The Cultural Burden of Architecture

Abstract

Contemporary architectural discourse mostly assumes an unmediated link between architecture and culture. This is a historical assumption, however, rooted in colonial encounters when the notion of cultural difference first entered the architectural scene. In the first part of my article, I focus on a statement by Vitruvius that provides ways of thinking about architecture outside cultural identity categories. In the second part, I analyze two nineteenth‐century texts to show both the cultural inscriptions of architectural discourse and their breaking points. Finally, I argue that recognizing the historicity of the relationship between architecture and culture involves problematizing architecture as an identity category as much as questioning culture as an architectural category.

Putting Architecture in its Social Place: A Cultural Political Economy of Architecture

“…(Andrew Sayer (2001, p. 690) reminds us that the "lifeworld can be a site of domination".) The public recognition of culture is an important consideration within the social space that high-profi le architects practise and 'starchitects' are mindful of privileging one identity discourse over another in their discursive and material constructions, and are increasingly adept at negotiating a very contentious symbolic ground when positioning their work (Delanty and Jones, 2001;Baydar, 2004). The authoring of appropriate social and political meanings is an increasingly important part of architectural practice for those in the rarefi ed aesthetic sphere.…”

Spatial crossings: gender, race and politics in Yucatecan Maya municipalities

“…In this section, I focus on how the modifications made by female mayors to municipal spaces -such as city hall and the main square-'are examples of how material spatial structures render political change visible' (Schurr, 2013: 52). In this sense, by changing local public spaces, female mayors transgress gendered-racialised notions of space, politics and power (Baydar, 2004;Gregson and Rose, 1999;Jackson, 2005 As seen in the previous section, constituents had polarised reactions to newly elected mayors. These feelings sometimes were expressed materially through the ransacking and looting of city hall prior to female mayors entering office.…”

Creating a cultural dialogue : reinforcing cultural identity on First Nations communities through the use of local materials and vernacular strategies

“…Architectural history itself has developed based on Western biases towards certain cultures and social levels. It is difficult to determine when the emergence of culture as an integral part of architectural discourse occurred as different civilizations evolved in completely different eras (Baydar, 2004). According to Gulsum Baydar in his article "The Cultural Burden of Architecture", colonization, throughout different moments in history and in geographic contexts, has resulted in the discovery of diverse cultures and their effects on each other.…”

“…At the moment of colonization, the question of defining architecture shifted from Vitruvius"s notion of the difference between architecture and shelter to conflicting notions of universal and regional architecture. This created tension as ideas of "wholeness, continuity, and essence" were integral to the Western definition of culture and art (Baydar, 2004). Reinforcement of ethnic and racial hierarchies followed colonization, with imposition of rigidly defined architectural languages and cultural values.…”