Abstract
M.Tech. (Architectural Technology)
This proposal is driven by an interest in architectural expressions of identity, relating to contemporary discourses around black identity,
mixed-race identities and the marginalisation of non-white subjectivities. The American architect and theorist, Mario Gooden, states that,
‘architecture historically privileges the construction of perspectival space through the gaze of the white male subject. In both architectural representation
and architectural discourse, black bodies are either invisible, occupy unspoken spaces of colonial subjugation, or dismissed to locations of repressive
difference.’4
The influential French philopsher, Jacques Derrida, best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, is one
of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy. He has also had a considerable impact on the world of
architecture, having directly been associated in the actual design process through his collaboration with the American architect Peter Eisenman
on a section of the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France. Using Derrida’s notion of ‘binary opposites’, first articulated in his seminal text, Positions
(Derrida, 1992), the proposal seeks to test Derrida’s understanding of paired opposites (black/white; male/female; inside/outside) in a number
of spatial, representational and formal short projects, leading to the major design project, The Anti-Embassy. In particular, it draws on
Derrida’s notion of ‘pairs in a permanent state of play’5, where neither term takes precedence over the other. The theorist Homi Bhabha’s writings
on hybridity have also been a major influence in the development of this proposal, and in particular, his writings on the act of translation
which is seen as fundamental to the architectural project.
Cape Verde is one of the most hybrid cultures on the planet. Its population is neither African nor European but rather a hybrid of both, with
almost infinetismal variations. In such cultures/socieities, the question of identity is both complex and contested. The Anti-Embassy is an
attempt to translate these questions of self/Other; black/white; hybrids and ‘wholes’ into architectural form. It opposes and rejects the idea of
fixed constructs, and aims to shed light on the complexities of contemporary cultural hybridity by ‘solidifying’ these contradictions in formal,
material and programmatic ways. It is situated in Plateau, the Portuguese colonial centre of power in the capital city, Praia, in the heart of the
Alexandre Albuquerque Square. The symbolic siting of the project at the heart of the city’s colonial administration recognises the role that
architecture plays in the production and maintenance of national narratives of identity, and at the same time, destabilises those notions by
providing an alternate narrative.
This proposal aims to bring awareness to the supression and marginalisation of black subjectivity and cultural expression by reminding us of
the power of architecture to reinforce authority and control cultural expression. The proposal blurs and subverts Derridean notions of the
binary construction to create a more nuanced form of hybrid cultural identity. Architecture is a deeply cultural activity: how can architecture
interpret and translate the historical, social, and political and contemporary contexts of place and culture?