Abstract
This paper examines the future of cities by shifting the focus to the African continent. The aim is to consider African cities as places for exploring new imaginaries and new ways of inhabiting the world. This reflection comes at a crucial time for these cities, which have to cope with demographic growth, the urgency of the climate crisis and the global rise in the price of materials, with criticism of the concrete and cement industry, one of the most polluting in the world... But these African cities are also places where alternatives and new possibilities are emerging, inspired by the cultural and artistic revival led by the Afrofuturism movement, or in architecture, with the recognition of African (vernacular) architecture, through the figures of Francis Kéré, winner of the 2022 Pritzker Prize, and Lesley Lokko, curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023. This talk offers a few pointers for deciphering the city of the future, which will certainly be African...
