Postcolonial Space(s)Gülsüm Baydar Nalbantoglu, Chong Thai Wong The postcolonial world is currently undergoing rapid development anddramatic change. Radical interventions are drastically altering thephysical landscape of these regions, resulting in new and unfamiliarenvironments. While these changes employ the most current structuraltechnologies, building types, and planning ideals, the critical discourseused to analyze these developments continues to focus on traditionaldualities such as West/non-West, modern/traditional, and global/regional. The eight essays in this collection aspire to explore new languages forrethinking contemporary architectural and urban conditions in thepostcolonial world. In so doing, the authors challenge the convictionscentral to most studies of non-western archite cture-that is, the pursuitof essential singular identities and the glorification of immemorialpasts. Each essay investigates a particular textual, architectural, orurban site within larger concerns related to the postcolonial condition.Topics include rereading Beatriz Colomina's text on Adolf Loos's house forJosephine Baker; analyzing political and ethical aspects of Jean Nouvel'sArab World Institute, and exposing the cacophony of Pacific Rim cities.For all those interested in the present-and future-global environment, Postcolonial Spaces is an important exploration. |
Contents
Introduction | 7 |
The Concept of Regionalism | 13 |
Towards an Ethics of Distance | 25 |
A House for Josephine Baker | 53 |
Architecture Wayang and the Javanese House | 73 |
The Carved Dwelling in the Architectural | 89 |
The Migrant House | 101 |
Gratification or Innovation | 131 |