This book breaks new ground in demystifying the relationship between architecture, nationhood, and other forms of collective identity. It attempts to extricate the oppressive ideology of national identity entrenched within the very idea of architecture. Authors investigate themes such as cosmopolitanism, diaspora, geopolitics, globalisation, hybridity, and race. Certain chapters expose highly regulated environments which support cultural hegemony, such as the context of a hostel for ‘coloured colonial seamen’ in London, the illusionary rhetoric of ‘authenticity’ used to legitimise architectural conservation, and the role of the mosque as mediator between a post-war, multi-racial Britain, and ideas of nationhood. Others engage subjects at the urban scale, including the phenomena of universities transcending their nation-building roots to become agents of cosmopolitan urbanism, and how the discursive context of a high-profile yet unrealised modernist office-block in the City of London sustained a culture of British faux-nationalism. Remaining chapters adopt a postcolonial lens, with one examining how particular works of literary fiction reimagine notions of ‘place’ within an emerging intercultural nation, and another exploring the tense relationship between identitarian form and affective atmospheres to suggest the possibility of anti-essentialist experiences of architecture.
Together, these perspectives propose an alternative vision of the City, where neither state-sponsored identity politics nor right-wing populism determine the cultural context within which architects design for our collective urban experience. This book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Architecture, Anthropology, History, Human Geography, Politics, Sociology, and Urban Studies.
The chapters in this book, except for chapter 1, were first published in the journal National Identities.
Samir Pandya is an Architect and Associate Head of the School of Architecture & Cities at the University of Westminster, London, UK. In addition to examining and lecturing at institutions throughout the UK, he has held visiting academic posts at schools of architecture in India, South Africa, Italy, and Cyprus, and is a Member of the Academic Advisory Board at the African Futures Institute (Ghana). His committee memberships and chairships have included the Society of Black Architects (Executive Committee), RIBA Education Committee (Member) and Architects for Change (Chair), all engaged to address questions of equity and representation in architecture. In addition to being Co-Editor of the interdisciplinary journal National Identities: Critical Inquiry into Nationhood, Politics & Culture (Taylor & Francis), he is an Editorial Board member of FOLIO: Journal of Contemporary African Architecture, and Veranda, the peer-reviewed journal of Sushant School of Art & Architecture, Delhi, India.
