Designing for Africa! Check out Zimbabwe’s hidden gem setting social media ablaze

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A house in Zimbabwe Photo: Twitter

The women of Matobo in Zimbabwe paint their huts with intricate designs using charcoal, ash, water and soil. It’s an annual ritual that replenishes the women’s cultural traditions as season after season, they beautify their homesteads with continually changing imagery.

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Photo: Twitter

The women translate the rhythms of their lives into abstract patterns zigzags and diamond shapes, scallops and stepped lines as well as motifs taken from nature. The consistent design covers each hut and there is a clear understanding of space and form, not only in the design but in the placement of the huts within the compounds.

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Photo: Twitter

What also stands, however, is the ingenuity the women shows in decorating the interiors of their homes. With so little at their disposal, the women show an inspiring degree of inventiveness in building shelving units and even furniture such as chairs into the hut’s structure.

 

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Photo: Twitter

 

Great efforts are taken not only in creating an indoor space that is practical and efficient, but also aesthetically pleasing. Check out some reactions from netizens.

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