2nd Floor, 138 Jan Smuts Avenue Parkwood Johannesburg South Africa, 2000
Johannesburg: 26.1497° S, 28.0342° E London: 51.5072° N, 0.1276°
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Each architectural design is a new history. To identify what is novel or innovative, we need to consider the present, past and future. We expect historical narratives to be written in words, but they can also be delineated in drawing, cast in concrete or seeded in soil. The aim of this volume is to understand each design as a visible and physical history. Historical understanding is investigated as a stimulus to the creative process, highlighting how architects learn from each other and other disciplines. This encourages us to consider the stories about history that architects fabricate. An eminent set of international contributors reflect on the relevance of historical insight for contemporary design, drawing on the rich visual output of innovative studios worldwide in practice and education. Wide ranging and thought-provoking articles encompass fact, fiction, memory, time, etymology, civilisation, racial segregation and more. Features: Elizabeth Dow, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Terunobu Fujimori, Perry Kulper, Lesley Lokko, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Niall McLaughlin, Aisling O’Carroll, Arinjoy Sen, Amin Taha and Sumayya Vally.
“Searching for forms and histories in the architectures of diaspora, migration and the overlooked, perhaps we may find possibilities for forms of representation alongside themes of hybridity. Evolving expressions of identity – the virtual, the embodied, the performed, the atmospheric, the wayward and the supernatural – dance allegorically alongside each other. That which is fluid, shifting, undefined, continuously redefining, evolving, mutating offers other forms of archive and other modes of architecture.”
— Sumayya Vally
