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Hausa Architecture

Regional and Traditional Architecture

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Hausa architecture is the building tradition of the Hausa people of northern Nigeria and Niger, organized around a disciplined spatial program of primary room, courtyard and enclosing wall that reflects the influence of Islam on Hausa society. Its most important building material is laterite, worked in a style known as tubali, historically associated with brightly colored mosques and palaces; newly built structures have a crisp, sharply defined look produced by strict structural discipline, which weathers into a more organic form through seasonal rain erosion and is restored through yearly repairs. The facades of Hausa buildings carry decoration meant to represent prosperity and wealth, worked as surface patterns, ornamental motifs and calligraphy, and the tradition is expressed across mosques, walls, compounds and gates.

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