By Dr Michelina Andreucci

FROM time immemorial, indigenous Zimbabweans created integrated building systems organically integrated with the surrounding landscape.
While this knowledge was passed on orally to selected individuals who showed a flare for design and building, this valuable traditional knowledge was unfortunately not recorded on paper.
The designers of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami, Naletale, Ziwu and other great stone citadels of power in the past, showed a conceptual felicity and strength of execution in their buildings and distinguished stone architecture.
Colonial architecture disenfranchised African culture and ubuntu/hunhu by virtue of its structure and configuration.
The history of architecture in Zimbabwe is important in that it endows the scholar with grounding in the development of the building craft and technology from an indigenous point of view.
In my line of profession, interior design, I have often come across electricians, plumbers, builders and other building-design tradesmen who might not see their trade as having a Zimbabwean identity.
This is largely because the study of building, architecture, construction and related fields has been inherited from a Euro-centric geographical position that may not have anything to do with the terrain of Zimbabwe, in terms of its climatic and geographical conditions, suitable for local housing structures.
It stands to reason therefore, that education based on foreign conditions is useless if it is not applicable to our daily needs and life.
As demand for housing in Zimbabwe increases, the pressure on designers, builders, engineers and architects will increase with the ever-growing population.
However, we need to ascertain a functional and efficient national design concept to build adequate, durable, practical and affordable housing for our Nation.
One of the most remarkable aspects of traditional architecture was that the entire community was seconded for inclusion in the design process.
As such, the architectural construction became a product that met the needs of the community.
This philosophy is contrary to the colonial Western-imposition of individualistic design in civic spaces to suit their perception of indigenous people, with foreign design structures imposed on the indigenous people, albeit un-consulted.
To meet increased housing demands in future, design co-operatives, building firms and indigenous companies need to develop new skills, better management, procurement, supply and construction that are based on indigenous people’s needs and lifestyles.
The old adage: ‘Design is a necessity and not a luxury and that, all told, good design eventually costs less than bad design’, cannot be better echoed and amplified as it is in the architectural genius at Great Zimbabwe, where architectural design is integrated within an organic architectural indigenous philosophy, where the use of space, climatic conditions and the natural surroundings were holistically integrated into the design of the habitat.
While Zimbabwe is traditionally known for excelling in design in our cultural artefacts, cultural material, furniture, housing and terrigenous landscape architecture, it is found wanting in the contemporary situation, where housing structures and locations are colonially designed for servitude as opposed to living.
Our new school curriculum should be able to harness this indigenous architectural knowledge via the education system to create uniquely Zimbabwean residential homes for the people.
A significant improvement to the quality of life for the average Zimbabwean would be the result of a dedicated study of Zimbabwean traditional and civic architecture from antiquity to the present.
The training of design professionals feeds off various disciplines of art and sciences in a nexus which still needs to be consolidated in our educational curriculum.
In colonial education system pre-1980, technical drawing used to be inculcated in the art syllabus and exhibited as ‘new design’ exhibitions.
Zimbabwe needs to take a leaf out of the pages of that syllabus and create industrial design and technical educational programmes at vocational level and in primary and tertiary educational institutions from an indigenous perspective.
One of the problems most professional designers face is that they speak a different language to that of financial administrators.
The technical specificity of their language creates a distance between Government and private sector administrators, bankers and sponsors.
It is therefore important that design awareness programmes become a cross-cutting issue in Government training and education programmes.
The underlying philosophy of ubuntu/hunhu means we can no-longer build houses of servitude in the ubiquitous derogatory ‘colonial khaya’ style, now euphemistically and politely up-graded to English cottages, where whole families are forced to live in a single room in crammed conditions.
The tragedy is, today people have begun to believe that a room is a house – imba haisi gota!
The new style of building houses in Zimbabwe should inculcate our lifestyle and ubuntu/hunhu.
Integrated building systems would be a step closer to ubuntu/hunhu and Africanness, where by buildings integrated with the landscape and lifestyle of the people.
Colonialism created housing structures that disrupted ubuntu/hunhu.
Our challenge today as designers is to create buildings and structures that incorporate our cultural values as well as norms and in so doing, create new building styles that celebrate our architecture and identity and simultaneously provide contemporary culturally-based shelter for the people.
Our indigenous African creative aptitude, imagination and ideas are endless.
Let us use this knowledge creatively.
Civic buildings, housing, resorts and shopping malls are but one small part of Zimbabwe’s architectural heritage.
However, not many of these structures exhibit our African architectural knowledge.
In industrial and interior design, the cultural aspects of space configuration is one of the discourses I highlighted in my studies.
To ignore the cultural aspects of design is tantamount to removing one’s identity from the space they occupy.
One of the greatest aspects of Great Zimbabwe and the other stone centres is the underlying design ethos.
Great Zimbabwe was built ergonomically and organically for permanence, security and comfort of its residents at the time.
The solid granite walls still stare back at us as solid proof of our ancestors’ industrial design aptitude and building skills and above all, design standards.
Even the less prominent ruins of Naletale, Khami, Dambarare, Nyahokwe, Nyangwe, Nhunguza, Muchuchu and Zvipadze, among others, all exhibit intricate stone masonry and building precision and a distinct set of design principles that were used to accomplish this building technology – Zimbabwe’s bespoke architectural signature.
Dr Michelina Rudo Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant and specialist hospitality interior decorator. She is a published author in her field.
For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com