ARCHITECTURE IN BLACK An Architectural Exploit in Critical Blackness
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INTENT I want to develop an aesthetic device by drawing from the identity of critical blackness. The goal is not to produce architecture which reflects an identity or tries to address the needs/desires of a particular race or cultural group. Instead the goal is to formulate a process within blackness as a way to think, perceive, and approach constructed spaces.
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Alicia Ajayi
instructor: Jesse Volger
teaching assistant: Malia Kalahele
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Washington University in St. Louis
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Fall 2014
ARCHITECTURE IN BLACK An Architectural Exploit in Critical Blackness
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table of contents [9]
this is not for black people
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Brooklyn, IL
[36]
making marks
[50]
 freedom village research institute
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As I exist in a world obsessed with globalization I struggle with abandoning my identity to become an architect.
this is not for black people
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I emphasize the operation of creating a process (technique) by terming critical blackness. Despite an objectivity implied in the concept of “critical” thought, critical blackness accentuates an inherent contradiction in the ideal. Despite the best intentions of objectivity, there is always the author’s perspective. “Blackness” denotes a social construct which refers to a nomenclature which transcends race. This identification has been reclaimed and redefined by my parents generation[1] and
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now becomes reconstructed in my own generation through connections of history. The term is dualistic in the sense that it hints at a collective experience as well as the individual.
1 The term blackness shifted in the late 60s as it became a way to express African diaspora. It became a point of pride for many black nationalist.
blackness
noun an analytical commentary on black identity
crit•i•cal adj. 1. incorporating a detailed, scholarly analysis & commentary 2. constructing an objective analysis
black•ness adj. 1. the quality or state of being black
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Name of Collage
Identity and architecture are often considered disconnected. When the attempt is made to make a connection, it’s often grouped under regionalism or vernacular architecture which only allows for a pragmatic and superficial analysis. However, there have been more direct attempts to define the linkage. In When the Cathedrals Were White by Le Corbusier he draws on the American obsession with machine and the music culture of blacks during the time of the Industrial Revolution. The unique predicament of architecture is that it meets the needs of utility as well as a desire to evoke emotion like other forms of art.
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MISSING PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVE WITH DIFFERENT LENS
Discourse about identity in architecture tend to refer to what is missing on a very superficial level. Analysis of numbers in professional positions and student count in the academic realm become narrow avenues for us to identify missing pieces. This is an attempt to go beyond statistics and evaluate how the exclusive nature of architecture has neglected other sources of creativity and has stifled the profession. Darrel Fields, author of Architecture in Black has another approach which suggests that the goal should not be to fill “gaps� but to construct with a cultural lens.
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In the art world, selfexploration is revered as a great source of creativity. Extracting elements of identity become methods of expression.
It is a peculiar sensation, this doubleconsciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness,— an American, a Negro.... -W.E.B. Dubois
For many African Americans artist, art became a loud expression for a voiceless group. Often out of circumstance; found materials, unconventional mediums, and utilitarian tactics developed a type of “poetic of emptiness”. Without a way into an unattainable art culture scene and a desire to define oneself in the world, many Black artist developed a way to explore art and develop an aesthetic that was tied to their identity.
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Architecture shares the same semiotic nature.
GLENN LIGON AMERICA
WILLIAM POPE SELF-PORTRAIT
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REFLECTION OF GOAL
I believe there are untapped sources of creativity due to a lack of willingness and ability to engage different identities. This approach is often considered not legitimate perhaps because of the level of subjectivity implied or the belief in the falsehood that architecture transcends cultural elements. I intend to create an aesthetic device informed through my experience by engaging in a process to develop compelling objects. Aesthetic device is defined as the starting point, rooted in a philosophy. The process that follows adheres to the ethic established by the device in order to achieve a desired space. Parallels can be drawn to better understand this operation.
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There are two simultaneous mechanisms through out the project. One mechanism will explore the idea of properties which belongs to a more innate sense and sets out to define what has been discussed in terms of a process being informed by critical blackness. I will explore this through the act of mark making. Mark making will allow me to use abstraction as meaning to develop a language of speech acts.
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The other mechanism is where my process meets the world. I will engage the concept of property as way to choose and analyze site. I am interested particularly in the ideal of ownership along with the political and social nature this ideal represents in blackness as a way to respond. This will be a way to develop a purpose for architecture.
property
critical
properties
Develop a Language
Develop a Purpose 21
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Brooklyn, IL
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VILLAGE OF BROOKLYN, IL
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SPACE DEFINED
WORK LAND = OWN LAND
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B
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EVOLUTION OF SPACE IN RELATION TO BLACKNESS
BLACKS AS PROPOERTY
The black experience has a long history of being in tension with the US ideal of property and therefore space. The concept of ownership in particular is complicated and can be implied on many levels. The history of Brooklyn, IL as the first African American incorporated town in the US is no exception.
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BROOKLYN, IL
property
critical
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Brooklyn, widely known as Lovejoy is located in the American Bottom, a flood plain of the Mississippi River in southern Illinois. The American Bottom has a robust economic past that reached most of the midwest region as well as the US. Fertile soil for farming made the American Bottom the primary source for corn, horseradish and other food products preIndustrial Revolution. While access to major transport by way of the Mississippi and later, the rail system, manufacturing created a major industrial center all around Brooklyn by the early 1900s. 27
According to oral testimonies, Brooklyn’s was settled by a group of freed and runaway slave families, led by Mother Baltimore (a freed slave) located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, a slave state. Illinois at this time was a free state. Brooklyn would become one of more than sixty other all black settlements during the 19th century, other wise known as freedom villages.
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There is limited research on freedom villages in general however there is one seminal book on Brooklyn that documents its beginning to the mid-1920s. The book was published as recently as 2000. Currently there is an active archaeological dig to uncover more of Brooklyn’s past. Possible links to the Underground Railroad have been discovered and there is a significant effort to register Brooklyn as a National Historic Site.
MOTHER PRISCILLA BALTIMORE
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FRAGMENT OF STONEWARE FROM DIG
1940 ARIEL PHOTO
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The multiple timelines allow the investigation of property to go beyond mere manifestation of the word. Instead there is a potential for a profound narrative to be discovered. The concept of what has been taken versus the preserved versus the ignored is a motif identified in other investigations and begins to establish a foundation.
GRANITE CITY (1896)
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History exists within layers of spatial, political and economic elements. This can be presented in multiple timelines.
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MADISON VENICE (1841) BROOKLYN (1829)
ST. LOUIS (1822)
NATIONAL CITY (1907)
EAST ST. LOUIS (1797)
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ALORTON
LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL LOVEJOY SCHOOL
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
BROOKLYN POLICE STATION BOTTOMS UP PINK SLIP ROXY’S
US POST OFFICE
GATEWAY NATIONAL
Current Brooklyn Amenities
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ECONOMIC 1822 St. Louis City is incorporated
Missouri Compromise declaring MO a slave
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1837 BROOKLYN PLAT MAP
Initial Manufacturing in region
1870 1880
Construction of an industrial infrastructure/ creation of East St. Louis and National City
Construction of an industrial infrastructure
1890-1910 Black Nationalism surges and approximately 60 more black towns are built
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1886 John Evans becomes first black mayor
1874 Eads Bridge is constructed
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1873 Brooklyn is incorporated
1837 Becomes “established” by 5 white men
1830
1865 Slavery abolished
SPATIAL 1829 Mother Baltimore and 11 families and founded Lovejoy
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1873 All black men from Brooklyn were working in industrial jobs as opposed to common agricultural jobs.
POLITICAL 1820
BROOKLYN, IL 1890 19
Method of Industrial suburb boom happens over local 650 acres National Roxna, Ha
Method of centralization “planning” as an economic tool
STL becomes major industrial suburb
AERIAL VIEW OF ST. LOUIS NATIONAL STOCK YARDS 2000 America’s First Black Town is published
f decentralization “planning” as an economic tool City, Granite City, Monsanto, Alcoa, Wood River, artford
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JACOB LAWRENCE, MIGRATION SERIES
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St. Louis National Stock Yards is dissolved and partially demolished
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1996
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1996 National Stock
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1971 Pruitt Igoe was demolished
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1954 Pruitt Igoe was built
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1940-1970 Second Great Migration to the West
1917 East St. Louis race riot
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1920 STL National Stockyards becomes the largest provider in meat packaging
1902 New industrial plant is built and incorporated the city Aloton
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1904 World’s Fair and Summer Olympics take place in STL City
1907 National City incorporates
MULTIPLE TIMELINES
1990 2
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AMENITIES INFORMATION
LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL
LOVEJOY SCHOOL
BROOKLYN POLICE STATION BOTTOMS UP PINK SLIP ROXY’S
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
US POST OFFICE
TRANSPORT INFORMATION
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HW 3
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1-7
RAILROAD
HIGHWAY
STREET
GATEWAY NATIONAL GOLF LINKS
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making marks
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The idea of making marks is that act of abstraction as meaning. This exploration will create a system of speech acts. Speech acts originates in literary theory.
There are three distinctions in speech acts: 1. act of speaking 2. act of performing by speaking 3. effects of the speech
properties
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The process seems deliberate but can be led by intuition. My experience of testing marks starts begins as intuition but narrows to a focus as I develop my device within my identity.
Develop a Language
MARKING BY MAKING WITH HANDS_COLLAGE 39
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MARKING BY MAKING WITH HANDS_PAPER WEAVING
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MARKING BY MACHINE_COLLAGES SITE WITH MARKINGS
My focus quickly became about ways to engage the site. Much like the multiple timelines, an attempt was made to layer. Testing a layering of the personal, metaphysical, histories and reality through a series of tests on the site has become critical to my process.
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MARKING BY MACHINE_TIME LAPSE COLLAGE
MARKING BY MACHINE_ABANDONED STL NATIONAL STOCKYARDS IMPOSED ON THE PARKING LOT OF STRIP CLUBS IN BROOKLYN 45
Through video I further explore the idea of leaving marks by using my body and animations to express leaving traces on the site.
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These experimentations have lead me to realize collective memory connected by indirect personal experiences can be powerful. The idea of layering has become a way to visualize and speculate about the past of Brooklyn. Beyond the kind of metaphysical meaning I can extract from this type of experimentation it also becomes a way to document, measure and analyze the site.
100 FT
0 FT
MARKING BY VIDEO_LEAVING TRACES SERIES 47
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TRACE FOUR
TRACE THREE
TRACE TWO
TRACE ONE FRAME 01 FRAME 02 FRAME 03 FRAME 04
FRAME 05
FRAME 06
FRAME 07
FRAME 08
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freedom village research institute
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The interstitial space between memory and presence is undefined. This space is difficult to define because it happens over a period of time rather than at an exact moment.
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Within this space we chose to let go of a past and forget. There are times when the decision to leave a history behind is intentional. There are other times when it becomes a sub-conscious for the human condition and the decision is not a decision at all, but just the next step.
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When we want to conjure up the past through experience of space, memorials and monuments serve as a gateway to valued pieces of memory. However, these typologies often rely on a response to the retrospective. The experience becomes flat. Activating these elements of remembrance into an drive for exploration is a way to actively engage in remembrance. Then the act of remembrance becomes productive.
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Routes of the Underground Railroad
PASSIVE
a starting point 8000 SQ. FT.
a place to reside 7700 SQ. FT.
a place to research/study 5000 SQ. FT.
a place to dig
a place to fellowship 2000 SQ. FT.
a place to engage public
ACTIVATED
1500 SQ. FT.
a place to look back 5000 SQ. FT.
TOTAL 30000+ SQ. FT.
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Brooklyn, IL and other freedom villages have experienced an act of erasure from history. Most historic maps do not acknowledge its presence until around the 1920s. In an effort to uncover an important story in America’s past, Freedom Village Research Institute or FVRi is proposed. The mission of the FVRI is to be become the leading cultural and scholarly institution for Freedom Villages research and other black settlements established in the 19th century.
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Building program will reflect the four distinct users with the intent to overlay interactions. Activity such as completing an academic residency, to studying the art of oral traditions, to cultural performances open to the public will allow for dialogue to occur at multiple specificities.
RESIDENT
VISITOR
NOVICE
ACADEMIC
FREEDOM VILLAGE RESEARCH INSTITUTE a starting point 8000 SQ. FT.
a place to reside 7700 SQ. FT.
a place to research/study 5000 SQ. FT.
a place to dig
a place to fellowship 2000 SQ. FT.
a place to engage public 1500 SQ. FT.
a place to look back 5000 SQ. FT.
TOTAL 30000+ SQ. FT.
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Creating an anchor within Brooklyn creates a powerful self-containing force that would facilitate a dialogue between history and present.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
ARCHITECTURE IN BLACK