Inherited Architectural Culture in Modern Context
Casey Cole
History and Theory I
September 7, 2022
Inherited Architectural Culture in Modern Context
Architectural History in Professional Education: Reflections on Postcolonial Challenges to the Modern Survey explores the past, present, and future of architectural history. Bozdogan sets a tone with how we should be viewing architectural history, reminding us that it is different from architecture. It invites the reader to ask themselves: how does one make architectural history less Eurocentric and more cross-cultural without naturalizing the cultural differences into categories?
Architectural history, as we have been taught, has undoubtedly been Eurocentric. Learning from the perspective of Europeans has caused a widened gap between architectural history and culture, context, and politics. It is our job to recontextualize that history in its proper cultural and political place. Architectural history is comprehensive, connected, and ongoing as it provides data and information that informs design decisions.
Fletcher’s Tree of Architecture, 16th edition (1954)
Fletcher’s Tree of Architecture promotes the idea that there are two categories when unpacking architectural history. In this perspective, there are historical styles, which include Greek, Roman, and Italian, which influenced iconic periods including Gothic and Renaissance. Then, there are non-historical styles, that include Eastern Asia, Indian, and Egyptian which are said to have not influenced the main period of architectural history. Although civilizations like the Greeks are represented as exclusively western, in actuality, western architects attributed much of their influence to this latter category of non-historical styles.
There are five categories that the author mentions that have had an increased effort, at the time the article was written, to include in the new wave of architectural history education. These topics include Colonial Architecture, Islamic Cities, Women’s Spaces, Politics of Eastern European Architecture, and Latin American Modernism. Each of these topics can instinctively bring up a specific geographical location and timeline connection. Because of the western lens, these cultures that span centuries are narrowed to a pinpoint on a timeline. The Mayan temples in Central America and the pyramids in Cairo are both examples of this concept.
If a culture has been represented in history, they are often reduced to one style or time period. The term “autonomy of form” expresses the tendency to relate specific visual attributes to an era or culture; reducing architecture to associations, not the whole work of architecture itself. “Received notions about the autonomy of form and the ethos of individual creativity… continue to shape the dominant culture of the architectural community in most place. A critical exposition of how buildings, projects, and architectural ideas are produced and reproduced in historically specific times and places, within given vulture, political, and institutional contexts.” This exclusivity results in the loss of cultural characteristics, making it not a fully historical or accurate representation.
As we acknowledge and view architectural history through this westernized lens, we can embrace Post-Colonialism and avoid its pitfalls. There are two main principles to keep in mind while contextualizing history. The first is that we cannot replace western history, however, we can connect it with other historical events and notice the absence of connections between architecture and its politics. Second, an architect has an agenda and larger forces, including culture, time, and politics, have a complex relationship and play off of each other. Politics of Architecture is known as, “the complicity of architecture with structures of power and dominant ideological agendas in society.”
In Latin American Issues in Architecture: The Making of a Discourse, Robert Alexander Gonzalez talks about how Latin America has been largely left out of architectural history and made to feel a part of the “other.” Gonzalez states that this perspective originated with the greeks as they considered all cultures or civilizations that were not greek as, “barbaric.” This act itself can be viewed as hypocritical as their culture was heavily influenced by existing sub-cultures. Gonzalez broadens this example to relate to the entire scope of viewing through the Eurocentric lens, as we do in the west. Latin American architectural history that has been included is often religious, residential, or militaristic from the colonial epoch which reinforces the idea that pre-colonial Latin American architecture was exotic, but non-essential.
Not only does the original division, “historical and non-historical” styles translate into “western and other” but it can also be said that these perceptions are also considered “Christian and non-Christian.” Islamic architecture has been orientalized by Europeans, blurring the boundaries of the Eurocentric lens. The normalized division, as reviewed in Bozdogan’s article, is between eastern and western cultures or better termed, the dichotomy of the Occident and the Orient. Gonzalez highlights that Latin America, although geographically in the west, has historically been cast into the “other” category, prominently being omitted of what is considered to be the dominant culture in the United States and Europe.
In Islamic Achievements in the Shadow of Eurocentrism: How Islam Paved Europe's Future and Europe Forgot, author Eyas Sharaiha explores the influence of Islam in architectural history. Sharaiha unfolds the arrival of Islam to the hero-centric view Europeans have of themselves. He states that Europeans viewed this new religion as the enemy as it was the first major threat to the established church. Sharaiha goes on to state, “It is a common misunderstanding of Middle East history to deem Europe as the savior of the Middle East and Arabia, exporting values, ideals, and systems, such as capitalism and bureaucracy and ‘modernizing’ the region.” The reality was contradictory as the Islamic Civilizations are credited for novel achievements in fields from philosophy to engineering, impacting world history, and paving the road for both the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods in Europe.
Christopher S. Hunter takes a different approach in Race, Beauty, and Religious Architecture by highlighting the Christian influence on African architecture in the 19th century. This approach supports the Eurocentric hero-view of the world. All influences are important in the comprehension of African History. However, when highlighting a country that has repeatedly been oppressed by western civilizations, it is crucial to be aware that African culture has so much more to offer and digest than solely Christian ideology brought there by Europeans.
How does one teach architectural history in cultural and political context? There cannot be binary oppositions because there will always be “sides.” Works of architecture cannot be fully inclusive either. There will be and is a cultural identity but a building can only be “Indian” insofar as the work is characterized by Indian culture. However, at the same time, there is no complete and bounded cultural entity because history is heterogeneous due to cross-cultural exchange. Again, we revisit the wide gap, “between the architectural history that is increasingly more interested in culture, context, and politics and architectural design culture that privileges form-making and creativity.”
In Architectural History in Professional Education: Reflections on Postcolonial Challenges to the Modern Survey, we discover that there is no one “right” answer to correct the institutionalized bias in the western perspective. A truly effective critique transcends the tendency to essentialize cultural differences. Educators must support a renewed appreciation for minority works and restoration of the image in literature.
References
Gonzalez, Robert Alexander. “Latin American Issues in Architecture: The Making of a Discourse.” Arizona State University Regional Papers, 84th ACSA Annual Meeting, 1996.
Hunter, Christopher S. “Constructing Race and Architecture 1400–1800, Part 1: Race, Beauty, and Religious Architecture.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 80, no. 3 (2021): 258–79. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2021.80.3.258.
Sharaiha, Eyas. “Islamic Achievements in the Shadow of Eurocentrism: How Islam Paved Europe's Future and Europe Forgot.” Eyas's Blog. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 9, 2009. https://blog.eyas.sh/2009/11/islamic-achievements-in-the-shadow-of-eurocentrism-how-islam-paved-europes-future-and-europe-forgot/.
Sibel Bozdogan, "Architectural History in Professional Education: Reflections on Postcolonial Challenges to the Modern Survey," in Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 52, no. 4 (May, 1999): 207-215.