The Architectural and Urban development of Dakar

Excerpts from “Dakarmorphose”, a research project carried by architects Carole Diop and Nzinga Mboup

December - March 2023

For our archive room, Selebe Yoon presents parts of Carole Diop and Nzinga Mboup's architectural research. Since 2018, the duo have undertaken "Dakarmorphose", a series of investigations focused on the genesis of the city of Dakar and its metamorphoses. The Lebou culture and its territorial dynamics are at the center of this investigation as the Lebou are considered the indigenous people of the Cape Verdean peninsula. Their research work has taken the form of several editions, presented at different artistic events including the Dakar Arts Biennale of 2018, the second entitled “Contrast City” at the Dakar Partcours of 2018, the third “Deuk Raw: la Cité Refuge” at the Dakar Partcours of 2019 and finally the one on urban memories of displacement at the Dakar Arts Biennale of 2022. Thus, this archive room at Selebe Yoon traces the displacement endured by the local population and the development of the city, the spatial and cultural functioning of the pencs (traditional Lebou villages) that have resisted the displacement imposed by the colonial administration and two testimonies of descendants of families who lived through the displacement of the Penc from the plateau to the medina in 1914.

About the architects

Carole Diop

Carole Diop is an architect that graduated from L'École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Val de Seine (Paris, France) and works and lives in Dakar. She is the founder of “Afrikadaa”, an interactive contemporary art, design and architecture magazine that redefines the relationship between territories, ideas and artistic movements.  . Carole Diop chairs the Afrikadaa association in Dakar, which actively participates in the cultural life Senegalese. In December 2021 Carole initiates the "Balades Architecturales", guided tours that combine history and architecture. She also participates in the Partcours, an annual artistic event that brings together several Dakar art spaces, since 2015.

Nzinga Mboup

Nzinga Mboup is a Senegalese-Cameroonian architect based in Dakar since 5 years. After studying at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), she worked for two years in Johannesburg, before continuing with a master's degree in architecture at the University of Westminster in London. She then worked for three years at Adjaye Associates in London. In 2018, she formed WOROFILA, a collective of architects and engineers specialized in construction in earth and other materials bio-sourced, with the aim of promoting a sustainable architecture and in harmony with the climate. Nzinga is a researcher and author with the architect Carole Diop of DAKARMORPHOSE, a research work on evolution Lébou villages and urban and cultural heritage of the city of Dakar, which will have been the subject of exhibitions during Dak’Art 2018 and 2022 the Partcours editions in 2018 and 2019. Nzinga is also co-author of the HABITER DAKAR study, which retraces the urban history of Dakar and raises the conditions criticism of the housing issue.