Creating spaces for Black History
Black history is vast and rich. It exists on the continent of Africa and anywhere Africans have spread, whether by force or voluntarily. Black history is woven within countries and communities all over the world.
As a practice we are really interested in how Black history is recorded, documented and preserved for future generations. We understand how the interplay with light and shade, openness, and subtle restrictions can help to tell the complex story of Africa and Africans in diaspora alongside the content housed. We understand how vital it is to make these spaces inviting and accessible for the communities they reflect, that they invoke a feeling of pride in not only what they contain but how they are contained. It simultaneously needs to welcome wider communities who want to learn… and un-learn.
I asked a friend (no, not an architect!) who spent her childhood in London but now lives in the US about her experience visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, designed by David Adjaye. This is what she shared with me.
The first time I heard there would be an African American Museum, was on a visit to the National Museum of American History. There was a lunch counter, I believe from Greensboro, NC, where students had done a sit-in, in the lobby of the American History Museum. There was a sign that said that the African American Museum was coming soon and that the lunch counter would be there.
The museum opened at the highest point of celebration of African American Culture. It opened in the fall of 2016. The President of the United States was Black and he celebrated Black culture at every opportunity. For those who remember, there were concerts at the White House featuring all kinds of people, many black, and we'd see the pictures of the first couple celebrating our culture.
The Museum itself, is a dark and devastating place. There are 4 levels below ground. They are meant to represent the journey of African American life. From Africa, to the terrible middle passage, to slavery, to Jim Crow (might as well skip over Reconstruction), to the Civil Rights Act. Emmett Till's casket is the most devastating artefact I have ever seen in a museum. I have been to a lot of museums in a lot of places. There was a guard assigned to that artefact to make sure no one touched it. The guard told us the conditions under which the family would give it to the Smithsonian. To make sure it was displayed the way they wanted and was properly protected at all times.
After the Civil Rights movement, we are meant to go to the top where our culture, sports, music, arts, entertainment. Our joy is all at the top, in the levels above ground. The Museum doesn't suggest that our struggle is over, but even that change in atmosphere in my opinion, feeds the idea that we're going up. Which we are. But the events of the last few weeks make it seem.. disingenuous.
The architecture of the museum is different and a nod to Yoruba art. It looks so different from everything on the Mall. The colour scheme, the material, it's a contrast to all the white marble that the rest of the Mall has.
For the most part, The Smithsonian Museums on the Mall are easy to get into. You walk up on a day they're open and you can usually get in. The Air and Space Museum has a line during the summer and other holidays, but it's nothing like the NMAAHC, even after 3.5 years. Pre-Covid most days, especially in the Spring and Summer you need a pre-booked ticket and they're pretty difficult to get.
Last favorite memory of the Museum. In the documentary, Quincy about Quincy Jones. Before the Museum opened, he took a private visit. He was producing the Kennedy Center show. There was a display of musicians. He stops and it's a display with Michael Jackson, Duke Ellington, himself, Ray Charles and Prince and he worked with or knew all of them. And he says "All of them gone." I don't know, something about that moment hit me. Like the history and present are practically the same.
Wow.
The mixture of emotions and responses that my friend describes is exactly what we as a practice strive to achieve through our design. We believe in creating spaces that are sensitive and supportive, yet celebratory and welcoming.
A few years ago we worked with an organisation to design a West African Cultural Centre in London. The proposal was for a mixed use development serving the wider community with a destination to celebrate the culture of the prevalent West African community in London. The project has been designed to be as ‘open’ as possible and at the centre of the the design is a route acting as an ‘extension’ to the local High Street by bringing the retail units and public realm right into the heart of the development.
Also, looking at this from a slightly different angle, when designing large scale master plans for new towns and cities in countries brimming with possibilities, we really try to take an approach that both celebrates the history of the region and crafts new experiences for its citizens. We strive to create spaces that both draw people in, and nurtures the creativity of the people that will leave and work within them.
As I said at the beginning, black history and culture is rich, vast and often complex. The spaces we design to explore and celebrate it deserve our attention and sensitivity, and as architects, I believe we can play a meaningful role to bring these often untold stories to the forefront.
Contributing writer Ademide Adedokun
