Fractals in African Architecture

Ron Eglash's African Fractals contains a wealth of examples of fractals in African architecture, art, and design. All our information is taken from this source.

Englash points out the architecture reflects both the social and religious structure of the settlement.

All the architectural examples that exhibit fractal characteristics do so as a consequence of some structural or organizational feature of the settlement.

From a political perspective, Englash suggests (page 196) that Eurpoean settlers considered most African settlements to be large villages rather than cities, because instead of the Euclidean street arrangements of Europe, they found complicated fractal arrangements. "Thus fractal architecture was used as colonial proof of primitivism."

Here we sample two architectural examples. Click each picture for a description.

Ba-Ila Kotoko