Between ‘true believers’ and operational experts
Unesco architects and school building in post-colonial Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9399098 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kim De Raedt (Ghent University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 19-42 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Architecture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1360-2365 • E-ISSN: 1466-4410 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13602365.2014.881905 |
| OpenAlex | W2088459522 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 2 |
Following decolonisation in the late 1950s, Cold War competitiveness and economic globalisation prompted old and new foreign powers to invest in the development of Africa. By means of building and urban planning, they sought to transmit their specific models of modernisation to the continent. Architects from divergent contexts and backgrounds embraced this opportunity to transfer their expertise to Africa, in particular through development aid organisations. This paper will shed light on the expert(ise)s that were exported to, and generated within, Africa in the 1960s and 1970s through one particular international aid agency, namely UNESCO. The focus will be on the organisation's activity in the field of school building, a crucial sector of development in Africa following the independence of former colonies across the continent. Through this agency, a transnational network of expert-architects with highly divergent backgrounds was generated. Taking UNESCO as a starting point, we identify a number of such globally operating architects who had a crucial impact on the design and construction of educational facilities, but remain unstudied to date. By an analysis of their work the paper reveals the design knowledge that was generated and the building expertise that circulated through UNESCO in Africa, while simultaneously untangling the complex networks and mechanisms behind this unique architecture production
Agency (philosophy · Colonialism · Decolonization · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Globalization · Independence · Independence (probability theory · Modernization theory · Political science · Politics · Regional science · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · African history and culture studies · Architecture · Engineering
| Citations per year | 0.36 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2022 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |