The new Italian Cultural Institute in Dakar merges two different worlds

The international architecture firm based in Dakar Most-Monti Studio works on a villa from the 1970s of the Senegalese capital, to give life to the new Italian Cultural Institute. The result is an architecture that translates the encounter between Senegalese and Italian culture.

The villa is spread over a single floor of 490 sqm and occupies a plot of 1,000 sqm protected by a enclosure. Two wooden porches create a threshold between the inside and the outside, mark the entrances and invite you in. These elements, typical of Italian architecture, are defined by local geometric shapes. The woven wood used, each piece unique, pays a tribute to the resourcefulness of handicraft as a counterpart to technology.

The interiors of the villa are adapted to the new use with bathrooms, meeting rooms and offices. The facades are carved with large openings and a weave of coloured rhombuses typical of African clothes and Missoni’s zigzags, which together recall the manual skills of Senegalese and Italian tailors. The colours come out of the enclosure to invade the neighborhood and to show the Italian-Senegalese culture.