Afrocentric architecture focus of talk

Professor David Hughes expounds on a different way to design

When one thinks of the subject of architecture, most commonly, the genres of Greek or Roman may come to mind. However, Kent State University professor of architecture David Hughes wants to make sure students don't forget a lesser known category: Afrocentric Architecture. In attempts to educate Oberlin community further in his area of interest, Hughes gave a lecture on the subject to a crowd of about 40 at Fischer Lecture Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

After Hughes was introduced by visiting professor of art Stanley Mathews - a friend of Hughes' who invited him to speak - Hughes started to talk a little about his latest book on the subject at hand, entitled Afrocentric Architecture: A Design Primer. However, the focus soon turned to Hughes' slide show, and he opened the viewing session with the statement, "There is a distinct architecture to come out of design and that design comes out of Africa." With that, the focus of Hughes' lecture was declared. He reiterated throughout the talk the idea that modern day architecture finds its roots in the soils of the African continent.

While typical African scenes lit up the slide screen - village huts, Egyptian pyramids and countless landscaped plateaus - Hughes proceeded to explain to his audience how he was drawn to Afrocentric Architecture in the first place. Architecture speaks of an era, a people and a culture, he said, "and suddenly you have this question: what is it that is contemporary or noble or meaningful?" He answered his own question shortly thereafter: "Where there is a void, there is an opportunity."

Put best in his own words, Hughes "filled the void" and formed his own theory behind the unexplored topic of his specialty. "The definition of Afrocentric Architecture," he said, "is a distinctive manifestation, whether form, image or space, in a modern building environment which derives from the cultural, environmental and historical origins of the continent of Africa."

Despite the clarity of his intentions, however, Hughes failed to explain what relevance Afrocentric Architecture has to today's structural mazes, other than his repeated presumption that modern architecture, indeed, is commonly based on ancient African Architecture. He backed the statement with several slides of examples, but this portion of the lecture still paled in comparison, interest-wise, to what he introduced next.

For the second half of the lecture, Hughes explained some of the work he has been doing with his classes at Kent State, where he has introduced the idea of Afrocentric Architecture to his upper-class students. "Every idea has to have a beginning," he said of the defined Afrocentric Architecture he wanted to introduce to them. "So I brought the ideas back to Kent State."

Hughes explained that the process by which he incorporated the theory of ancient Afrocentric Architecture into his classroom of predominately white, middle-class students. One might question the ethical success of the transformation, but Hughes assured his audience that the students were applying their knowledge accurately as they went.

The students were asked to use a motive of Afrocentric Architecture and apply it to a design for a new building in Cleveland's City Square. Some students chose to base their buildings on traditional African masks, bracelet clasps and even a representation of a familiar African board game was fashioned into a structure suitable for the City Square - almost.

While the idea of incorporating African-inspired art into modern city architecture may be novel, the question remains, is it practical? Though Hughes did not address this issue directly, he said that he was impressed with several of the student works and felt that, if refined for serious planning, some of the ideas could pass. On one hand, Hughes' idea of culturizing the modern architect could add needed diversity in today's stereotypical planning structures. However, whether Hughes is the deciding factor for defining successful Afrocentric Architecture is in the hands of the individual.