Issa Diabaté

He got his Master’s degree in 1993 at Yale University, School of Architecture, New Haven. Issa Diabaté is an Ivorian architect member of Cote d’Ivoire’s Order of Architect and co-founder of Koffi & Diabaté Architects, founded in 2001. Their focus is on finding solutions to the higher explosion demographic of the population and its impacts on buildings and Urban Planning. According to Diabaté development should be experimental and formal, because designers make places for different people so they experiment differently. Designers push people to live in a new environment with different settings.

The Koffi & Diabaté Group, designed “Les Residences Chocolat” which is a residential compound. A representation of his ideal African city on a small scale. The parking is in the basement, this gain space within the upper compound, especially for green and shared places. All the arrangement was done to optimise the surface occupied by the project.

The entire project contains 14 houses and 18 apartments, in total is has 32 homes, reparteed on 1 acre surface of the land. According to them, the larger the city, the more complex will be the electrical supply and the water supply. This is a solution, for African cities which keep increasing considerably.

Having several habitations in a small area optimise the electrical and water supply. And also the bigger, the city the harder it is to walk around the city because for example when someone lives in the peripheries of the city, reaching the city centre becomes a long journey, this creates traffics,…

The purpose of the Koffi & Diabaté Group is to educate the Abidjan’s population to value the urban space and to promote green spaces in the urban environment. The example given is the Cocody district in Abidjan City, an area built in the sixties, it is a residential area. The structures and buildings of this area are still in better states and are still liveable buildings.

Cocody, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.