Page 44 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 23

Re-education

Nyumba is an instrument that architecture put it: “The house machine. Architecture is not

is used to bring about this is a machine to live in”. The stone and steel and neither is it
alignment of the natural and disharmonious relationships just a series of spaces but Life
the supernatural. and dis-ease so common in the itself – mūtūūrīre in Gīkūyū

modern family can be traced
As described by Father to the lack of resonance of the In this site, we define Gikuyu
Cagnolo, the joints, (corners) human soul and the Soul of the architecture as “mīikarīre ya
of the human body are house. The Nyumba has been Agīkūyū”, that is “mūtūūrīre”,
massaged with paste made desacrarized and made into a or the full spectrum of the

with earth taken from the four mere nyumba. The centre can Gīkūyū habitation – physical,
corners of the house. As we no longer hold. Things Fall spiritual, mental and emotional
have explained in another post, Apart. constructions. Thus for

the Nyumba is a container of us, spiritual or emotional
the Gikuyu Soul. The center is One way of bringing back constructions are just as
the navel. In India this idea of healing within communities important as the physical
harmonic correspondence with and in the home is for constructions. The lack of
the house is practiced through architects to understand the rigid distinctions between one

the vastupurusha mandala. healing function of architecture type of construction and the
Similarly in China the concept when it is imbued with the other as in the example just
of Feng Shui is a science of sacred. Healing architecture analyzed forms the basis of

harmonious correspondences, is architecture with a Soul, holistic architecture – healing
a concept also echoed in the a Spirit that throbs with life architecture.
Gothic cathedrals layout as opposed to the lifeless
based upon the ‘anatomy’ of
Christ on the cross, or spirit

embedded in matter.

Today, the modern Gikuyu

house is no longer a shrine
and is devoid of rituals that
sought to harmonise and adjust
the mind, body and Soul. The
internal plan of the modern

house is akin to packaging
meant for the supermarket.
Its production as a product is

no different from industrial
production of the package just
as one revered father of modern

44 | we tell the true afrikan story Not actual Kikuyu architecture. Used for illustration