Brutalism in Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast's postindependence boom, the so-called Ivorian miracle, made Abidjan a showcase of tropical modernism in the 1960s and 1970s, with international and local architects building hotels, ministries and towers in exposed concrete. The emblem is La Pyramide (1973) by the Italian architect Rinaldo Olivieri, a stepped concrete pyramid in the Plateau district that sought to translate the sheltered life of the African market into a single climatic megastructure. Long underused, it remains one of West Africa's most celebrated modernist landmarks and a key case in debates on preserving the continent's independence-era architecture.