The Rebirth of Tropical Architecture in Kinshasa. Tradition and Modernity in the Public Building Projects on Boulevard Triomphal

The heritage of modernity in Africa is identified with tropical architecture characterised using new materials, such as reinforced concrete, starting with the experiments of Le Corbusier in Algeria and the colonial buildings of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew in Ghana. This research explores the resurgence of tropical modernism in Kinshasa, which began in the second decade of the 21st century by constructing new public buildings. An architectural renaissance can be detected along one of the principal axes of the Congolese capital, the “Boulevard Triomphal”, which is already home to the National Parliament and the Martyrs’ Stadium. The heritage of tropical modern-ism, designed to respond to the climatic conditions of tropical regions and embody a modernity rooted in local contexts, has been progressively abandoned or relegated to the role of heritage of an “uncomfortable” past. However, recent projects such as the National Pilot Institute for Education in Medical Sciences (2014), the National Museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo (2019), and the Cultural and Artistic Center of Central Africa (2024) have forcefully re-proposed the principles of tropical “making”. The article analyses how this resurgence responds to contemporary challenges, particularly environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural issues, while contributing to preserving heritage memory. It proceeds by studying the impact and potential of this architectural renewal, examining the history of tropical modernism from its African origins to the planning and construction of Kinshasa and concluding with the analysis of the case studies mentioned above. The return of tropical modernism can offer a viable response to the challenges of urbanisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, provided that this architecture is widely integrated into a vision of sustainable development in the wake of a cultural continuity projected towards the rediscovery of a renewed identity.