Hybrid Tectonics: The Digital, the Analogue and the Ethics of Encounter

Boundaries are spaces of contestation and encounter. When considering contemporary architecture in the global South, particularly in Africa, these spaces of encounter are especially pronounced. There is a body of architectural work in Africa produced by architects who are crossing physical boundaries between the global North and the global South, and the boundaries between global and local ways of making; some of them have also begun to blur the boundaries between the digital and the analogue. Drawing on previous empirical research in Africa, and building on literature about deborderisation, hybridisation, and tectonics, the space of encounter is positioned as a necessary and productive one. Analysis of representative building case studies in three African countries shows how architects are combining global and local tectonics in an effort to engage with social, economic, and environmental limitations. This can be read as a conscientious objection to reckless technological production that is, at times, ignorant of both local conditions and the planetary resource limitations that the world is facing. This paper will argue that the shift towards the tectonic hybridisation of computational design and digital fabrication with the use of local materials, traditions, and skills can further contribute towards this engagement. It emphasises the importance of tectonic ethics as a prerequisite for more equitable forms of exchange and encounter when working across boundaries, and it demonstrates how hybrid tectonics is a potentially useful and transferable strategy to begin to address some of these limitations.