Green is Everywhere and Everything in the Ivory Coast
Join architect Issa Diabante as he explores the generosity and abundance of green in his home country
Regeneration (2020) by Issa DiabatéDesign Indaba
Discover why green is the colour of Côte d’ivoire with Issa
For two weeks, architect Issa Diabante travelled through the Ivory Coast, his home country, in search of a colour that represented what it means to be Ivorian. After engaging with the abundance of Côte d’ivoire, Issa realised that for him, the colour of Côte d’ivoire is green. In a photographic essay, the architect documents and celebrants the lush green hues of his home.
Introducing Issa Diabante
Issa Diabaté is the managing director of Koffi & Diabaté Architects and co-founder of the Koffi & Diabaté Group based in Ivory Coast. Very much involved on the topic of African urban issues, Diabaté has participated in a number of local change-geared initiatives. As an architect practising on the continent, he aims to shed light on the issues at hand and on the creative solutions required to build the African City of Tomorrow.
Regeneration (2020) by Issa DiabatéDesign Indaba
To explain why the colour green is, for him, the colour of the Ivory Coast, Issa Diabante documented in poetic form his journey through his homeland.
RegenerationDesign Indaba
Having extensively travelled the Côte d’ivoire for two weeks.
After having watched my country’s landscape.
Regeneration (2020) by Issa DiabatéDesign Indaba
After feeling the generosity and abundance of its nature (the Atlantic Ocean; lush, deep-green forest; electric-green rice fields; savanna; cascades; rivers; wet mountains...)
After tasting and collecting a large number of natural plants, including growing my own quinine in the time of COVID
Regeneration (2020) by Issa DiabatéDesign Indaba
After eating seasonal fruits and vegetables in their natural environment…
I did not have any other choice but to choose green... the colour that stuck in my head after driving 1500 kilometres
Regeneration (2020) by Issa DiabatéDesign Indaba
Green talks to regeneration, growth, fresh air and chlorophyll
The same green substance that nurtured my breathing, my eating and my Ivorian-ness.
