After Belonging: Architecture, Nation, Difference

This book explores the relationship between architecture, nationhood, and collective identity, challenging the oppressive ideology of national identity embedded in architecture. It investigates themes such as cosmopolitanism, diaspora, geopolitics, globalization, hybridity, and race, exposing highly regulated environments that support cultural hegemony. It also examines how universities transcend their nation-building roots to become agents of cosmopolitan urbanism and how the discursive context of a high-profile unrealized modernist office-block in the City of London sustained a culture of British faux-nationalism. The remaining chapters adopt a postcolonial lens, examining how particular works of literary fiction reimagine notions of 'place within an emerging intercultural nation' and exploring the tense relationship between identitarian form and affective atmospheres to suggest the possibility of anti-essentialist experiences of architecture.

Format: Hardback
Length: 132 pages
Publication date: 26 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This groundbreaking book delves into the intricate relationship between architecture, nationhood, and various forms of collective identity, challenging the oppressive ideology of national identity that is often embedded within the concept of architecture. The authors explore a wide range of themes, including cosmopolitanism, diaspora, geopolitics, globalization, hybridity, and race. Through in-depth investigations, they shed light on highly regulated environments that perpetuate cultural hegemony, such as the case of a hostel for 'colored colonial seamen in London, the deceptive rhetoric of 'authenticity' employed to justify architectural conservation, and the mosque's role as a mediator in post-war, multi-racial Britain.

Other chapters examine subjects at the urban scale, such as universities evolving beyond their nation-building origins to become agents of cosmopolitan urbanism, and the discursive context of a high-profile yet unrealized modernist office block in the City of London that sustained a culture of British faux-nationalism. Remaining chapters adopt a postcolonial lens, exploring how particular works of literary fiction reimagine notions of 'place within an emerging intercultural nation' and examining the tense relationship between identitarian form and affective atmospheres to suggest the possibility of anti-essentialist experiences of architecture.

Collectively, these perspectives offer an alternative vision of the city, where state-sponsored identity politics and right-wing populism do not dictate the cultural context within which architects design for our shared urban experience. This book will appeal to researchers and advanced students in Architecture, Anthropology, History, Human Geography, Politics, Sociology, and Urban Studies.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 178 x 253 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032329093