Think global, build social!

The Museum of African Design in Johannesburg investigates on which solutions can architecture offer to people that have no access to a well designed environment.

The exhibition “Think Global, Build Social! – Architectures for a Better World” explores the theme of social responsibility in contemporary architecture. The Goethe-Institute and the Museum of African Design curated by two Architecture professors – Andres Lepik, Professor of Architectural History at the Technical University of Munich and Prof. Lesley Lokko, who heads the University of Johannesburg’s Graduate School of Architecture.

TYIN tegnestue Architects' Safe Haven Library, library for an orphanage Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand © Pasi Aalto — **Top:** TYIN tegnestue Architects, Cassa Co-op Training Centre, training centre für cinnamon workers, Kerinchi, Sumatra Island, Indonesia. Photo © Pasi Aalto **Above:** TYIN tegnestue Architects' Safe Haven Library, library for an orphanage Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand. Photo © Pasi Aalto

The starting point is the massive rise in the number of building projects carried out in rapidly expanding megacities across Asia, Latin America and Africa, with no architectural supervision whatsoever. In addition, an increasing number of people all over the world are living in slum conditions. The crucial question of this exhibition is therefore: what solutions can architecture offer to those segments of the global population that currently have no access to a well designed environment?