Topics in Architecture: Of Monkeys, Men and Great Edifices

The seminar explores intersections of Blackness and architecture. Analytical readings reveal the transfiguration of Blackness from an "inferior" historical racial sign to a compelling architectonic language. This new spatial language is traced, diagrammatically speaking, through semiotic representations of philosophies of history and aesthetics, Black linguistics, and architectural theory. Combined, these formal interpretations and expressions distinguish Blackness as an aesthetic principle rather than a strictly socio-political condition. The distinction allows us to understand how race and architecture coexist.