seminar
From Multicultural to Pluriversal
Rethinking universalist notions in Modern Architecture
22 September 2022
Leiden Volkenkunde - Research Center for Material Culture
The Netherlands
What sort of transformations or transgressions take place when non-Western imagery gets translated and incorporated into the framework of modernism? How do we re-assess the acts of translation and appropriation in and by modern architecture?
The colloquium held at Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, organised by Alejandro Campos, Dirk van den Heuvel, and Ilaria Obata, presented a timely intervention in the ongoing dialogue about the intersection of modern architecture and non-Western influences. Enriched by the perspectives of art scholars, anthropologists, decolonial thinkers, and architecture historians, we critically interrogated the assimilation of extra-European elements into the edifice of modern architectural thought, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century. The colloquium thus sought to unravel the connections of modern architecture with questions of colonialism and coloniality in light of contemporary post-colonial and decolonial critique, extending beyond mere aesthetic appropriation to probe the deeper layers of cultural, political, and epistemological implications.
Early examples of this post 50s 'ethnographic paradigm in architecture’ are the writings and works by Bernard Rudofsky, Jorn Utzon, Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods, or the Dutch Aldo van Eyck. In their pursuit of 'vernacular' buildings or 'architecture without architects', they sought what they perceived as universal human qualities that could enrich the Eurocentric orthodoxy of Modern Architecture. Their contributions re-shaped the direction of the dominant architectural discourse and are considered key moments of the canonical and still predominantly Eurocentric history of architecture. This didactic model of vernacular architecture, however, necessitates a rigorous examination of the underlying assumptions about universality and the human condition. We invited guests to reassess our received history within the context of colonial and global modernity, raising questions about inclusivity, diversity, and the recognition of a multiplicity of voices and perspectives.
In the full-day event we were joined by Ijlal Muzzafar from Rhode Island School of Design, Fanny Wonu Veys from the RCMC, Hilde Heynen from KU Leuven, Ayala Levin from University of California, and Rolando Vázquez from University College Utrecht, followed by an open conversation moderated by Dirk van den Heuvel.
PART 1 - Translation or Erasure, Ethnography and the Collection
‘Aldo van Eyck’s ethnographic collection’, Alejandro Campos
‘Our Colonial Inheritance', Fanny Wonu Veys
‘Architecture and Development’, Ayala Levin
The first part of the seminar foregrounded the intricate connections between architecture and ethnography.
Alejandro Campos, lecturer at TU Delft and visiting researcher at the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, examined the work and thinking of Dutch architects Aldo and Hannie van Eyck. His presentation delved into their engagement with ethnographic art, contextualising it within the broader spectrum of avant-garde artistic movements in the early twentieth century. Supported by their travels and ethnographic readings, the Van Eycks aimed to open up the cultural and philosophical canon by rejecting dominant concepts of temporality, historicity, and the status of rational thinking. However, Campos noted that their endeavours, while well intended, were not immune to the prevalent Western tendencies of decontextualization and exotization, highlighting a nuanced contradiction in their practice.
In the second lecture, Fanny Wonu Veys, curator of Oceania at the National Museum of Worldcultures (NMVW), presented her curatorial work for the Tropenmuseum’s permanent exhibition: “Our Colonial Inheritance”. Veys’ presentation showed the NMVW’s dedication to confronting and unpacking themes of slavery and colonialism, fundamentally embedded in the DNA of ethnographic museums. In the exhibition, the curatorial team offers a critical examination of the Dutch colonial legacy in Indonesia, Suriname, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and many other countries, engaging with a complex and often contentious historical narrative.
Concluding the morning session, Ayala Levin, Associate Professor in University of California, situated ethnographic borrowing within the framework of south-south settler-colonial exchanges in the context of postwar university building in Nigeria. Levin’s exploration of Aryeh Sharon’ work at the University of Ife was particularly illuminating. Sharon, an Israeli Bauhaus graduate, rejected the British-predominant use of sun shading devices, drawing instead on his climatic experiences in Palestine. In order to create a more appropriate architectural "skin", Sharon referred to the grooved skin of the famous Yoruba bronze figurines that date back to the eleventh century, which he had discovered thanks to the artistic program of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Tracing these connections and hybridisations, Levin showed how this post-colonial south-south formation of a new global imaginary of southern or tropical cultures simultaneously contested Western precepts and the violent histories of colonialism.
PART 2 - Modernity and Coloniality, History of Architecture revisited
'Translation versus Appropriation', Ijlal Muzaffar
'The intertwinement of Modernism and Colonialism', Hilde Heynen
'Decolonial Aesthesis', Rolando Vázquez
Final discussion, chair Dirk van den Heuvel
The second part of the seminar delved deeper into the critical analysis of the interplay between modern architecture, colonialism, and decolonial thought, offering a more nuanced understanding of the historical and contemporary contexts of architectural practice.
As an opening for the evening, Ijlal Muzaffar went back to the Van Eycks and their contemporaries, examining the critical role played by modern architects in shaping the discourse on Third World development after the Second World War. Muzaffar argued that, as architects found opportunities as experts in development programs, they played a key role in shaping their key assumptions. Exploring the Van Eycks’ fascination for the Dogon in Mali, next to its long history under French colonial rule, he unpacked particular modes of social and economic intervention, such as self-help architecture or ethnographic expeditions, in their connection with the demands of postcolonial nation-states.
Hilde Heynen’s presentation pivoted to a theoretical examination of modernity and modernism, concepts initially articulated in line with universalist, 20th century understandings. Building upon postcolonial critiques inspired by Edward Said, Heynen pointed towards the intrinsic entanglements between modernism and colonialism. Her analysis argued that these entanglements brought to the fore a series of contradictions within the fabric of modernity and modernism. These contradictions challenge our conventional understanding and make it mpossible to maintain the canonical narratives that are still dominant within mainstream architectural historiographies.
Rolando Vázquez, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University College Utrecht, offered an introduction to decolonial thinking. Vázquez's work places the question of the possibility of an ethical life at the core of decolonial thought and advocates for the decolonial transformation of cultural and educational institutions. Engaging in a two-way conversation with the audience, Vázquez unpacked critical concepts central to decolonial theory, such as coloniality, epistemic restitution, the colonial matrix of power, and the search for an otherwise within the framework of a pluriversal understanding of reality. His presentation illuminated the pathways for understanding and action in the context of decolonizing knowledge and practice.
These last set of provoking thoughts opened the floor for a conversation moderated by Dirk van den Heuvel, where attendants and lecturers engaged in a rich conversation on the limits of our current academic curricula, the role of architects, and the necessary revision of our canonical historiography. The colloquium thus represented a significant step in recontextualising modern architecture, calling for a nuanced understanding of the processes of translation and appropriation in architectural discourse. This dialogue is not only about acknowledging the influences that have shaped modern architecture but also about critically examining the inherent power dynamics of these cultural exchanges.
Participants CVs
Ijlal Muzaffar is an associate professor of Modern Architectural History in the Theory and History of Art and Design department and graduate program director of the MA in Global Arts and Cultures program at RISD. He received his PhD from MIT in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. He is a founding member of the architectural history research collaborative and publishing platform Aggregate. His first book, The Periphery Within: Modern Architecture and the Making of the Third World, from the University of Texas Press, looks at how modern architects and planners played a critical role in shaping the discourse on Third World development and its associated structures of power after World War II.
Fanny Wonu Veys is the curator of Oceania at the National Museum of Worldcultures. Veys was a Barbro Klein Fellow at the The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) for the spring semester of 2022. For this fellowship, she used visual and textual sources to piece together the fragmentary historical and anthropological narrative of tattooing in the Pacific archipelago of Tonga. Her fieldwork sites include New Zealand (since 2000), Tonga (since 2003) and more recently Arnhem Land, Australia (since 2014). Her topics of interest and expertise include Pacific art and material culture, museums and cultures of collecting.
Hilde Heynen is a professor of architectural theory at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Her research focuses on issues of modernity, modernism and gender in architecture. In Architecture and Modernity. A Critique (MIT Press, 1999) she investigated the relationship between architecture, modernity and dwelling, arguing that critical theories such as those of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno offer crucial insights when revisiting the Modern Movement. More recently she engaged with the intersection between architecture and gender studies, resulting in the volume Negotiating Domesticity. Spatial productions of gender in modern architecture (co-edited with Gulsum Baydar, Routledge, 2005). She was also the co-editor of Back from Utopia. The Challenge of the Modern Movement (with Hubert-Jan Henket, 010, 2001) and of the Handbook Architectural Theory (with Greig Crysler and Stephen Cairns; Sage, 2012), alongside other volumes.
Ayala Levin specialises in architecture and urban planning in postcolonial African states. Her research and teaching interests include twentieth century architecture and urbanism, non-western modernisms, and the production of architectural knowledge as part of north-south or south-south exchange. Her book Architecture and Development: Israeli Construction in Sub Saharan Africa and the Settler Colonial Imagination (Duke University Press, 2022) explores the export of Israeli architectural and planning models to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Ethiopia in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, she is co-editor of the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative collection of essays Architecture in Development: Systems and the Emergence of the Global South (Routledge, 2022), and the Journal of Architecture special issue on the Modern Village (2018).
Rolando Vázquez is a teacher and decolonial thinker. He is regularly invited to deliver keynotes on decoloniality at academic and cultural institutions. Vázquez is currently Associate Professor of Sociology and Cluster Chair at the University College Utrecht. Since 2010, he co-directs with Walter Mignolo the annual Maria Lugones Decolonial Summer School , now hosted by the Van Abbemuseum . In 2016, under the direction of Gloria Wekker , he co-authored the report "Let's do Diversity" of the University of Amsterdam Diversity Commission. He has been named Advisor at the Jan van Eyck Academy for 2021/2022. Vázquez's work places the question of the possibility of an ethical life at the core of decolonial thought and advocates for the decolonial transformation of cultural and educational institutions. His most recent publication is Vistas of Modernity: Decolonial aesthesis and the End of the Contemporary (Mondriaan Fund 2020).