This issue devoted to Africa is a response to the current fascination with the African city among architects and planners, stimulated among other things by Rem Koolhaas’s research on Lagos. By opting for an explicitly historical perspective, this issue also aims to stand out from a debate often mired in wide-ranging meta-theoretical reflections on the informal city or a reductive view of a forgotten modernist heritage. Through several case studies on architecture and planning practices in Africa between 1950 and 1970, placed in context by two critical essays and a photo reportage on the urban landscape of Maputo, Mozambique, the issue presents a different and still little-known story.

Based on Udo Kultermann’s 1963 Neues Bauen in Afrika Johan Lagae reveals in his essay the mechanisms at work in documenting and presenting modern architecture and urban planning in Africa since the 1950s. He unravels, for instance, the editorial strategies of magazines like l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui or Architectural Review and presents a critical historiographical overview that shows how, especially in the last several years, the view of this architectural production has been thoroughly revised.

The editorial of this issue of OASE opens up a reflection on architecture criticism, following the critical encounters (seminars, debates, lectures, round table discussions), the journal organised to mark its 25th anniversary. The discussions held with a series of stakeholders: architects, writers, academe, publishers, graphic designers, students, etc. have filtered into this issue, which simultaneously evaluates and explores the current state of architecture criticism, ranging from academic reflections on criticism, via the personal views of critics on its current state, to tentative explorations.