Antoni Folkers

Antoni Folkers (1960) is an architect and urban designer. He commenced his studies in art and art history at John Carroll University in Cleveland, USA and obtained his masters in Architecture and Urbanism at Delft University of Technology  in 1986. He commenced his professional career as researcher and designer in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso before joining the Institute for Tropical Building (IFT) of Dr G Lippsmeier in Starnberg, Germany. For Lippsmeier he became Resident Architect for East Africa in 1988. In 1992, together with Belinda van Buiten and later Geoffrey Wilks, he founded FBW Architects with offices in Manchester, Dar es Salaam, Utrecht, Kampala, Nairobi and Kigali. Since, he has been director and senior designer in the firm.

In 2001, together with colleagues Janneke Bierman, Belinda van Buiten, Berend van der Lans and Joep Mol, he founded ArchiAfrika, platform for research and news on African architecture. In 2010, the management of ArchiAfrika was handed over to network partners and Belinda van Buiten, Berend van der Lans and Antoni Folkers founded African Architecture Matters, a Netherlands based foundation active in organizing and executing research, events, exhibitions and publications on African architecture. 

Since 2006, he has been guest researcher and lecturer on African architecture and urbanism with Delft University of Technology, the University of Pretoria, FAPF in Maputo, Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam and ENSA in Mauritius, amongst others.

In 2017 he joined the World Bank Group as senior adviser on urban development and heritage.

Antoni Folkers published a wide range of articles on architectural subjects. In 2010 he published two works on African architecture. The findings of the research and conservation works on Zanzibar in Mtoni -  Palace, Sultan & Princess of Zanzibar and Modern Architecture in Africa on his 25 years of building and research experience in Africa. The latter book is the basis of his PhD (2011) on the research of projects in Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Ethiopia at  Delft University of Technology. In 2017 he edited the research publication focusing on Ouagadougou with Iga Perzyna, The Beeker Method: Planning and Working on the Redevelopment of the African City, and in 2019, also together with Iga Perzyna and others the Ng’ambo Atlas, Historic Urban Landscape pod Zanzibar Town’s Other Side.