F E AT U R E
1. Witness Walls project © Hood Design studio
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Black Landscapes Matter The recent publication of a book of essays by American landscape architect Professor Walter Hood has prompted a reflection on comparisons with the UK. Sabina Mohideen
Diversity. Inclusion Underrepresented voices. All words and phrases I hear repeatedly to take into account, and somehow prove a commitment to, in a variety of contexts. I tick plenty of the boxes – female, Muslim, Asian immigrant – but even to me they sometimes feel like words that are invoked to the point of almost losing their meaning. The built environment sector is as insistent as any other on invoking diversity and inclusion, and it is hard not to become cynical about tokenism. And then you encounter a place or a room or a group in which
your marginalised status has been meaningfully taken into account. The response you have is visceral. And powerful. Wonder. Disbelief. Joy. Tears. Often all of these together. Suddenly you know what it is to have your personhood, and the experiences of your life, recognised and reflected back at you. It is not that we cannot respond appreciatively to a built environment designed by a dominant straight, white, non-disabled aesthetic and mindset; of course, we can – in the same way that Black and Asian audiences can enjoy a period drama with a strictly white cast, or an LGBTQ+ audience can enjoy a history of romcoms featuring straight stories. The expertise and hard work that went into the creation is not in doubt. But it requires marginalised people to operate within a double existence, in which we are constantly adapting ourselves
to what is around us without having access to what is consequential to our (significant) community. Nothing can adequately capture for people who have always had their existence, tastes and needs catered to, what it feels like for those who have not. However, it is not just we, the marginalised, who edit. The collective editing that takes place at a wider structural and political scale, with the potentially more serious consequences for society, is illustrated by Kofi Boone in Enabling Connections to Empower Place, one of a collection of essays in the award-winning Black Landscapes Matter. Edited by Walter Hood and Grace Mitchell Tada, the book covers the critical contribution of Black people to shaping the American landscape, how their history and culture is being recognised and incorporated into landscapes now and the importance of doing so, along with case studies and 45
