This exhibition explores the recent proliferation of speculative urbanization activities across the African continent. Despite the urgent demand for urbanistic upgrades throughout much of Africa, the myriad proposals that characterize these physical urbanization activities are rarely oriented toward those populations actually in need. Rather, exogenous models of settlement and infrastructure are being imported into wholly incongruous contexts with little regard for the realities of their destination. African Speculations considers these activities in the context of recent speculative building pursuits undertaken in places like Spain, Ireland, Dubai and China during the first decade of the 21st century, paying particular attention to the severe social, environmental and political consequences that emerged from the failure of these antecedents.

This studio broadly considers the proliferation of speculative new town projects around major cities throughout the African continent. These ongoing proposals—motivated by familiar neoliberal development policies and aspirations of Global City identities—threaten both the environmental and socioeconomic capacity of their destination polities. That is, these proposals for new settlement frequently configure themselves to attract external capital at the expense of local populations actually in need of formal settlement and infrastructural accommodations. Think Eko Atlantic, Konza Techno City, La Cité du Fleuve or Ciudad de la Paz (formerly Oyala) among many, many, many others.

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