The Notion of the Future of a Racist Architect…

This is a shorter reflection, but a critical thought for current architectural practice.

This evening, I had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by Burt Pinnock entitled “see…be seen” as part of a series of lectures entitled “By Whom? For Whom?” presented by the School of Architecture+Design at Virginia Tech. I tried to come to the start of this series with all political ideas set aside (which I have come to recognize is actually a political act in and of itself), and because of that felt I was able to soak up new thoughts and ideas that I hadn’t considered before.

What spoke to me in this particular lecture was the sincerity with which Burt spoke, showing the truth and deliberate nature of his work. He consistently emphasized that he was speaking “from his lane” as a black man. In the current sociopolitical environment, I thought that this presentation was essential. Since the vast majority of our professors in the school of architecture are white we don’t often get a different perspective on the way architecture profession, and the built environment relates to different persons and lived experiences, and how what we do can affect others positively or negatively. Until now, the perspective that he gave was one that I did not even realize I lacked… naïveté on my part. So to hear someone speak in this way, without heightened emotion or an attempt to persuade politically, on their experience of and in the world of architecture really was inspirational.

Aside from the projects that Burt presented, including the Slave Trail by Baskervill in Richmond, VA, there was one thing in particular that stood out to me. He stated that, just as the black community has redefined the n-word, architects can redefine the term racist:

“Reclaim the word racist [to mean an architect that is] acknowledging the importance, the meaning, and the significance of race in architecture”

I don’t really have a reflection or words to respond to that, I think his words speak for themselves, but this is a critical idea to be explored.

I’ll leave it with a quote he provided from Maya Angelou, which I had not previously heard:

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better”

This most recent lecture as part of the new modes series, the student-run lecture and seminar series at Virginia Tech, was from Ahmed Belkhodja of Fala Atelier, an architecture firm in Porto, Portugal, a city and a firm which I just became aware, but was instantly intrigued.

A typical stock photo of Porto, but you start to see the old vs. modern vs. post modern architecture.

The leadership of Fala Atelier - Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja (right to left)

This is the kind of architecture I would usually write off as a pretty object done by someone who would probably be classified better as an artist rather than an architect. But the minute I heard Ahmed classify their approach to architecture as naïve, I tuned in for a closer reading of their work. Finally, I felt like I was hearing a younger practitioner (running a very young practice) speak honestly rather than hyper-intellectually, about their approach to the discipline. Ahmed was quite honest about the firm’s reaction in their work to their roots in specific schools of architectural education.

He spoke only briefly on representation, but enough to make clear that the collages that they have become quite famous for are actually an integral part of their design process.

Theres a quote to be added here from Ahmed, about the incredible importance of collage to their process, as soon as I find it in the meeting recording, I dont want to misquote him.

He also said that for every project image we see, there were 200 others they threw in the trash. He also said that they view it as a real design tool, rather than a sketch. Whereas a sketch is finite, completed in one moment on one page, not to be changed, and rarely re-referenced, the collage as Fala sees it is a piece of continual iteration, a slightly different way of working, that produces a slightly different kind of architecture.

Along this same line of thought of the image as an integral part of the process, later in the seminar, one of the panelists, Tim Cox, asked Ahmed about the curation of Fala’s Instagram feed (and other social media). As I explored their feed for myself, a couple of key things stood out to me. First, they typically include no more than a number as a caption, and second, the feed, like their website, is non-chronological. This was intriguing to me because I felt it caused a more intense focus on their work and the details and thoughts that transcend the project and proceed through all the work. But to hear Ahmed answer this question by saying “ I don’t really know what’s traditional to post”, leads back to this main question of naïveté.

This idea, first introduced in a question which was a response to the practice’s own description of themselves on their website, and later brought up in a discussion prompted a great conversation about what it means to be naïve.

naïve in knowing how things are built

naïve in knowing whats traditional

naïve in regards to references

I felt like the word was used in the same way that no one can laugh at someone who can laugh at themselves. By embracing their naïveté, they are getting past it. And it is clear that in many ways they are actually quite sophisticated, as Prof. Joseph Bedford pointed out more eloquently than I can here. Maybe this self-depreciation is actually the best evidence of that. But if not, the hidden sophistication is clear in their work, and in every college and kitchen backsplash. In maybe a pure sense, it is an architecture full of humorous, but sophisticated moments.

Certainly, their website has a very sophisticated structure, I highly recommend exploring. Try starting here and clicking any image, you may be surprised at what happens. One of the best architecture websites I have ever seen.