Obu Ume - Ndibume's Family Compound

The family (Ndibume) compound (Obu) design is for a community (Enugwuabo Ufuma) in Anambra state... for me, every brick can be made something!

There are styles and approaches that the people of Ufuma identify with:

The particular way in which the men wear the wrapper with a rolling knot at the waist. The herringbone pattern is also native to their architecture and was traditionally used in ceiling and architectural design. Spatially the architecture always allowed buildings to be accessed from both sides as well as from the front. Windows are typically low enough for people to be able to talk to one another across them even when one person is indoors and the other person is outdoors.

The buildings are also typically double fronted with a central often imposing front entrance and then two sides. As yam farmers, they visually readily identify with the traditional Igbo yam barns. They also visually identify with clockwise spirals. The chairs and seating positions have a low center of gravity comforting equality, warmth, playfulness, and down-to-earthiness. They identify with circles more than squares or other shapes in decorations as this symbolizes unity and togetherness. However, in buildings themselves, they go for squares and rectangles which identify strength and structure. Their dominant colors are earthy. Mud, brown, red, and black. And they liven things up with greens. They are generally conservative and not flamboyant.

In terms of playful celebration, they have wrestling, tales by moonlight, communal eating from a central saucepot, women dancing, men sitting together and drinking around a keg of palm wine with a shared cup, and masquerade. These are more meaningful for them in terms of decorative scenes and documentation of everyday life rather than the use of abstract symbols. All of these in simple terms I've considered in making this a masterpiece.