Meet Omar Degan, the Somali Italian Visionary Convening Africa's First Architecture Biennale

What does it mean to reshape the world through African eyes, African memories, and African materials?

For Somali Italian architect Omar Degan, such questions are the foundation of the Pan-African Biennale of Architecture, which he has envisioned and is positioning as a fully African-led platform for architectural thought. The biennale is a call to re-center Africa in a conversation long dominated by Western aesthetics and narratives.

“Architecture has always been white and male-dominated,” Degan tells OkayAfrica in an interview. “Africa is also the only continent that has been neglected… And even when African architecture is celebrated, it is exoticized like safari lodges designed for the Western gaze.”

This will be the first architectural biennale of its kind in that it will be fully conceptualized, curated, and led by Africans. With 54 national pavilions representing each African country, as well as contributions from the African diaspora, the biennale positions architecture as a political and cultural tool for rewriting how African cities and identities are imagined and built. The theme of the inaugural edition is “From Fragility to Resilience.”

With roots in both Mogadishu and Milan, and a career that spans creating for conflict zones and refugee camps, Degan brings a perspective that is as global as it is grounded. His vision is ambitious: not only to shift the center of architectural discourse toward the continent, but also to plant the seeds for a broader cultural movement that may spark new schools of thought, design languages, and institutions across Africa.

With one year to go, Degan talks to OkayAfrica about why architecture is political, why Nairobi is the right home for this biennale, and how he hopes it will inspire a new generation of African creators and thinkers.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

OkayAfrica: The upcoming biennale is billed to include conversations about identity, post-colonial legacy, and African futures. Why is architecture the right platform to have these kinds of discussions?

Omar Degan: We forget how much the built environment affects us. We spend over 80 percent of our lives inside buildings. That alone should be a reason to talk about architecture. But beyond that, architecture has been instrumental in both oppression and liberation. Beautiful cities make people feel safe and joyful. But colonialism used architecture to control people, and many African cities still reflect that.

Africa is always treated as one homogenous place, not a continent of 54 nations. Even when African architecture is celebrated, it is exoticized like safari lodges designed for the Western gaze. We need to move past that. This biennale is a space of resistance: against colonial legacies, historical neglect, and even internal elitism that distorts our narratives.

How do you go about centering Africa in a field that has historically responded to the West?

We are not just centering Africa as it is today. We are recognizing it as the origin of civilization. That means there will be no foreign pavilions. We will have 54 pavilions, one for each African country, plus diasporic and extra-continental contributions. But even then, most of those voices will be rooted in Blackness.

There won’t be, for example, a French pavilion. But there will be participation from people of African descent who are based in France. What people will see in this biennale is that Africa is present both on the continent and through its diaspora. The diaspora plays a very important role in shaping Africa, just as Africa has shaped other nations. And being Black is not being a minority everywhere. In Brazil, for example, 55 percent of the population is Black, so there will be representation from there too.

What sparked the idea of the Pan-African Architecture Biennale for you personally?

I grew up Somali Italian and studied architecture in Italy. My school actually had a rare focus on the Global South. But when I started submitting my work, I realized there were no real African architectural publications or platforms. I had to rely on Western ones, judged by the standards of Rome, Paris, London…

Then I saw the Venice Biennale being called ‘The African Biennale.’ That was it for me. I thought, ‘How are we still letting the West define us? Why should a European event be the one telling African stories?’ That moment really hit me. I said, if we want to be taken seriously, we need to create our own spaces. A place where we are not an afterthought, but the starting point. That’s when I started thinking about a Pan-African Architecture Biennale.

We are still a year out from the event. How has the idea been received?

Some people have asked me, ‘How are you going to find architects from every African country?’ And I always say: ‘Just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.’ That kind of thinking reflects ignorance. There is a hunger to tell these stories. People are tired of the one-sided narrative.

Why did you choose Nairobi as the host city?

I did not want this to default to Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, which are the usual countries when people think of Africa. I wanted to shift the geographic center, too.

Nairobi works because it is accessible to the continent. Kenyans and Rwandans have some of the most visa-friendly policies for other Africans. Plus, the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), [which will host the event,] has powerful symbolism. It was part of the Pan-African movement. And Kenya, which was once a major British colony, now gets to host something that shows we have moved beyond that.

I am working with the Architectural Association of Kenya as the hosting organization. I somehow convinced them to take this role, and the president, George Ndege, is very intent on reshaping the role of the Architectural Association of Kenya as a lead organization in the African movement.

What will set this biennale apart from others?

First, every pavilion will have equal space, no matter how big or rich the country is. Nigeria will get the same space as Botswana. That is non-negotiable.

Second, we are incorporating sensorial experiences. I want people to smell, hear, and feel African spaces. I don’t want them to take a selfie and leave. And part of the exhibition will focus on African futures, with contributions from Afro-futurist writers, sci-fi creators, and people working on AI and design. We are not just referencing the past. We are building the future.

Can you speak more to the role the African diaspora plays in this vision?

A big one. Diasporans often live in between. They are not African enough to be African, not Western enough to be Western. But they are some of the strongest advocates for the continent. They carry these stories wherever they go, often with pride. This biennale will connect those experiences. It is about showing that migration is not an absence. It is a part of our story.

You are Somali and Italian, trained in architecture in the West, but deeply invested in African spaces. How has that shaped your approach to architecture?

I’ve always lived in between worlds. I was born in Italy, but my identity was always linked to Somalia. That duality made me aware, from a young age, of how space and design can either welcome you or make you feel excluded.

My work in Somalia, and later in places like refugee camps or conflict zones, taught me that architecture is never neutral. It reflects power, identity, and memory. That’s why I don’t just see myself as a designer of buildings. I see myself as someone trying to rebuild dignity one structure, one story, one space at a time

What does success look like for you with this event?

If I can plant a seed of change, that is success. If a young architect feels seen or inspired to build a new kind of city, that is success. The overwhelming response so far has been, ‘How can I help?’ No one has asked about money. That tells me people believe in the vision.

Long-term? I want the Pan-African Architecture Biennale to be the most important one in the world. I want it to be the Biennale. One that leads on climate change, on urban development, and on how we live in harmony with land, community, and history.

The inaugural Pan-African Biennale of Architecture is set to launch in Nairobi on September 1, 2026. For more information or to get involved, visit the event website.

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