Film still of Unity Hall, KNUST, Kumasi, by John Owuso Addo and Miro Marasović. (Image credit: Courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum)

Tropical Modernism was an architectural style developed in the hot, humid conditions of West Africa in the 1940s. After independence, India and Ghana adopted the style as a symbol of modernity and progressiveness, distinct from colonial culture.

As we look to a new future in an era of climate change, might Tropical Modernism, an architectural style developed in the late 1940s, serve as a useful guide?

Tropical Modernism was Britain's unique contribution to International Modernism – a colonial architecture, developed by British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, against the background of anti-colonial struggle in India and West Africa in the late 1940s. This exhibition looks at the colonial origins of Tropical Modernism in British West Africa, and the survival of the style in the post-colonial period when it symbolised the independence and progressiveness of newly independent countries like India and Ghana.

Opening Hours

Open daily: 10.00 – 17.45
Friday: 10.00 – 22.00

Price:

£14.00
Concessions apply.
Advance booking is recommended.

Location:

The Porter Gallery
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL

Text and pictures, copyright V&A and the artists