Lesley Lokko, the Scottish-Ghanaian architect, curator of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, and the first Black woman to receive the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, has recently launched Nomadic African Studio, an educational program for young architects. The initiative is organized by Lokko’s African Futures Institute (AFI) and is inspired by her experience establishing the Biennale College Architettura in 2023, a program for graduate students, recent graduates, early-career academics, and emerging practitioners to explore new possibilities for architectural education, which has also been continued for the 2025 edition. Nomadic African Studio consists of a series of fully funded, month-long studios across the African continent, “basing locations on themes, rather than places.” The first edition is set to begin in July 2025, in Fez, Morocco.
To accommodate differences in academic calendars between the Global North and Global South and to respond to weather conditions in various locations, the series of studios will take place annually in either July/August or January/February. The program is aimed at graduate-level students, practitioners, and academics under the age of 35, offering “an opportunity to explore ideas in a focused, supportive, and experimental format.” Activities include project design, seminars, lectures, trips, readings, films, and conversations, all conducted across the African continent. These will be guided by tutors working in pairs with small groups of 6 to 8 participants, facilitating studies on critical issues such as cultural identity, migration, displacement, climate change, race and social equity, public health, governance, and city-making, through an inter-, trans-, and multidisciplinary teaching approach.
The first Studio will center on the contested concept of the Maghreb, seeking to spatially construct new models of identity, culture, and nationhood. It will take place in Fez, Morocco, from 18 July to 15 August 2025. Applicants were selected through two channels: a nominating committee and an open call held in February 2025, with an emphasis on achieving geographic diversity, particularly prioritizing participants from Africa and the African diaspora, all under the age of 35. Nomadic African Studio covers the costs of lodging, travel, and meals, with support from Rolex’s Perpetual Arts Initiative, Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
The experience will be led by the core faculty of the African Futures Institute, a team of academics and practitioners who have developed the Institute’s teaching programs. Headed by Lesley Lokko, the core faculty of Nomadic African Studio includes Patti Anahory, Sean Anderson, Dr. Jhono Bennett, Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Meriem Chabani, Aziza Chaouni, Ngillan Faal, Thireshen Govender, Ana Monrabal-Cook, Samir Pandya, and Rahesh Ram. In addition to the core faculty, the program includes an international Critics Cohort comprising 19 academics and practitioners who visit the studios on a rotating basis. All work produced during the Studio will be archived in the African Futures Institute’s digital archive and made publicly available on its website, including lectures and final reviews. The program also offers participants the opportunity to take part in a closing exhibition and publish their work in FOLIO: Journal of Contemporary African Architecture.
Lesley Lokko was recently named to the BBC’s list of the most inspiring and influential women of 2024, and was recognized, alongside Marina Tabassum, on TIME’s 2024 list of the 100 most influential people. She curated the first Venice Architecture Biennale focused on African culture, titled The Laboratory of the Future, in 2023. During the opening week of this new edition of the Venice Biennale, ArchDaily editors had the opportunity to hear her perspective on architecture awards at the “Beyond The Prize” event.
Cite: Antonia Piñeiro. “Lesley Lokko Launches Nomadic African Studio to Lead Architecture Workshops Across Africa” 17 Jun 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed .
