What’s in an archive? How do you interrogate the presence of absence? What inhabits the gap when space-making appears to be absent? Is a pinpoint a tactic or a tool? How do you define a first line of enquiry?
Nana: ‘what’s in a footnote?’ 'who is the archive for? ‘what makes a practitioner?’ ‘how do we define “emerging”?’
Isaac: ‘from where do we archive?’ ‘what geographies are collapsed into an archive, and how do they connect?’
Lois: ‘how do archives tell a story?’ ‘what story are we telling?’ @loisinnes
Sarah: ‘what constitutes “success”?’ ‘how do we measure influence?’ ‘how do we navigate an archive; is it static? changing? living?’
Ruth-Anne: ‘what is the criteria for being archived; what role do contextual narratives play as a type of criteria?’ ‘how do we build layers into an archive?’ @anne.studiored
Nzinga: ‘what is a space-maker?’ ‘how does this definition translate into different languages and contexts?’
Olasumbo: ‘how do we deconstruct in order to build?’ ‘how do we interact with an archive?’
What does it mean to critically engage with the terms ‘decolonisation’ and ‘decarbonisation’? Which spatial practitioners are actively grappling with these terms in their work? What role does pedagogy play – how do we teach, or learn, how to ‘decolonise’ and ‘decarbonise’?
Nana: Decolonisation is telling the story of the world’s majority. It is reflecting on the current western canon and addressing its inadequacies. It is realising that the natural and built environment is a collective endeavour - one which fails when singular narratives are championed above others. Decolonisation is uncovering, unlearning and relearning.
Isaac: I’m particularly interested in decolonial forms and practices of architecture that do not forsake the archives of knowledge, but use new ways to evolve it.
Lois: Decarbonisation begins when we can recognise existing buildings as treasure troves, not only from a resource perspective, but for the many cultures, histories and narratives they hold.
Sarah: Decolonisation begins with the challenging and dismantling of extractive hierarchical systems and oppressive labour practices in the field of architecture, and beyond.
Ruth-Anne: Decolonisation is taking ownership of reconstructing African education and pedagogy to give us real freedom, ability and power to de-invest our aspirations, desires and imaginations from the acts, actions and pursuits of past and present colonising forces.
Nzinga: Decarbonisation is achieved through bioclimatic design that utilises low-tech materials and passive design systems to produce buildings that perform well in their climatic and socio-economic contexts.
Olasumbo: How can spatial practitioners strike a balance between "undoing what has been done" and "doing what is to be done”? This intersection becomes a robust yet discomforting site to explore the shifting notions of recalling, reversing and reacting.