Maison Tropicale

Maison Tropicale

A seminal work of prefab, flat pack housing, Maison Tropicale is far more than the fetishized industrial design object world tour it embarked on. Its story is rooted in French colonialism in Congo and Niger; material flows between the métropole and the periphery, acquisition and dispossession, home and placelessness.

Shifting focus away from its much lauded use of prefabricated aluminium and steel, the drawings attempt to give attention to its distinctly Congolese place. In many ways an idea as much as a building, the drawings speak to at best a lightly documented past with real questions about its future repatriation, a conversation that reaches vast distances across the African continent’s legacy of the tyranny of the Scramble for Africa, still pressing today.

To quote filmmaker Malian filmmaker Manthia Diawara, “I dare dream of the Maison Tropicale returning to Brazzaville and Niamey one day.” This set of drawings aims to return Maison Tropicale to the Republic of Congo, re-assembled at home one last time.

Elective: Building/Information
University of British Columbia
Instructor—Roy Cloutier
S2020