Great Zimbabwe, the Shona People and the Savanna and Grasslands Region
Project Researcher: RRA
Collaborator: Adjaye Associates
This research project was part of a series of research initiated in collaboration with the architectural practice Adjaye Associates. The research investigated the architectures and artefacts of Great Zimbabwe which was an incredible stone kingdom situated in the Savanna Grasslands region of Africa. The Kingdom was designed in a way that it presented a masterful infrastructure of hydrology and irrigation yet still maintained by Earthen material–its grid acting like a river bed. One of the most unique aspects of Great Zimbabwe is the construction of a room for rainmaking rituals in the kingdom palace. The king was expected to perform such rituals in this specifically designed room in order to bring prosperity into the land.
The research was an excellent example at the relationship between Architecture and Spirituality within vernacular African and Indigenous design.
“The Shona People of Great Zimbabwe were masters of stone building techniques that didn’t obstruct life nor the Earth. Within this kingdom is the understanding that ‘water is life’ and the city couldn’t have been constructed without it.”