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Acknowledgements
- notes to the preface
- Notes on the Organization of this Book
Architecture as a Noun: place, person or thing
- Culturally defined perceptions are often selfish
- An examination of whiteness
- Remix
- Notes
Chapter 2: Discipline - Person
- Disciplines construct a knowing subject
- Two discourses, unable to coexist
- Remix
- Notes
Chapter 3: Architecture - Thing
- Remix
- Notes
Architecture as a Noun: place, person or thing
- Precis
Architecture as a Verb: action, state or motion
- The active creation of space and a challenging of place
- Remix
- notes
- A kind of cultural imperialism
- Expand the current definition of Architect
- Architecture must be seen as having “juice”
- Remix
- notes
Chapter 6: Architecture - Motion
- This Hip Hop Spatial Paradigm
- Hip Hop Architecture: Palimpsestic
- Hip Hop Architecture: Anthropomorphic
- Hip Hop Architecture: Performative
- Hip hop Architecture: Adaptive
- Remix
- Notes
Theory without practice has no value
Practice without theory has no purpose…
…and either without responsibility has no place in architecture
I want to be clear about the premise of this document up front: The discipline of architecture has both a systemic and specific resistance to African-Americans at every level. It can be seen in the entrance and graduation rates of students where just nine years ago African-Americans constituted only 10% of the student body studying architecture with a little over 8% of that woeful number obtaining degrees; it can be seen in the constitution of the faculty teaching architecture, where African-Americans constitute a little more than 3% of that body, with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) accounting for 2/3rd of all African-American faculty appointments; it can be seen in the number of registered architects, where just over 1% of all registered architects are African-American despite being 12.5% of the population; and it can also be seen in the makeup and material of published media, where to date there have been less than a dozen books in print documenting the work of African-American architects, one African-American architectural critic to have written for a major metropolitan newspaper and zero editorial positions at the major architectural publications, in addition to the fact that articles in the most popular professional journals highlighting the work of African-American firms are few and far between; this despite a history in the building professions that dates back to the 17th century.
This work aims to sketch an outline of what I have observed as both the structural and specific resistance to African-American participation in the discipline of architecture. My work in this area is informed by my participation in both the scholastic and practice provinces that constitute the architectural discipline, where I work to not only identify, but also penetrate this resistance to diversity in an effort to highlight both its systemic nature and the ways in which it operates specifically to impede African-American participation. Back
Introduction
Notes on the Organization of this Book
The Aesthetics of Equity is organized in two sections, each with three chapters. The first section, entitled Architecture as a Noun, addresses the concept of architecture as a noun–a person, place or thing–to highlight its current inert condition. As such, this section looks at the static, concretized understanding of architecture and deconstructs the systemic practices that have kept it from changing with the demands of a multicultural society. It examines the current condition of architecture from three specific sites of critique–spatial, as the manner in which we construct a very particular worldview for ourselves; disciplinary, as the manner in which we pass on that worldview to others, and; professional, as the manner in which that worldview becomes embedded in the built environment–as a way to understand and reveal the hidden operations in each that impede the inclusion of diverse cultures in general, and African-American participation in particular. Back
Chapter 1, Space–Place, addresses the notion of power as it is embodied both abstractly and materially in the spatial organization of our built environment. I focus on the predominant Western notion of space that underlies the organization and perception of design and posit that space–as a critical element in the construction of identity and property–is racialized. The maintenance of this racialized space can currently be seen in the various ways state-authorized privatizations and policing of public space operate. I further argue that the seemingly “natural” decisions about space that authorize these and other biased spatial practices in the world are in actuality constructed on, legitimized by, and fundamentally invested in something equally naturalized, but far less visible–whiteness–as the transparent and readily accepted requirement for desirable identity and spatial construction in our society and subsequently authorizes spatial bias currently at play. Back
Chapter 2, Discipline–Person, argues that the racialized dichotomies authorized by the spatial expectations of Locke find their way into the academy, in both personnel and project. Through its historical alliance and service to an elite class, the profession has positioned itself as the primary, if not the only, authority on the architectural object, attempting to limit the discourse of architectural education and exclude public and allied professional discourses. This silencing of academia in many ways allows the status quo–architecture’s relationship to the elite–to go unexamined and subsequently perpetuate itself. This elite is defined in large part by its political, economic, social and aesthetic desires, which are played out in the organization and form of space, place and property and, the discipline is the tool by which this organization is both built and institutionalized. I close by outlining the manner in which this relationship to the elite has demonstrated both a structural and a specific resistance to African-American participation within the academy and in the process, institutionalized class, racial and spatial biases. Back
Chapter 3, Architecture–Thing, takes Bill Hubbard, Jr. observation that “when social structures give the lie to what a society says it believes, architecture gets used as a tool in the management of the conflict” as its starting point and examines how these racial and classist social structures operate in relation to society and the profession. Specifically, I look at the seeming disconnect between the profession–its presumptive function and concomitant legitimacy–and the society that authorizes its existence. Further, I examine the social structures within the professional arena, specifically in relation to African-Americans, where it seems that architecture as a management of conflict is most accurately read as a management of a conflict of color; exclusionary practices that work to render African-American practitioners invisible to both potential mainstream clients and colleagues. Back
The subsequent section is entitled Architecture as a Verb and in it I take a look at architecture as an action, state or motion. Theorizing a new framework to address the shortcomings unveiled by Architecture as a Noun, here I ultimately suggesting other possibilities for our shared environment. Again working from a critique of spatial, disciplinary and professional domains, it offers an alternative by rejecting the predestination and finality of the previous chapter and infusing its analysis with the concept of agency and active participation. Architecture as a Verb suggests that the worldview constructed in Architecture as a Noun can be changed to allow for a more fluid, inclusive and mobile manner of engaging the built environment and offers a model for applying this hypothesis in an urban setting. Back
Chapter 4, Space–Action, interrogates further Lockean notion of space. I begin by combining the positions of Lefebvre and Foucault that argue space is a social construction–a relation between sites that are in turn defined by individual social relationships. I further incorporate arguments from Massey,Certeau, and others to theorize the construction of African-American subjectivities and identities via spatial appropriation and usage in opposition to what Lockean space allows. By interrogating the notions of white embedded in the naturalized spatial practices of society, I identify and analyze spatial strategies employed by African-Americans that resist spatial and political marginalization. Finally, I address the question of spatial construction specifically in the context of African-American inner city spaces by engaging Michel Foucualt’s heterotopia hypothesis, arguing for a third possibility for heterotopias, one that is specifically anchored in the urban environment and offers an alternative to the seeming inevitability of dead, vacant urban spaces, opening possibilities for positive and substantive transformation of distressed urban spaces. Back
Chapter 5, Discipline–State, presents a strategic outline designed to dismantle the systemic nature and the ways in which the academy operates to support class and racial bias and specifically to impede African-American participation discussed in Chapter 2. I introduce, analyze and synthesize several alternative models for thinking about architecture and disciplinary education that can form the foundation of new paradigms within the academy more amiable to African-American participation. Finally, I address the question of what a new architectural disciplinary model might look like and the advantages of working towards its adoption within the academy. Back
Chapter 6, Architecture–Motion, theorizes very specific cultural influences in/on architectural theory, analysis and creation. It specifically explores the potential of music and space being connected in a more profound and fundamental way than has been previously discussed. I assert that the construction of sound and its place in spatial production–and its concomitant effects on representations of such a space–radically changes the nature and understanding of the visual space in which we live. Specifically, I build a case around hip hop music, identifying several principles of the genre that may be transferred into built form, theorize a manner in which an architectural manifestation can emerge from these principles and present a model of such a manifestation. In this chapter, I am not so concerned with how music may or may not create a building, but with how music creates a spatial understanding that results in architecture, a fundamentally different search for an aesthetic paradigm of architectural and sonic production. In support of Tricia Rose’s visualization that “[i]n the postindustrial urban context...hip hop style is...urban renewal”, I outline a particular social relationship born in the hip hop inner city that grapples with the question of space and identity and illustrate how this social relationship manifests itself in a spatial emergence and renewal and finally, what such spatial recognition and renewal reveals about the future of the urban landscape and architecture. Back
Some Recommended Books...
Bradford Grant and Dennis Alan Mann, eds. Directory of African American Architects. (Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Center for the Study and Practice of Architecture, 1995).
David Hughes. Afrocentric Architecture: A Design Primer (Columbus: Greyden Press, 1994).
Karen Hunter. Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli Publishers, 1994).
Paul R. Williams. Will And Way (New York: Rizzoli, 1994).
Dissertations & Theses - Available from UMI Dissertation Services in Ann Arbor, MI 48106. 800-521-0600
Carson Anderson.The Architectural Practice of Vertner Woodson Tandy: An Evaluation of the Professional and Social Position of a Black Architect. MA Thesis. (University of Virginia, 1982).
Alexander O. Boulton, Ph.D. The Architecture of Slavery: Art, Language and Society in Early Virginia. Doctoral Dissertation. (College of William and Mary, 1991).
Raymond A. Dalton, Ph.D. Admission, Retention and Support Service of African-American Architecture Students: A National Survey. Doctoral Dissertation. (Purdue University, 1990).
Richard Dozier, D.Arch. Booker T. Washington’s Contribution to the Education of Black Architects. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of Michigan. 1989).
Harrison Mosley Etheridge, Ph.D. The Black Architects of Washington, DC 1900 - Present. Doctoral Dissertation. (The Catholic University of America, 1979).
Mark Jeffery Hardwick. African-American Architecture in Langston, OK. MA Thesis. (University of Delaware, 1994).
Wesley Henderson, Ph.D. Two Case Studies of African-American Architects’ Careers in Los Angeles, 1890-1945: Paul Williams, FAIA and James Garrott, AIA. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of California at Los Angeles, 1992).
Arthur Lee Symes, D.Arch. Architecture and the Black Community: Towards the Development of a Relevant Architectural Education. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of Michigan, 1976).