledge. We're not when I'm seeing you, it means that it is only reference to these areas because every cultural, you know, soon will be and by extension, architects or non architects. I like to use them, you know, to do what they need to do.

00:16:35:11 - 00:17:25:17
Speaker 2
And you create cultural goods, create culture services and the maintenance thereof. So architecture as an idea is a practice that is influenced by look across what's but ones that are true, ones that are mystical, ones that could be religious or even secular, as you would find it in many Yoruba culture of Cordura outcomes. You know, it leads us to how are things made indigenous, how do we use our how do we use our native senses to do things in a way that we respond to our environment in the way that they become cultural goods to be preserved by the next generation?

00:17:26:03 - 00:18:02:19
Speaker 2
Language has always been the very. And then that is why it is it is it is dangerous for it to be left out of the development ideas of events. So the photographs here also let you see the costumes of across this domain that I'm describing, the Yoruba of the Southwest Nigeria. And then when we talk about language and heritage in local language, you know, it comes in many shapes.

00:18:03:15 - 00:18:41:20
Speaker 2
They are good at joking, but as I said before, simply means an item of value passed down by was our system. It comes in differentiates. It can be like a landmass like this. In this case, this is one of the settlements in Yoruba caricature. You know, it's us. It's a family. It has a landmass where you will find features of the landscape becoming elements of worship, you know, so they have ecological heritage with us in the farmlands and on the land itself.

00:18:42:04 - 00:19:25:05
Speaker 2
You know, in the homesteads you are supposed to hand down your your homes to the next generation as a real estate value, as a real estate asset. You know, religion itself, your social is spiritual asset, the people you live with. And we also find a way to use from generation to generation. Other things that are also important are the occupation, the the family trade that supports the language of architecture, you know, and how those things become useful to preserve a language that you in the Yoruba heritage abandons urbanism.

00:19:25:12 - 00:19:55:20
Speaker 2
You see that because most of the time the ideal and the practical ways or practical ideas that people use about the appropriate place of language. And it's a it's a it's a values as it trust meets them from the regional heritage plans leading to the renovation or regeneration of neighborhood neighborhoods, our villages or towns in the same geopolitical zone.

00:19:56:03 - 00:20:50:15
Speaker 2
You know, all these things are there. But the aim of this study quickly is to just bridge that gap between look at language and connection to cultural assets and how these services, if people I'll be focusing more on the architectural well-being of planning in rural urban communities on the issues of dialect, as has been said earlier, you know, so I presenting case studies of how these how language has been the instrument DB Being the oral vehicle, you know that you use, you use widely across the land here to to to to transmit on the like I said before, it's a it's this same language that, you know, constructs language constructs believe language is also a

00:20:51:06 - 00:21:19:05
Speaker 2
communication medium for for the belief system, for the customs, for the practices the visitors will come to you and describe what they want, whether at the societal level or even at the at the homestead level, at the family level, or even at the city level. So you find out that this the kinship philosophies underpins the inherited values and the meanings of these things to the people.

00:21:19:12 - 00:21:45:09
Speaker 2
So if you if you see African as it comes to bear on the new households, the indigenous as forms that you know is important to the people. And just to just to quickly show you some findings in the study so you see that the was 100% literate you you know, the beautiful life span in some of these are between 120 to 200 years.

00:21:45:17 - 00:22:18:04
Speaker 2
We have more, as you see, as we as when I when I present this light. Foundations are built on costumes and later on sun create hollow solid blocks. That was after the advent of the colonial incursions or the diasporic effects. You know, these are things that are being abandoned now. For example, this building was built around 1880 and is still standing, even though is is is is dilapidated.

00:22:18:04 - 00:23:06:03
Speaker 2
But it's been standing since 1800s. And because you see today, even at low sites you under the dangers that we face through abandonment is that look how buildings of importance like the palace you know when they are renovated you know as assumes an identity they become so much lost in values and in templates that you can hardly recognize them again, as buildings, civil buildings of of important entity values, because the language that the beauty speaks now is no longer the language of the people you're under.

00:23:06:03 - 00:23:34:15
Speaker 2
You can see that you are finished in new materials that are not climate friendly. That's also even though they are more durable, but they are not. They're speaking the language of the people. The character of the architecture is most. You are, you know, on even the landscape values, the landscape effect of the forests is lost. This used to be a representation of the forests.

00:23:34:15 - 00:24:10:00
Speaker 2
Now in the middle of town, urbanization and industrialization, even at the village level. So it's all these values and they all combine to affect the SDG goals that we are that we crave for in this current global crisis. The second Keystone these are is from or your briefly I will describe that because then we find out that building construction materials are methods are long around the Yoruba cosmopolitans settlements.

00:24:11:04 - 00:24:45:18
Speaker 2
They are also similar you know more laterite timber climate friendly materials I use in these in these building in the middle that's in your knees. And so that you use fortunes as foundations and you can use it to take the world high up to the lintel level, which are timber windows and sometimes with glass or composites of nails to our light, even when we lose our clues.

00:24:45:24 - 00:25:20:13
Speaker 2
And you can see how it translates into people who dress, you know, as it do. So traditional places, part of the poetics and the language legacy that you find by the degrees of we most of society, you know, I'm going for it. I use we see the effects on the on the on the hospitals. What is the ornamental language on beautiful how how how does cultural underscore heritage.

00:25:20:24 - 00:25:59:06
Speaker 2
You know in this stuff we saw there is no absolutely good culture and there there is no absolutely. So it means that there are very fundamental principles or values that can be taken from these the language of architecture and bring them to bear on the modern things that are being done. You are currently also considering the fact that these these values have climbed to benefits, let me put it that way.

00:25:59:07 - 00:26:45:15
Speaker 2
So you see our our culture and heritage, but the preservation of the language that the building society or the building culture speaks on the go to give us the Libyans. What I mean by Libyans are the character of, you know, the elements that you would find on the beauty, the easy, the moldings on fascia boards, the how our columns are put together, the DVD, the grooves that you find they are indigenous, the carvings that you see on the door, we can see these are of telling stories behind the drumbeats and ontology and practical inspiration of the construction language.

00:26:45:21 - 00:27:24:19
Speaker 2
So we see how that finds out. The major, one of my major, these is studies that I or palace and the ritual always is in location about 355 kilometers. You know, we're from Lagos in London, in which a population of about half a million, you know, and that's according to estimates. And this these are parts of the old palace pylos walls that are abandoned now, sadly abandoned for the new for the new pylons that you see in the next slides.

00:27:25:01 - 00:27:59:01
Speaker 2
Look at windows...you know, working with people from the Institutes of the African Diaspora studies these people we even discover that these these windows have a French origins in terms of the language how it's a you from French into you by language as you're about building language, be affected by all the language, you know, outside of this shows.

00:27:59:07 - 00:28:29:20
Speaker 2
So this is the old Colonial Palace. This used to be the forecourts, you know, where all kinds of tradition US ceremonies take place, where all kinds of activities, cultural activities take place, where it receives, you know, of course this is those on traditional days and these are one of the buildings that is already getting dilapidated now. And you can see the difference here is already now his son creates block walls.

00:28:29:20 - 00:29:11:18
Speaker 2
When in the alley on the slide, we saw we saw that it carried the look of essence. This is the old market in town. And you see how that affected the building, the character, how it was on the informal, you know, carries on informal language also of those of architecture, you know, some of times most most of the markets in Europe alone are just landscape open places with no permanent structures because it's like the land belongs to all.

00:29:11:18 - 00:29:41:18
Speaker 2
You can call on the display of market wares. And once you have done the reports back to the people or anyone who uses them after you, so you can see that the market has its own intangible language, both for its development or even for the construction of things around it. You know, and I'm showing you now the the new facade of the palace.

00:29:42:04 - 00:30:05:12
Speaker 2
This is the new facade of the palace. And how that that these is already being taken out completely, you know, taken out completely due to the fact that we don't have any semblance to what we are doing alone. You see me? Nor can I see yet.

00:30:05:12 - 00:30:06:12
Speaker 1
Yep. You're fine.

00:30:06:24 - 00:30:33:12
Speaker 2
Okay. Okay. I'm afraid that my lack of my windows. Sorry about that. I just want to be sure. So I'm letting you see the. The loss in language. This is not the language of the local people, the language of architecture or the language of the culture of the people that that this this building represent. This is the ultimate Yoruba palace, the ultimate your.

00:30:33:12 - 00:31:07:09
Speaker 2
Oh, let me say it. In other words, the palace is the ultimate Yoruba. It's the most central. It is the building around which all activities of the village or town or city should evolve. And that means that it must be should carry the language that people speak. So architecture of features, I'm very pleased by aluminum glass, you know, cement and so many other things that are alien or not according to the culture of the people.

00:31:07:24 - 00:31:31:13
Speaker 2
And there is the same thing you find in the new markets. This is the new market that is, you know, directly informed. Or I just say to the palace, you know, and all the civic buildings that constituted the civic brands around the place. This used to be the old post office, and this was what was built in this place.

00:31:31:21 - 00:31:58:24
Speaker 2
You can see the lost, you know, in the in the character, in the values and in the language of the people that builds to them. Going back to the indigenous forms, we have seen how the timber, how that timber pools, which is the Oba, you know, the row of the house does that, does that, does the structure around the house from are built?

00:31:58:24 - 00:32:26:13
Speaker 2
You can see that we have some very beams and divisions there and that that that's also, you know, let us see that language of architecture also is such a in the Yoruba and to argue I mean when a typical house which we see later on when typical houses builds you can see social species as one of the species in front.

00:32:26:14 - 00:33:01:08
Speaker 2
You see some people sitting around their front porches as a welcoming sign to friends and neighbors that this is a place of social belonging. You know, we belong to this area, that those are the language that the architecture speaks. Also, in times of the of the decorations, the motifs are you find around windows, around doors and all the other things are character or features that surround these or these a buildings.

00:33:01:21 - 00:33:51:13
Speaker 2
The other things that are also important is that you see the orientation of the quarters and also how these affect this the buildings in a way, this this is supposed to be a coronation. So a ceremonial roots for the king, Don, in new materials. That is not that that is alien to the people you see, and that is against the DB, the urban design of even of the of the Yoruba of Yoruba village in terms of how it is underpinned by the, the, the, the, the what I would call the idiom or the the metaphor.

00:33:51:20 - 00:34:26:23
Speaker 2
You look to the Kyoto mark, meaning that the voice of the good must be must reverberate around towns and villages do matter how big. This shows that your bottles are compact settlements you know that is pedestrian friendly that is easy to walk around they are not are to mobile or designed streets which is also a contribution to the climate friendliness of these cities or settlements as we can see that and it's also replicated in other parts of Africa, like this example from Rwanda.

00:34:26:23 - 00:34:59:01
Speaker 2
Rwanda, unfortunately to be or fortunately so has about four languages that has affected is beauty language. You know, the language of Rwanda, English, French and Swahili, you know. But when the indigenous people of Rwanda were going to reinterpret centuries of the Bible and the religious influences of Christianity on them, look out how they interpreted it. Look at the look at the columns, look at the character of the columns.

00:34:59:07 - 00:35:31:10
Speaker 2
Look at how paintings and ornamentation have been interpreted in these are all traditional church, you know, and we can see the village analogy in the way they brought the our language to bear on the architecture of the church, on the musculature. You see that from the Islamic perspective. This is a this is one of the oldest structures in Nigeria from Katsina, and it is called Global Mosque or Tower.

00:35:31:19 - 00:36:10:03
Speaker 2
You know, these three cities, it was built in Tartu century around 1848, which is also being evidently demonstrated here of the vernacular language that people have imbibed, even when they want to interpret the architectural language of other places. The the other things that we are bringing to you is also the the totem species and the architecture. I have reinterpreted architecture of out of of Yoruba houses here and letting you see these parts in, in the knowledge of the Yoruba people.

00:36:11:01 - 00:36:45:15
Speaker 2
What do I mean. The roof is literally the totem. The totem pole. Yeah. Which is Lekki, which is like a column that carries the front porch of the building is, is open. Why the base which is like the base of the normal global not column is called talk here reinterpreted them you look at language and the capital around the top Dakar is the groove of dreams is the issue and it is based on a plain Yoruba idiom or metaphor.

00:36:45:15 - 00:37:13:13
Speaker 2
What I see is the holy roof. You know how that what it is, is an invisible language that rules. The House is an invisible part of the House that we is very, very structurally important to. How it helps the language of architecture. One of the one of the masters of architecture in in in Nigeria by way of demos local.

00:37:13:24 - 00:37:47:08
Speaker 2
You know, I have spent about four, four days studying his work and he brought it out in the modern way of how great Yoruba mud or Laterite walls can also be translated into modern expressions, you know, which is how you use your stones and, and blocks down as your foundation on which you cannot build a freely ornamented walls.

00:37:47:15 - 00:38:35:24
Speaker 2
If you look at this wall closely, you will see what I would call abstract art on them and how the walls have been covered against the tropical rain of this facade. West region to to to ensure that this building as this standing for the past 50 years and is still going on strong, you know, built of mud of laterite on concrete, stone, foundation and drainage around to make sure that this stones so we see how he has used them in different forms in blocks solid laterite blocks with a mix of cement, which is a reduction in the carbon emitting products that you're building.

00:38:36:06 - 00:39:09:24
Speaker 2
And how he has them are fancifully or creatively used then you know as alternative to screen walling. And how he has also used the Yoruba courtyard system even inside the house to make sure that you are there. You see synergy in terms of indoor and outdoor use. These are the these are the facade of these buildings and how that one affected is the character you can see the most beautiful when the doors closed.

00:39:10:11 - 00:39:58:06
Speaker 2
There is still there is still a room through the air, through these dances. There is still room for air to flow in behind the or through the mosquito nets. These are characters of windows of those of your right interpretation. You know how they are treated from all the you find these character across major Europe settlements and especially towns of food and also throughout to the windows you see cement plasters, mud walls, steel with some ornamentation and how the character of the windows actually stop the hot, humid climate that we have.

00:39:58:17 - 00:40:37:13
Speaker 2
You know, like I said before, you know, these are to embarrass the timber roofing that, you know, naturally courts and they are the building, they are the timber types that are not easily affected by termites on all the other home minutes that happens in the tropical ise roofing methods where you use a combination of little cement on mud walls with the timber to carry the small shed roof as you as you might also see more elaborately there on these ladders.

00:40:37:13 - 00:41:31:07
Speaker 2
So I'm letting you see how confusing at odds are fuzed with architecture. These these are motifs that you see around and speak in the whole language of architectural character, you know, and how it goes. There is also a measure of I see look at trees. So in architecture, what do I mean by that? It is the look at traits of textile on fashion styles, the ornamentation, carving on sculpture in iron mondriaan, blacksmiths, or the pottery window and all those things that all those elements that constitute the trade of the people because they are directly the handiwork or the handicraft of the people and how they are translated into a particular language, you know, indeed demands,

00:41:31:14 - 00:42:07:11
Speaker 2
you know, the creativity of contemporary architects and also we saw the tools of the trade. You know, this is a cover in or you're, you know, walking on the calabash. You know, that is also a decorative item for coronation and all those things. These these tools have their names written on them as as presented and also, you know, this is your rhubarb card column, you know, as found in there in the in one of the hands over your back.

00:42:07:11 - 00:42:38:10
Speaker 2
Cultural promoters said so some day and these are the handiwork of the look at trades on how you know for example, there's a lock here that sits on the on the doors, the main doors to guard against the domestic animals of the Yoruba ethnic live in the house so it can be closed. And this also also to guide children from screen, from the houses into the community.

00:42:38:16 - 00:43:14:07
Speaker 2
The communal attachment is also strong there. So I'll let you see the character of the windows. You know I'll look at rid of the covers affect strongly affect those production on the I will be ending with a framework as a framework matter I try to highlight on how these things can be used is. Essentially a framework of first of all, we need to document the language and its meaning, meaning to the people identification.

00:43:14:07 - 00:43:51:07
Speaker 2
We need to identify the stakeholders as institute and then we need to find a way how the local philosophy will underpin our interpretation of this thing, of this architectural language. To be meaningful in contemporary times, we need to see the perception how will people see, what do they really want to look for and how these are produced, you know, to, to, to, to for ecotourism and also for, for the issues of generating the prosperity around the works of the people.

00:43:51:17 - 00:44:28:05
Speaker 2
And lastly, to develop it for a policy for Heritage Agency for the preservation and the well-being of the people. We're concerned about all of these are own and inclusive and entity language infrastructure. So I will I will be closing with this slide to these architecture, language, indigenous. There's so many questions that is raised. What is the value of architecture and architecture where we are in every language, even in our pedagogy, that is devoid of historic preservation?

00:44:28:17 - 00:44:55:17
Speaker 2
What is the value? These are these are all facade of these are these are all facade of all that has been destroyed to be replaced by new ones. And the conclusion is the language of the move immobile heritage is the admiration of group of cultural goods and services, primarily for the cultural well-being and livelihood of a people language.

00:44:55:17 - 00:45:25:22
Speaker 2
As a resource and repertoire for the transmission of productive knowledge, an idea is key for reaching coming generations. It is important to adopt and harmonize prehistory, low carbon building processes prevalent in many indigenous civilization of the Global South, with modern capabilities towards achieving much needed climate aspirations. So I will be rounding off the thank you for speaking me to these and inviting me for these.

00:45:25:22 - 00:45:26:18
Speaker 2
Thank you, Robyn.

00:45:27:12 - 00:45:59:07
Speaker 1
Thank you. Okay, lady, that's extraordinary. Actually, I'm I'm busy thinking of how we see the same thing here and how we see an amazing amount of change. When you see the colonial things, what you're seeing is actually post-industrial, colonial saying where already we've lost the similar built forms in our Western societies, and then we have global north societies and then we exported that.

00:46:00:13 - 00:46:22:16
Speaker 1
It's very interesting. But anyway, we have a question sitting there in the chat for you and I. Simple question to start off. Will we get our brains around all of this? And that is, is the architect, you say, the equal and fruitful day? I hope that's pronounced not too badly spoken, noticeably different to where Europe is spoken.

00:46:22:16 - 00:46:25:23
Speaker 2
But can you hear me?

00:46:26:04 - 00:46:26:22
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:27:00 - 00:47:04:00
Speaker 2
There are the equal architecture and from the from the language of the materials and is very close in terms of, in terms of the use of materials, you know, the laterite, the property of that region, the use of the timber. If you straight got timber from from the forest, you know, dressed in particular, we used to do that, you know, so that there's a little bit of similarity based on the fact that cultural affiliation is cultural interpretation.

00:47:04:08 - 00:47:33:10
Speaker 2
You have slight differences. And it is it is also something that is worth looking at again, to to see the similarities. But one thing that I'm sure of is in the use of materials, even up to the north in parts of Nigeria, the Laterite or the Adobe, the mud as a building material is usually very prominent in how people use it.

00:47:33:10 - 00:47:42:11
Speaker 2
The interpretations and the method of construction may be slightly different, but it's usually very close to the times of use.

00:47:43:00 - 00:47:47:16
Speaker 1
Hmm. That's really interesting. A Dalit did you want to.

00:47:48:05 - 00:48:16:07
Speaker 3
Thank you so much more? Claudia That was really, really interesting. And for someone who's also grown up in Africa, it's such a beautiful thing to see these structures. And also, as Robyn showed very early, the translation and how these things actually we're not we're always thinking things have to be particularly special, but actually this innate knowledge that we have is is experienced everywhere around the globe.

00:48:16:17 - 00:48:45:16
Speaker 3
And I think one of the things that strikes me and because maybe I approach this a little bit differently, is this the change? Because we are seeing change changes on the horizon. Change has been, you know, language, I think I've read it's not that we talk about evolution of language, but a change of language is we're influenced. And this idea that architecture is that language and you present some things that are absolutely aesthetically beautiful.

00:48:46:02 - 00:49:16:16
Speaker 3
And I know from the African experience we are projecting going forward that we are going to see an explosion in population relative to other areas of the world that we are going to see the African population moving from something like 16% of the world population to 40. So there is change is on its way. How do we accommodate that in the current language that we're speaking?

00:49:16:24 - 00:49:44:16
Speaker 3
And I'm always approaching it from a pragmatic perspective as well as kind of retaining your heritage, retaining that language and the things that make you special, the pride, the identity. How do you see this going forward? Because, I mean, I've read some kind of quite scary statistics that suggest that there is going to be a lot happening, a lot of development in Africa.

00:49:45:02 - 00:50:03:00
Speaker 3
And how do we ensure that this that we don't fall into the traps that other places have, but are able to accommodate people, able to give people happy lifestyles, whatever that may mean.

00:50:03:00 - 00:50:34:01
Speaker 2
Okay. Thank you for your question. That's a very interesting question. I'm not an heretic, but but I would attempt to give you my own views based based on my studies. And, you know, the research that we do working on, you know, when, when, when, when these set of people lose their language for whatever, raising a lot of values, you know, feed with it.

00:50:34:20 - 00:51:03:08
Speaker 2
And it is very important that the it is very important that we we for for development in Africa or in the global south. As you mentioned, it is very important that we keep everything we strategically are built up so that we don't even destroy the environment. The more because the currently ever good everyone is working towards the highest goals.

00:51:03:15 - 00:51:51:02
Speaker 2
How do we lower the the the the carbon and the carbon index? How do we make the climate more more friendly? So my take is when you look at those aspirations for development, it is very important that we need to go towards the low carbon and methods of building no matter how or no matter what we want. Because if I if I tell you my own and I'm thinking about urbanization, I think as it is alarming that at present we are we are going towards, you know, over 50%.

00:51:51:09 - 00:52:31:05
Speaker 2
You note, in the open areas what to be done. If we if you look at one of my maps, you see that there's already a cosmopolitanism in the way the Yoruba said to you and there are there are green spaces deliberately verdant areas that are left for natural food production, that are left to to ensure that the settlements breed not to run, and that there's a symbiotic relationship between development and how how we.

00:52:31:05 - 00:53:06:03
Speaker 2
Yes, how this this this this shows exactly that. How thank you. That's out these this is the this is the core area of development. You discover that the yorubas built around the built inside forest in terms of how, you know, they allow what is called equity equitably. I would mention it to Yoruba Lagos Music Farm that is very close to the house for my daily and for my daily needs, fresh vegetables and all the other things that are close to me.

00:53:06:12 - 00:53:35:01
Speaker 2
You know, sometimes it is good for, you know, for, for, for the nutrition, for for nutrition. Then the other outer outlying areas are like the commercial farming where you have farm in large big ask you now what we find behind the houses and close to the homesteads, you understand. So it's very important that you do even urban design.

00:53:35:10 - 00:54:05:10
Speaker 2
Urban redesign should try to stem the tide of urbanization towards this exclusion. Now we are freedom because at the end of the day, you know, it's might be something that nobody is able to cope with because you let all the development ideas get out of hand. Yeah. So so if I look at it that way, I think it is just like really reversal urbanization that needs to take place without the building level.

00:54:06:04 - 00:54:12:10
Speaker 2
The use of building materials is imminent. We must learn to use natural materials and so on.

00:54:13:08 - 00:54:54:24
Speaker 1
This is so yeah, this is so interesting when you look at the changes in the industrial revolution here where they enclosed the commons, which was where people used to grow that small amount of food for themselves and they deliberately, as it put that into, the ownership of a few rich people, which forced people into a dependency, it's very this very interesting book called La Crise, where she documents that and there are other books of where people still remember this change and how it led to the loss of a certain level of riches.

00:54:55:05 - 00:55:01:23
Speaker 1
You know, riches isn't just money, but also the ability to look after yourself.

00:55:01:23 - 00:55:03:17
Speaker 2
And I think that you quite clearly.

00:55:04:23 - 00:55:36:17
Speaker 1
So it's probably a two long one. We should pick it up though, because I think this relates to what we can see happening in the industrial revolution in countries like England and how that has led us into some odd places. I was thinking with language like when you had the map of the house and words like bedroom. And so and in the past we didn't really define things in that way except if you were very rich.

00:55:37:09 - 00:56:12:21
Speaker 1
And as we've started saying, a room has to be like that. We we've become very aspirational and suddenly we get more and more. I saw a horrible thing the other day where there was a in The New York Times where Erin Carey DJing people to have a second kitchen. So it's the big show kitchen. Didn't look dirty when people came over that all the actual work was done in the kitchen and you get so there is something even here that that is happening with language that I don't think we're paying attention to.

00:56:13:00 - 00:56:27:08
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah, this is a question from Sara. It sort of almost touches on that. I think she's she's asked, how do you see China's Belt and Road Initiative change in the architectural language and impact on the historic environment?

00:56:28:00 - 00:56:28:14
Speaker 1
Oh.

00:56:29:18 - 00:57:03:11
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, the Chinese way of reading typewritten colonialism, for example, you know, is is is an example of what, you know, can be done to also bring out the indigenous language. You know, that is peculiar to every every is every civilization, you know. So in that way, we are able to see the peculiar things that, you know, is of advantage from every location.

00:57:04:01 - 00:57:39:03
Speaker 2
You know, one one of the one of the problems of eradicating language of you local people, wherever they may be, is the fact that you build an inferiority complex, a cultural shock kind of issue with them, and they begin to see what they have as inferior to other places. Meanwhile, they are also responding in their own way, in their own wisdom, to look how climatic or look at climatic requirements for them to be able to survive then.

00:57:39:11 - 00:58:29:22
Speaker 2
So at the end of the day, it's choking other languages out of the architecture, language, syllabus or system. You know, limits these ideas in the way that, you know, we cannot even begin to see the ramifications of such disadvantage. So for the Chinese what the Chinese proposals I see, I see it's more of a vernacular approach which all the other Dalits should also pick up because I'm I can tell you that what's, what people look at in houses is not maybe, for example, in England, how I relate to my father's house is not the same way somebody from England relates to their family house.

00:58:29:22 - 00:59:03:12
Speaker 2
The values that we attach to each in the Yoruba city is different. That's why you find out that you can not wake up once and just the same you want to sell or you put your family sister our home for sale, you know. And for example, that is affecting the generation of in our towns, in big cities in Lagos, in Ibadan, in so many other places, because of the forbidding situation around indigenous ownership of the buildings.

00:59:04:05 - 00:59:20:21
Speaker 2
So I think we need to find a synergy in how this even be built into our educational training system. The language vocabulary can be rebuilt, you know, and you can do new technologies that we have today.

00:59:21:19 - 00:59:43:08
Speaker 1
Oh, this is I I noticed that, Jane, in the talk, she made the most wonderful comment. I was thinking that was quite a good place to finish on because I know that people will be heading off shortly with the end of the hour. We could keep talking about this, I think for day. I think this is something that we need to pick up more strongly.

00:59:44:06 - 01:00:16:16
Speaker 1
But I was really taken with Jane's comment and it would be nice to hear you say something about that to finish. She says that this has given us really great food for thought that education through standard text is a very blunt instrument for transmitting knowledge. And we're lucky now to have technology to communicate person to person. So what I was wondering is, what do you think is the potential for some of the new communication technologies that we never had in the past, like film to transmit knowledge?

01:00:16:16 - 01:00:19:21
Speaker 1
That is hard to put into words or the words have gone missing?

01:00:20:07 - 01:00:51:23
Speaker 2
Yeah, I really I very much agree with you, which is part of the is part of this research that we are documenting some things you do you you put them in and small shot short videos for example looking at the person or or for, you know, a short video of someone using timber as it's as if as a part of building material for for small scale residential buildings.

01:00:52:05 - 01:01:17:10
Speaker 2
You know, we need to put them in a readable format that can be shared in in a good classroom for them to transfer the knowledge transmission. And so I think the be the place of our current technology is, is, is, is very, very germane in how we we use it to satisfy these kind of aspirations.

01:01:17:19 - 01:01:34:18
Speaker 1
Oh, it's so nice. It's a nice note to end on that instead of thinking of building technology as being high energy stuff that we add to buildings, that it can be about how we transmit knowledge and understanding, especially since we've got to learn fast or relearn fast as well.

01:01:34:19 - 01:01:36:07
Speaker 2
Yes, yes, yes.

01:01:36:15 - 01:01:56:05
Speaker 1
Well, sir, thank you so much. That's just brilliant. But I think we really have to pick up a lot of these things because there's a lot going on in the chat too, with people finding those parallels that we need to pursue. So I'm sure everyone is thinking of questions and ideas.

01:01:56:15 - 01:02:04:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, if we bring up the questions, maybe you compiled them. We're going to talk and talk about them. You know.

01:02:04:02 - 01:02:19:08
Speaker 1
We will do that was certainly do some of that on the website as well. So on the website with the recordings. But I think we'll think of ways of extending this conversation as well because I think this is really important for us all and we're all learning.