Nieuw lid: Antoni Folkers

Antoni Folkers (1960), is an architect and urban designer. He commenced his studies in art and art history at John Carroll University in Cleveland and obtained his masters in Architecture cum laude at Delft University in 1986. He commenced his professional career as researcher and designer in Ouagadougou before joining the Institute for Tropical Building (IFT) of Dr G Lippsmeier in Starnberg, Germany. For Lippsmeier he became Resident Architect for East Africa in 1988. In 1992, together with Belinda van Buiten and later Geoffrey Wilks, he founded FBW Architects with offices in Manchester, Dar es Salaam, Utrecht, Kampala and Kigali (www.fbwgroup.com). Since, he has been director and senior designer in the firm. The firm has won various awards for their innovative projects in the field of technology, culture and the public realm in African and Europe.

 

In 2001, together with colleagues Janneke Bierman, Belinda van Buiten, Berend van der Lans and Joep Mol, he founded ArchiAfrika, platform for research and news on African architecture (www.archiafrika.org). In 2010, the management of ArchiAfrika was handed over to network partners and Belinda van Buiten, Berend van der Lans and Antoni Folkers founded African Architecture Matters a Netherlands based foundation active in organizing and executing research, events, exhibitions and publications on African architecture (www.aamatters.info).

 

Antoni Folkers published a wide range of articles on architectural subjects, as well as (co-)edited the proceedings of the African Perspectives events of Dar es Salaam (2005), Kumasi (2007), Delft (2007) and Pretoria (2009). In 2010 he published two works on African architecture. The findings of the research and conservation works on Zanzibar in Mtoni - Palace, Sultan & Princess of Zanzibar and Modern Architecture in Africa on his 25 years of building and research experience in Africa. The latter book is the basis of his PhD (2011) on the research of projects in Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Ethiopia at the Delft University of Technology. He is currently guest lecturer and researcher at Delft, Maputo and Pretoria Universities. Recently, he wrote the chapter on Central and Eastern Africa in the BBVA Atlas -- Architectures of the 21st Century, Africa and Middle East (Luis Fernández-Galiano (Ed.)) and, together with philosopher Heinz Kimmerle, the book Heer Bommel in Afrika – Religie en geloof in Marten Toonders universum en het Afrikaans animisme.