Research Colloquia Jeanne Autran-Edorh
Curating Togo’s first Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale
Abstract: In 2025, the Republic of Togo inaugurated its first national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, with a project titled Considering Togo’s Architectural Heritage. The pavilion was commissioned by the Palais de Lomé, and curated by Studio NEiDA, an architecture and research practice co-founded by architect Jeanne Autran-Edorh and curator Fabiola Büchele.
The exhibition examined Togo’s architectural narratives from the early 20th century to the present, through the dual lenses of conservation and transformation. Jeanne Autran-Edorh will present the methodical documentation undertaken by the curators to establish a dialogue between vernacular building practices and modernist construction techniques. This approach broadens the understanding of Togo’s architectural landscape and highlights the richness and complexity of its built heritage.
By tracing the evolution of forms and materiality within West Africa’s built environment, from ancient Nôk cave dwellings to the earthen Tatas Tamberma compounds of northern Togo, the pavilion foregrounded a continuum of knowledge, resilience and adaptation. It also revealed the distinct Afro-Brazilian architectural language developed by freed returnees from Brazil between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, while the exhibition primarily focused on emblematic examples of post-independence modernism.
Many of these buildings, such as the Hotel Sarakawa, the Hedzranawoe Market, and the ECOWAS and BOAD banks, continue to serve their original functions. Others stand today as poetic ruins of modernism, including the Hotel de la Paix and the Bourse du Travail, while landmark structures like the Hotel 2 Février and the Palais des Congrès have recently undergone or are undergoing restoration.
Date: 3.12.2025
Place: Studio NEiDA
Speaker: Jeanne Autran-Edorh
Short-bio: Jeanne Autran Edorh is a French-Togolese architect and co-founder of Studio NEiDA, established in 2023. She previously worked with several Pritzker Prize-winning studios, including Herzog & de Meuron, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, and Studio Francis Kéré, where she led major civic projects such as the Benin National Assembly and the Thomas Sankara Memorial. Her work, research, and teaching focus on decolonial approaches, contextual design, circularity, material innovation, and transdisciplinary practice.
In 2025, she co-curated Togo’s first national pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale and the country’s debut participation at the Milan Triennale. That same year, she was named among the 50 Most Influential African Women in Architecture (2025 Edition) and Studio NEiDA was named among the 20 winners of the ArchDaily Next Practices Award 2025. She currently teaches at KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture (Brussels Campus).
This talk will address both the curatorial content of the exhibition and the critical process of bringing a national pavilion to the Venice Architecture Biennale for the first time, reflecting on the methodological, cultural and institutional challenges of representing a country through architecture on the world stage.
