Tuesday 21 June 2011

Thought 2: Modernism, Memory, Architecture and Identity in 'Third World' _ Exploring the nature of Modernity within the context of South Asia

The notion of Modernity and Modernism emerged out of specific concerns within the post-industrial revolution of western culture. However, in the context of the 'Third World', particularly the case of South Asia, these two terms evoke a very complex idea, as they came to being during the middle decades of 20th century through a series of political processes including Independence, Decolonization, Nation-building and Cold war that inevitably resulted in a Crisis of Identity in that part of the world.

The pressure of demography and developments, as well as the socio-cultural and climatic context has resulted in a very specific kind of Modernism. High density and low income complex urban environment have added completely unique dimensions to our understandings of Modernism for this particular piece of land. While standing at the age of globalization, the canonical historiography of the affluence based first world often universalize the idea of Modernity,  I would, rather like to re-conceptualize the political realities of  the third world, that currently remains in the grip of an unjust imperialistic-capitalism.

Through the lens of geo-politics of architectural discourse since 1960, I’d like to explore not only the relationship between architecture and social forces such as nationalism and globalization, but also the inter-relation between architecture and ethics where cultural memory and history as well as the material preference have played a distinctive role. Hence, I finally aim to theorize the relationship between architecture and identity in our case of South Asia, if not global.