This collection of essays by architect Mario Gooden investigates the construction of African American identity and representation through the medium of architecture. These five texts move between history, theory, and criticism to explore a discourse of critical spatial practice engaged in the constant reshaping of the African Diaspora. African American cultural institutions designed and constructed in recent years often rely on cultural stereotypes, metaphors, and cliches to communicate significance, demonstrating "Africanisms" through form and symbolism-but there is a far richer and more complex heritage to be explored. Presented here is a series of questions that interrogate and illuminate other narratives of "African American architecture," and reveal compelling ways of translating the philosophical idea of the African Diaspora's experience into space.

About the Author
Mario Gooden is a principal of Huff + Gooden Architects and a Professor of Practice at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) of Columbia University where is also the co-Director of the Global Africa Lab (GAL). He is a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and a MacDowell Colony Fellow.

Awards
Commended for One of the best architecture and design books of 2016 2016.



Book Information
ISBN 9781941332139
Author Mario Gooden
Format Paperback
Page Count 128
Imprint Columbia Books on Architecture and the City
Publisher Columbia Books on Architecture and the City
Weight(grams) 260g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 145mm * 11mm