Introduction to Race and Modern Architecture

CRITICAL RESPONSE
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Critical Response
The text "Introduction to Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present" tackles the topic of race in modern architectural discourse and practice from the Enlightenment to the present. Although the text concentrates on European and American architecture and theory, it also incorporates the international diversity of racial discourses in locales outside Europe/North America. The primary goal of the preface is to explore the constructions of race generated by the flow of concepts, goods, people, and capital between Europe/North America and other regions of the world linked to the former through the transatlantic slave trade, imperialism, colonialism, and capitalist globalization. This essay argues that the book is a valuable resource material for architectural historians, particularly those who want to understand how hierarchies of power between imperialist Europe and other groups of people shaped architecture and theory.[Irene Cheng, Charles L Davis, and Mabel O Wilson, Race and Modern Architecture (Editorial: Pittsburgh: University Of Pittsburgh Press, 2020).]
The authors’ word choice can be described as formal since the text is geared towards professional and academic purposes. Besides, the authors speak to architectural historians who have characteristically shunned the topic of race or dismissed its significance: the purpose of the text is to initiate the critical dialogue on how race is entangled in modern architecture. The authors employ an expository style of writing where racialized epistemology in modern architecture is explained, based on well-established facts. For instance, the authors cite several locales and readings as evidence of how architectural history has been intimately shaped by the accounts of racial inequality, colonialism, and slavery. The authors desire to impart information on how racial identities are entangled in modern architecture to the broader audience.
“Introduction to Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present” uses a chronological pattern of organization where content is arranged according to a progression of time and themes. The sections are organized into topic-based and sequential sections, tackling the link between race and a key idea in architectural history and theory: Enlightenment, organism, nationalism, representation, colonialism, and urbanism. The authors' argue that despite the moderated role of race in architectural history, modern architecture is entwined in the histories of racism since the neoclassic period to the very recent urban housing projects. On the whole, the text attempts to uncover modern architecture's extensive affair with racial thought, so revise one of the central narratives of modernism.[Irene Cheng, Charles L Davi...