Princess Adedoyin Talabi Faniyi Discusses African Landscape Design at HGSD

Princess Adedoyin Talabi Faniyi of the Osun Sacred Grove in Osogbo, Nigeria and landscape architect Tarna Klitzner based in Cape Town, South Africa emphasized the importance of integrating the environment and architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s International Womxn’s Day Keynote Address.

“It is the embodiment of nature that puts everything together,” Princess Adedoyin said. “Landscape and architecture, they are interrelated.”

The talk — moderated by Zoe Marks, director of the Harvard Center for African Studies — focused on highlighting the leadership of women in design, particularly with celebrating, creating, and protecting unique African landscape architecture.

The princess highlighted the sacred space of Osun Grove — a shrine dedicated to Osun, a water goddess in Yoruba culture and a UNESCO World Heritage site — as an example of the integration of design and nature.

“They are sacred spaces where divinity and humanity meet,” she said. “These spaces are often located in natural settings: forests, river banks, mountains, acknowledging the interconnectedness of nature and spirituality.”

Princess Adedoyin, who also serves as a Yoruba high priestess, noted that many of the Yoruba people’s shrines preserve elements like water, earth, and wind within natural sites.

“The preservation of natural sites as shrines emphasizes a sacred ecological stewardship, where environmental conversation is both a spiritual and cultural duty,” shesaid. “The rituals conducted here emphasize ecological harmony, recognizing the forest as a living entity that sustains both physical and spiritual life.”

Klitzner echoed Princess Adedoyin’s sentiments and discussed how she works within the environment of South Africa in three of her previous projects — the Harare Urban Park Khayelitsha, the Mitchells Plain Hospital, and the Hope Delft Cape Town.

“We want to make sure that what we do is beneficial to the space and the place, whether it be the landscape, the natural environment, or whether it be the social environment. We would like there to be a fit,” Klitzner said. “So for there to be a fit, you need to listen.”

Klitzner said the Harare Urban Park became “a prototype for a collaborative methodology,” while the Mitchells Plain Hospital has formed “the basis for future planting lists, as well as strategies for sustainable urban drainage.” She added that the Hope Delft Cape Town project “synthesizes the collaborative methodology initiated in the Harare Urban Park project and the sustainable environmental practices explored in the Mitchells Plain project.”

Klitzner also reflected on her experience as a woman in design, and said that she “had to work quite hard to be listened to” in her field.

“Being a woman, maybe in the early years of being in the landscape, was quite difficult,” Klitzner said. “You still do have to work quite hard initially when you start on a project to get people to listen to you.”

Marks ended the talk by asking Klitzner her biggest takeaway of her time working in the African architectural landscape.

“I think it’s looking from within, rather than thinking you come in with the answers,” Klitzner said.

—Staff writer Nishka N. Patel can be reached at nishka.patel@thecrimson.com.