Like so many new ideas, Nomadic African Studio was hatched over dinner at Il Ridotto, a small restaurant in Venice. Fresh from the experience of running the first-ever architecture college at the Venice Architecture Biennale, six of us began exploring the idea of an annual studio somewhere on the African continent. Where should it be located? Since the African Futures Institute is headquartered in Accra, it seemed a logical place to start. But we were also intrigued by the idea of basing locations on themes, rather than places. Although decolonisation and decarbonisation were both the over-arching themes of The Laboratory of the Future and topics which underpin all of our work, we instinctively felt we needed to take a step sideways, perhaps coming at the issues from another direction. By the time coffee and dolce came around, it wasn’t clear who first mentioned it but the word ‘nomadic’ was suddenly on everyone’s lips. Since that dinner nearly two years ago, we’ve held countless workshops, conversations, and more Zoom meetings than we care to remember. We’ve argued, compromised, dreamed of possibilities beyond our wildest imaginations, sketched out possibilities, gone looking for money and support, built a team, gathered our core faculty, engaged a wider cohort of fantastic global critics, convened in Accra, London, Fez and Dakar and finally — finally — we’re ready.

The annual series of studios takes place in either July/August or January/February each year, partly to accommodate differing academic calendars between the global North and global South, and partly to do with weather conditions in the locations we’ve chosen. What are we offering? We’re offering graduate-level students, practitioners and academics under the age of 35 an opportunity to explore ideas in a focused, supportive and experimental format. Through design projects, seminars, lectures, trips, readings, films and conversations, participants will work with tutors to open up new territories of thought and action, exploring some of today’s most challenging issues: cultural identity, migration, displacement, climate change, race and social equity, public health, governance and city-making.

Our first studio took place in Fez, Morocco from 18 July to 15 August, 2025. Follow us on Instagram for the latest news, updates, and snippets from this year’s Studio. The Open Call for next year’s Studio will be launched towards the end of this year.