Folasade Okunribido

Blue Hour reinvents the twilight period as a time of mourning and celebration for Yoruba townships; it precedes Okunribido’s offer to dream of, devise, and construct the future. Her work positions itself on the cusp of African history, exploring its affluence through prose and architecture. Ààfin Awọn Eniyan is a home for Alté renegades – a group of 150 young people who challenge societal expectations. Defined by immersion in blue, the project forms a political and cultural refuge informed by twelfth-century Yoruba ‘afin’ (palaces), offering a series of spaces for solitude and collectivity.
The 10,800 square meters building is an array of reinforced clay plates that overshadow the Kudeti river. Each plate facilitates the phenomenon of light interference, giving the building an oscillating presence on the site; its blueness creates an aura in the form of structural colour. These qualities in the architecture emulate its inhabitants, reflecting and supporting the unstable perception of countercultural communities like the Alté.

Authorial collaborators
Jimi Okunribido (Editor and Music Producer)
With special thanks to
Kyriacos Christofides, Shumi Bose
With the additional support of
John Ng, James Kwang Ho Chung, Zsuzsa Péter (Studio Tutors); Valerio Massaro (History and Theory Studies Tutor); African Futures Institute; Maria Shéhérazade Giudici (AA Files 78 Editor)