By Garry Benson

Image 1: Namaste – mud brick home

I built my own mudbrick house 20 years ago on 10 acres and as an artist have added mosaics, sculpture & murals. I’ve also delighted the Welcome Swallows & Paper Wasps who build their nests with gunk from the mud walls. But why mudbrick? I was inspired by two events – reading the large format book ‘Shelter’ and my trip to West Africa in the 1970s…

In the south of Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, near the border with Ghana lies a small, circular village of about 1.2 hectares, called Tiébélé.

Image 2: Kessena People ©1990 Margaret Courtney-Clarke

This is home of the Kassena people, one of the oldest ethnic groups that had settled in the territory of Burkina Faso in the 15th century. Tiébélé is known for their amazing traditional Gourounsi architecture and elaborately decorated walls of…