Secular and vernacular riches
Still little explored, the archaeological side of the Congo's history nevertheless conceals many treasures, dating back to the Great Pre-Colonial Kingdoms in particular. Astonishing funerary sites such as Katanga, whose origins date back to the 6th century, and Kindoki, occupied since the 14th century, reveal the existence of extremely refined funerary rites. Other major sites include Mashita Mbanza, "the city of hopes", with 7 hills arranged in circles, the largest of which is 20 m long and 2 m high. Made of earth, charcoal and ceramic debris, these hills evoke the power of the Kongo Kingdom, as does the Ngongo Mbata site, where graves and the foundations of geometrically-planned houses can be seen. In Maniema province, you can discover the vestiges of the presence of Arab-Swahili traders, who established military and commercial bases here. They lived in boma or bisusi, rectangular fortified houses with gable roofs. They also created another type of building known as Mukongo Ya Tembo, literally "elephant back", which can be found throughout the province. They also developed communication routes and emphasized coherent urban planning, with sanitation as a key aspect. In this province, the town of Kindu is also home to many red mud-brick houses with tiled or straw roofs, enclosed by low hedges. Generally speaking, traditional housing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo takes the form of family estates enclosed by wooden or planted enclosures and made up of various huts or straw huts. Huts can be circular or rectangular. They are framed by sticks and palm stems, to which climbing plants are attached. This latticework is then filled with a mixture of sand and water, and sometimes cement. The roofs are thatched. Each hut has its own function (kitchen, storage, residence...) As a general rule, and among the Bakongos in particular, clan land has a patrimonial and spiritual dimension. Land is a gift from the gods and must be handed down from generation to generation, based on principles of solidarity and sustainability... but unfortunately, these ancestral lands are often absorbed by the spread of cities, which are based on privatization and speculation. Often, all that remains of these lands are the tall trees that once acted as focal points and meeting places. Other vernacular dwellings include the igloo-like huts of the Mbuti Pygmy people, made from saplings bent to form a frame on which mongongo leaves are placed. The Hima people, on the other hand, create dome-shaped huts using pest-resistant wood woven into a spiral to create a framework resembling an upturned basket, on which bushy perennial grasses are placed. Inside, the various spaces are delimited by posts, while wooden and plant platforms serve as storage areas. And these are just a few examples of the many treasures yet to be discovered!
Colonial period
In architectural terms, the colonial period can be divided into three phases. The first was that of the so-called "surveyors" of the territory, the pioneers. This was the era of steel-framed constructions, often prefabricated to meet the various challenges of the time: difficulty in transporting materials, lack of skilled labor, hence the need for rapid, modular and easily implemented constructions. The town of Mbanza-Ngungu, whose growth was inextricably linked to that of the railroads, which began to develop at the end of the 19th century, boasts some of the finest examples of this architecture. The former ABC Hotel, which today houses the Palais de Justice, impresses with its elegant silhouette, whose lines are reminiscent of Art Nouveau, blending fluidity and geometry. The Noki 2 elementary school, on the other hand, is a symbol of the landmark constructions of the period in Bas-Congo: structures made of a metal frame on which are hung pressed sheet metal plates, i.e. worked to leave ornamental projections, some of which look like diamonds. This school was created by Forges d'Aiseau in Belgium, also responsible for the Résidence du Premier Gouverneur du Congo in Boma. In purely residential terms, the preferred form of housing is that of square or rectangular bungalows and pavilions, which also have a metal frame, but are raised on stilts to create protective crawl spaces. Their overhanging roofs, designed to protect the house from the sun's rays, often end in elegant mantling. The presence of a barza or perimeter veranda around the house also helps to set back the facade and provide shade and ventilation, while ensuring a constant link between inside and outside. Mbanza-Ngungu, Lubumbashi and Boma still boast fine examples of this architecture. As early as 1898, Stanleyville, now Kisangani, was the subject of its first urban planning decree. The land and urban policy then in place was clearly segregated. The "white city", whose dwellings were lined up along the main roads, had paved streets with trees, a sewage system and clear zoning according to activities. The "natives", on the other hand, were relegated to insalubrious dormitory towns with no infrastructure, separated from the "white city" by a so-called sanitary buffer zone.
The second phase of this colonial period was marked by a kind of architectural decalcomania. Applying the urban codes of European cities, Belgian settlers also replicated the historicist and regionalist styles in vogue on the continent. Churches and religious missions, key vectors of colonial power, feature Romanesque bell towers, neo-Gothic spires and rosettes, neo-classical pilasters and pediments, all in stone and brick. The Cathédrale Saints-Pierre-et-Paul in Lubumbashi and theEglise Sainte-Anne in Kinshasa are perfect examples. Plush villas, meanwhile, take on the look of Norman chalets or cottages, while some borrow their curved gables from the Cape-Dutch style of South Africa. At the same time, hundreds of engineering structures were being built, the silhouettes of which can still be seen everywhere. Among the most astonishing are: the Mbuji-Mayi bridge, a lattice girder bridge with a single 72 m span; the 248 m long Bukama bridge in riveted steel and lattice girders; and the 100 m span Inkisi river bridge, whose 450 tons are supported by concrete foundations.
In its third phase, the colonial period showed a clear desire to perpetuate the project, notably through the Ten-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development of the Belgian Congo. To this end, historicism and regionalism, totally unsuited to these latitudes, were abandoned in favor of tropical modernism, combined with attempts at climatic urbanism. The orientation of buildings is calculated according to the duration of sunshine, and volumes are stretched towards the most favorable axes. Verandas and balconies are used to set back facades, while sunshades and projecting elements are used to create protective canopies. The Résidence Vangèle in Kinshasa is a typical example of this tropical modernism, with its façade animated by mobile fins that can be adjusted according to the degree of sunlight. At the same time, a group of Belgian architects known as Yenga was making a name for itself with highly expressive plasticity and sculptural curves, as exemplified by the Théâtre de Lubumbashi. In places, this tropical modernism took on the trappings of Art Deco in its Streamline Modern style. The so-called "villa bateau" with its bow-shaped terrace in Bukavu is a perfect example. From the international style, the buildings of the period borrowed the symmetrical rows of windows and the absence of ornamentation, which can be seen in official buildings such as the Lubumbashi town hall, or in the apartment blocks that are appearing everywhere. These modernist elements are sometimes complemented by ashlar details, incorporated to illustrate colonial power, as seen in the Bonzola church or the former "Maison de Vacances de Thysville (Mbanza-Mgungu)" with its numerous terraces and balustrades. In terms of urban planning, the Belgian colonialists created the Office des Cités Africaines (OCA), an organization whose aim was to design planned housing estates with uniform pavilions or small apartment blocks, often arranged in strips, for the workforce of the various colonial mining and industrial companies. But despite better infrastructure, drainage works and the draining of marshy land, as well as the existence of financing funds enabling the Congolese to access property more easily, these housing estates struggle to meet the needs of an ever-growing population and, above all, maintain a clearly segregated organization of space. In Mbuji-Mayi, the "Miba town", the original core, is a perfect illustration of this segregation. The European residential quarter is organized in a concentric pattern, with facilities in the center, while the "indigenous" housing areas are arranged in a linear fashion on the opposite side. This separation will become even more obvious with the construction of a new housing estate opposite the colonial town.
Since Independence
The 60's were marked by the persistence of the modernist style, now tinged with brutalism, but always designed to adapt to the climate. Mbuji-Mayi, which was the subject of a new urbanization plan, saw the emergence of new buildings: housing and villas for civil servants, with facades protected by openwork walls and thick, more insulating cut-stone walls; new official buildings, including the Parquet building, made up of four buildings organized around an inner courtyard, the walls of which were pierced with multiple holes to promote ventilation; and the Socabanque head office, with its impressive sloping, openwork cantilever canopy. But it was of course Kinshasa that was to be the focus of all attention. During the Mobutu era, a number of buildings were erected that would become the foundation of Congolese identity (even if many were quick to describe them as "white elephants"... in other words, grandiloquent creations with huge maintenance costs!): the Limete Interchange Tower, which dominates the city from the top of its 210 m of concrete, was designed by Franco-Tunisian architect Olivier-Clément Cacoub, and consists of 4 reinforced concrete columns set on a sculptural plinth that opens onto a 300 m-long viaduct leading to the ceremonial platform. The tower is inextricably linked to the city's main boulevard, which, in the wake of the Zairianization movement and the quest for authenticity, abandoned the name Léopold II to become the grand Boulevard Lumumba. The Palais du Peuple, the Stade des Martyrs, the famous Sozacom Tower with its stepped silhouette, and the RTNC building are among the other landmark buildings of the period in Kinshasa, which is also home to the new Institut du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics. Numerous urban development plans were devised in an attempt to curb the city's exponential growth, but not a single one was implemented. Caught between a Party-State concerned with its image, which it works on with grandiloquent constructions, and customary chiefs who distribute land and plots in a more than arbitrary manner, Kinshasa has continued to grow in a totally anarchic fashion. This is clearly visible in the surrounding hills, where neighborhoods of opulent villas stand opposite neighborhoods where hundreds of social housing units have sprung up, while behind them lie extremely unhealthy neighborhoods on the slopes that are most prone to erosion and flooding, where adobe, straw and mud structures never last long. Under the presidency of Joseph Kabila, new restructuring and rehabilitation projects are attempting to create a framework for the city, notably the pharaonic "Cinq Chantiers" project, which aims to build new communication routes and a new airport, among other things... a project entirely financed by China. When it comes to architecture, the country struggles to control its own destiny, all the more so because of other constraints, such as a lack of skilled manpower, the predominance of inferior materials and tight budgets. In recent years, however, a new generation of architects has been striving to define the contours of a new modernity that is more rooted in the country's history and, above all, more sustainable. Supported by the Centre de Recherche Forestière Internationale, the University of Kisangani's project perfectly illustrates this desire, with its roof equipped with a rainwater recovery system, its walls made of unpolished raw earth bricks that are more insulating than concrete, and its absence of air conditioning to reduce energy costs. But to imagine the architecture of tomorrow, perhaps the country should draw on the works of Bodys Isek Kingelez, one of the greatest Congolese artists, famous for his models of utopian cities, from which emerged an unfailing optimism for the future conveyed by the dreamlike colors and shapes of the buildings that make them up. From the chaos of the capital where he created, Kingelez gave birth to hope and beauty!
