Exhibition Gives New Perspective to African Design

A traveling exhibition opening next week at Chicago's Graham Foundation shines a big spotlight on design in Africa. Architecture of Independence: African Modernism (opening January 29) documents more than 50 experimental buildings, in Central and Sub-Saharan Africa, through which emerging nations expressed their national identities after their independence in the 1960s. The show, which premiered at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, was curated by architect and author Manuel Herz and includes photographs by Iwan Baan. Click through our slideshow to view a sampling of the work in the exhibition.