Across much of the 'Global South', architecture tends to operate at the intersection of two oft-misunderstood conditions: precarity and fragility, each yielding a distinct set of possibilities and consequences. Precarity signals a lack or an absence of support, a logistical vulnerability embedded in years systemic neglect, both continuing and colonial. Fragility, by contrast, suggests the presence of vulnerability emerging within environments shaped by political instability, ecological volatility, and displacement. Within both these zones, architecture becomes a form of resistance, a strategy of reinvention and a negotiation with the unstable ground on which it stands.

The experience of building with precarity, as reflected in a recent interview with Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo, offers a useful parallel to building through fragility. In Lagos, where Oshinowo hails from, a historically enforced lack of infrastructure, resources and state presence has necessitated resilient, ground-up design strategies. Much like in fragile contexts marked by political unrest and environmental uncertainty, these conditions give rise to architectural responses that are agile, deeply local and responsive to flux; not despite adversity, but precisely because of it.

It is within this continental landscape that the inaugural Pan-African Architectural Biennale, set to launch in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2026, positions itself. In an exclusive conversation with STIR, Somali-Italian architect and researcher Omar Degan, who is curating the Biennale's inaugural edition, explains that the platform is intended as more than an architectural exhibition; it is touted to be a site of narrative repair. Where architectural biennales at large have often echoed Eurocentric curatorial models, Degan’s vision hopes to mark a radical shift. “The idea”, he tells STIR, “is to provide a voice to the unvoiced; to all those people that maybe do great work, but haven’t had access to a platform.”

In this context, simply participating in spatial discourse becomes an act of assertion. The biennale’s theme, From Fragility to Resilience, reflects its commitment to reframing African architecture not through reductive tropes of crisis, but through histories and practices of endurance, memory and imagination.

Wherever there is the extreme fragility of a community, there is also the extreme resilience of it. – Omar Degan

Degan’s practice, DO Architecture Group, engages with the complexities of tradition, displacement and spatial equity, with built work across Somalia and the Horn of Africa. In Hargeisa, the Wave House draws from coastal geometries to create a home adapted to airflow, privacy and cultural habits. In Mogadishu, a maternity ward for an under-resourced hospital introduces spatial clarity and care into the experience of childbirth, aligning medical function with local expectations. These works, among others, are informed by context; by patterns of living, building and adaptation already in place. Fragility, in the architect’s view, emerges through long-term exposure to neglect and disruption rather than immediate collapse. Within such landscapes, architecture acts with urgency. It supports presence, reinforces agency and holds space for continuity where other systems have withdrawn.

In Degan’s view, African built environments have long been misread by global systems invested in their marginalisation. He challenges dominant narratives that portray African contexts as defined by deficit or unavailability. “There is no scarcity in the Global South,” he tells STIR. “Things have either been taken away or deliberately not leveraged. Scarcity is not the absence of material or knowledge; it’s a misrepresentation of presence.”

That critique carries into the structure of the biennale itself. Each national pavilion will begin with an equal budget and footprint, ensuring that lesser-known or emerging practices are not overshadowed by institutions with greater visibility. He emphasises that the focus is on parity and redistribution, not prestige with curatorial authorship decentralised across geographies. The main pavilion at the Biennale, notably, will spotlight only African architectural practices, establishing a symbolic and structural counterpoint to dominant Global North-facing discourse.

In this way the architectural biennale deliberately avoids borrowing from global biennale templates. It sets its own terms, eschewing canon-building in favour of collective expression and shared ground. Resisting “hero narratives”, it draws attention to knowledge that is iterative and often undocumented—a crucial stance where archives have been erased or were never written—something that Degan insists must begin not with blueprints, but with memory, ritual and the local vernacular.

For Degan, architecture is as ethical as it is technical. In contexts where humanitarian aid has often replaced local agency, design can risk becoming a form of soft power, a well-meaning imposition that translates nuance into generic protocols. He calls for a decentralised architectural language grounded in specificity. International design handbooks, particularly, too often ignore the granular spatial, cultural and climatic variances that define the regions they claim to serve, Degan argues. “You move 100 kilometres and everything changes the language, food, architecture, climate,” he notes, affirming that there can be no singular design solution.

As a travelling institution, the biennale will move across African nations biennially, intended not as a fixed event but as a mobile platform that adjusts to its host environment. It will reflect the transience, multiplicity and decentralisation of African architectural voices. The Pan-African Architecture Biennale will also include contributions from collectives, student groups and informal practitioners often excluded from mainstream architectural platforms, alongside official pavilions.

This rejection of architectural elitism extends into education. Many African schools of architecture, Degan notes, still rely on outdated colonial-era curricula that favour Western modernist references over local or regional ones. He argues for an epistemic shift in architectural education, citing the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Just as biodiversity must be preserved for planetary resilience, architecture must be protected through plural and situated knowledge systems.

In that spirit, the biennale also seeks to function as a counter-archive, bearing special cognisance of places where archives have been erased or were never written, wherein architecture must begin with listening. Its purpose is not to define a singular ‘African style’, but to amplify multiplicity. It seeks to uncover what has been forgotten, to legitimise what is informal and to affirm the experimental. That includes engagement with indigenous construction technologies often excluded from dominant sustainability narratives. Bamboo, rammed earth and tropical passive design methods frequently dismissed as “non-compliant” are, in the African architect’s view, profoundly intelligent. They are embedded with centuries of climatic knowledge, resource stewardship and cultural symbolism.

Looking ahead, the biennale will also include a dedicated programme on African futures with a focus on how cities and rural territories are imagined, shaped and sustained. For Degan, planning for the continent’s future cannot rely on delayed responses or inherited paradigms. It requires deliberate, long-term thinking and policy frameworks that anticipate change rather than absorb its impact.

Equally central to this vision is the rural. The architect cautions against urbanisation as the only goal or prerogative for progress, emphasising that rural exodus is often driven by the absence of opportunity as opposed to aspiration. Investing in rural education, healthcare and infrastructure is not a counterpoint to urban development, but a part of the same equation. In this, the Pan-African Architecture Biennale signals an expanded field of concern; not only where architecture is practised but where it is made possible. Its task is not to dictate a future of African cities, but to create the conditions for multiple futures to be imagined, tested and built across diverse terrains and timelines.

Click on the cover video to watch the full conversation with Omar Degan.