International Lecture Series and Pre-Launch: Omar Degan

This lecture by architect Omar Degan is part of the ‘International Lecture Series’ at the Royal Danish Academy where prominent international architects are invited to present their views on significant topics in architecture. The lecture will be followed by an official Pre Launch of the inaugural Pan-African Architecture Biennale in 2026 curated by Omar Degan. 

Territories of resilience: The Horn of Africa and beyond

Africa is the cradle of life and the birthplace of architecture. Long before colonial “discoveries,” complex cities, trade networks, and spatial knowledge systems flourished across the continent. Yet, architectural history has repeatedly positioned Africa as peripheral, a space of absence rather than origin. This lecture challenges that narrative. Through the case of Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa, it reveals how architecture emerges not only from stability, but from continuity, memory, and cultural resilience. Somalia becomes both an example and a lens: a place shaped by conflict and interruption, yet rich in history, identity, and spatial intelligence.

Pre-Launch: Shifting the Center: From Fragility to Resilience

In this Pre-launch event Omar Degan will present his curatorial vision for the inaugural Pan-African Architecture Biennale that will open in Nairobi, September 1st, 2026. Degan will share more information on the event, present key participators and engage in a conversation with the audience on the biennale theme, the purpose and the possible ways of joining the event in Kenya. 

The pre-launch is hosted in collaboration with the Danish Architecture Center and will be followed by an informal celebratory reception. 

About Omar Degan

Omar Degan Sharif is a Somali Architect, founder, and principal of DO Architecture and Design, an architecture firm based in Mogadishu, specialized in sustainability, emergency architecture and post-conflict reconstruction. Born in Italy in 1990, holds a BA in Architecture, an MSc (Hons) in Architecture for Sustainability at the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and a postgraduate degree in Habitat and Cooperation - Emergency architecture and developing countries.

His passion for serving the most vulnerable populations led him to establish a firm in the capital city of Somalia devoted to supporting the post-conflict reconstruction process of his motherland through the use of architecture.