Image note
Three original interpretations of earthen tower-houses & village space, informed by Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba. These images explore material and spatial ideas; they are not documentary views or measured reconstructions of the reference. The palette is drawn from the material portrait.
Publication credit: The Chromologium.
Image credits and reuseThe colour strip is the entry’s study palette. Artwork sources and image credits and reuse terms are recorded in the archive.
Artwork recordThree views of one material idea.
Koutammakou is the cultural landscape of the Batammariba, extending across Togo and Benin. Its earthen tower-houses sit within villages, farmland and places of ritual significance.
Read the material study01 / Reading the material
A dwelling among other places
Koutammakou’s earthen tower-houses have a strong rounded presence, but they belong to villages, farmland and ritual places. The spaces between buildings are part of how the dwelling is understood. An isolated sculptural view leaves much of that relationship outside the frame.
02 / From surface to space
Read the whole.
Then the edge.
Compare the enclosing mass of one house with the route through a group. The shared ground connects distinct volumes without turning them into a continuous block. Read the landscape across its Togo–Benin extent rather than forcing it into one present-day boundary.
Compare the rounded mass of a tower-house with the spaces between buildings. Read the dwelling as part of a social landscape, not an isolated sculptural object.
03 / Colour in context
A palette you can work with.
Five tones drawn from the material portrait. Select a colour, compare it on paper and ink, or copy its value into your own study.
Surface
#7b4c27
Colour values & paper / ink comparison
oklch(0.463 0.082 57.038) · primary
The colour stays fixed as its surroundings change.
Try the bench exercise
04 / At the bench
Make the observation tangible.
Arrange a few plain rounded volumes around a connected open ground. Give each a clear entrance and preserve the spaces between them. Study settlement relationships without copying culturally specific features into an unrelated decorative object.
Keep a view of the whole beside a close detail. Note the material, lighting and the one variable you changed.
Source & orientation
Keep the reference close.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba. Retrieved October 10, 2026.
The material readings and bench exercise are editorial studies of this particular reference. The artwork explores its material ideas; the linked source documents the place.
Artwork & cartographic records
Artwork record · Geographic plate record. Map geometry: Natural Earth, public domain. The archive follows its map’s place names, including territories and disputed areas.
A closer look
Questions about this study
What does this study of Togo focus on?
Koutammakou is the cultural landscape of the Batammariba, extending across Togo and Benin. Its earthen tower-houses sit within villages, farmland and places of ritual significance.
Where can I find the original reference?
Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba, published by UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The artwork explores the reference’s material ideas; the linked source documents the place.
What could I try at the bench?
Arrange a few plain rounded volumes around a connected open ground. Give each a clear entrance and preserve the spaces between them. Study settlement relationships without copying culturally specific features into an unrelated decorative object.
Continue by material
