Bridging cultures through immersive learning — from online courses to on-ground workshops and African heritage tours at the CPDI Africa Global Studio for African Centered Architecture (GSACA).
Learning architecture through African culture, place, and practice.
The foundational elements CPDI Africa created to guide our research, pedagogy, and design practice.
Architecture rooted in the cultural identity, traditions, and social practices of African peoples and the Diaspora.
Design expressions drawn from indigenous African art forms, patterns, proportions, and visual languages that define beauty in African contexts.
Spaces that honor the spiritual dimensions of African life — connecting built environments to cosmology, ancestry, and communal ritual.
Embracing local and sustainable building materials — laterite, bamboo, compressed earth, timber — that are ecologically and culturally appropriate.
Participatory design processes that center the voices, needs, and aspirations of the communities that inhabit and shape these spaces.
CPDI Africa Global Studio for African Centered Architecture (GSACA) is an online learning platform offering Afrocentric architecture courses, design theory and studio-based learning, African architectural history, standardized building materials, and urbanism. The Studio offers professional development and certificate programs.
Distinguished educators and practitioners advancing the pedagogy of Afrocentric architecture.
Professor, Architect
Afrocentric Architecture Theortical Frameworks
Urban Planner
African Centered Design & Community Development
Architect, Interior Designer
Black Aesthetic Design & Development
Architect, Developer
Sustainable Real Estate Development in Africa
Professor, Architect
Critical Thinking in African-Arab Architecture
Explore our Afrocentric architecture courses — from introductory modules to a full diploma in African Centered Design.
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The course surveys both the African and Diaspora built environment, teaching design practices that are culturally and...
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The course will be an expose of how the Architecture of Africa is tied to the life of Africans themselves in all face...
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It is structured to inspire your creativity and explode your usual notion of Architectural expressions in a way that ...
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This course is designed as an introduction to African American architecture and design aesthetics. By tracing the dev...
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This course will introduce participants to the concepts for developing a New Alternative Nigerian Architecture (NANA)...
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This course will introduce participants to the concepts for developing a New Alternative Nigerian Architecture (NANA)...
Buy $24.99
This course explores the effects of Nigeria’s fast rising urban population on the quality of life of urban residents,...
Enrol Now $24.99
This course explores the effects of Nigeria’s fast rising urban population on the quality of life of urban residents,...
Join our hands-on learning experiences delivered through regional design hubs, short-term workshops and intensives, collaborative studio environments, and engagement with African architects, planners, and artisans.
Nmadili Okwumabua teaches on Afrocentricity, at Mambaah Cafe, Abuja.
Hosting students at CPDI Africa bi-annual workshops.
Curated tours across Africa featuring heritage and contemporary architecture, cultural landscapes and settlements, lectures, sketching, site analysis, and community and practitioner engagement.
Tour ancient and contemporary African architectural landmarks with expert guides.
Attend curated exhibitions showcasing African art, material culture, and architectural innovation.
Curated tours featuring modern African inspired design.
Pioneers in the movement toward a new culture for African design - master builder, architect and artist, Demas Nwoko, and renowned professor and architect David Hughes - developed the leading theoretical frameworks in Afrocentric architecture and natural synthesis. CPDI Africa's Nmadili Okwumabua then manifested these ideologies into the pillars and pedagogy for teaching at the CPDI Africa Global Studio for African Centered Architecture (GSACA). Through its academic programs and design initiatives, CPDI Africa has cultivated a new generation of architects who are redefining global design discourse through African-centered methodologies. Its influence continues to expand across continents, shaping both professional practice and architectural education with a commitment to cultural authenticity and innovation.
This platform celebrates African architects as thought-provoking and complex figures who strive to build their communities regardless of the conditions their communities may face. We serve people from a variety of cultural backgrounds and lifestyles within the continent and the Diaspora. Not all African descendants are familiar with their cultural heritage or ethnic origins, therefore our school helps students explore ideas that speak to their journey and help fill a void in their cultural identity. We assert our rightful place as thought leaders, pioneering the way towards conducting authentic architecture education and scholarship. #AfricaDefinesArchitecture
"There needs to be an opportunity for a pipeline of talent between the diaspora and the continent, to not only connect us with a singular ideology of progress but also share this ideology of Afrocentric design and architecture with the world."
Benita Nartey
"Afro-American and African students need a safe space to explore their cultural practices and how they inform physical space to help heal them from generations of disenfranchisement and build a better future"
Lorin Jackson
"It challenges the suppression and erasure of African heritages that came about with colonialism and other factors"
Mayamiko Malabwa
"It will expose you to the local materials used by your people and how they were able to build green, living in harmony with nature"
Chibuzo Ohaneje
"The studio promotes identity, security and builds a social network for shared Pan-African values and aspirations while providing global recognition and inclusiveness for billions of widely underrated and excluded global citizens of African descent"
Umar Farouq Umar