Race and Modern Architecture

Key Question Being Explored in This Insight:

Esra Akcan makes a plea for what it calls “open architecture” and asks what would have happened if the architectural discipline and profession were shaped by a new ethics of hospitality toward the immigrant.

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Institution: Cornell University

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The speaker discusses their understanding of race as a socially constructed category that leads to racism, emphasizing that race is more about societal classifications than inherent characteristics tied to physical appearance. They assert the need for architectural education to address the construction of race and its implications in history, planning, and urban development. The speaker argues that various architectural practices, including segregation in urban neighborhoods and discriminatory building policies, reflect racial dynamics.

The discussion extends to how contemporary architectural history still inherits 19th-century European racial categories, necessitating a new approach that recognizes the contributions of marginalized groups. The speaker advocates for an "intertwined history" approach, highlighting global connections and the contributions of diverse communities to architecture.

Furthermore, the speaker focuses on the specific case of urban renewal in Berlin's Rosberg district, examining how immigrants—especially Turkish populations—were racialized through various discriminatory housing regulations. They explore subversive efforts by architects to create inclusive practices during the renewal process, ultimately fostering a more equitable urban environment that allows immigrant families to remain in their homes.

The narrative emphasizes the importance of recognizing the agency of immigrants in shaping their surroundings and advocates for a more just architectural history that embraces the contributions of all communities, rather than perpetuating a Eurocentric, male-dominated perspective. The speaker concludes that understanding these dynamics is crucial for exposing racism and working towards justice and peace in our built environments.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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It might be useful to say a few words about

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how I define race.

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Um, I understand race,

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to be a social constructed category,

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that produces racism, based on what people look like,

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how they sound, or where, where they come from.

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Uh, so the categorization of races

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and its product, racism is in a way an artificial ification

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of human bodies, with some essential,

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characteristics that are attached to them,

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to these bodies by birth.

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Uh, for that reason, I think race has much less to do,

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with the actual human bodies,

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but more, to do with the sciences, politics,

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that divide, classify and label, them.

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So races, I think, are racialized.

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Uh, and needless to say, to undo racism,

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we have to speak about race.

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Uh, and for that reason, I think architecture

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and architectural education

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or the history courses in architectural,

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education is a very productive medium to speak about

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how race has been constructed.

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Uh, we, you know, these courses may expose our modern,

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knowledge, modern epistemology

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or, phenomena like slavery

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and colonization relied on these categories of race

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that we still live in.

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Uh, and at the same time,

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however, I think we need to study race,

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with the anticipation that it,

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racial studies will not be needed,

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in the future will disappear when racism is undone.

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Um, and concerning your question about what does race have

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to do with architecture, in a way the, you know, there's

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so many levels to this.

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Uh, think of the segregation of urban neighborhoods

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or buildings, building parts or redlining,

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or the association of beauty

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with European classical architecture.

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Uh, the perceived hierarchy between the climates

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of the world and their association with beauty

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and progress, architectural symbolism, the ranking

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of architectural styles, the racial separation

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between elite designers

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and the construction workers of buildings and so on.

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So, actually, architecture

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and buildings have a lot, to do with, with racism.

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Discrimination based on gender, family inheritance,

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skin color caste existed throughout, centuries,

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in many parts of the world.

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Uh, but today we live, in an age that inherits,

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to a large extent European racial categories

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of the 19th century.

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Um, in a way these categories,

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have impacted also the making

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of architectural history as a discipline.

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Uh, in other words, you know, architectural history

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as a discipline at its foundation inherits many

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of the racial categories of European racial categories,

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of the 19th century.

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Uh, and for this reason, I think, to understand

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or under racism, we

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Also have to think of new knowledge, how

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to produce new knowledge, that goes

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beyond our comfort zones.

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Um, so the narrative that has been produced

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by Eurocentric racial categories, which kind

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of see architecture is it set of sequential, practices

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between white male architects.

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That's a Eurocentric canon.

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It has been very influential for many years now.

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It is, I mean, the weakness of that canon, is,

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well established.

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Um, but the, alternatives that have been produced,

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against them is not totally, they,

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they reproduce some of the racial categories.

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For instance, after, admitting the weakness

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of the Eurocentric canon, people have started,

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there's a tendency

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to divide world architecture into categories like Islamic

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architecture, Asian architecture, African architecture,

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to put more, to be more inclusive.

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But this,

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tendency also perpetrates conventional categories,

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and they assume these architectures are self-contained

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and often hierarchical, territorial zones.

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Uh, for instance, the clash of civilizations theory,

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is a very good, example of this.

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And this mindset, I think is still very vulnerable, to,

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entrenching some of the, racial categories

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that produced racism in the first place.

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For that reason, in my own, writing

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or teaching, I,

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use something called an intertwined history approach.

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Uh, I try to see, the, intertwined history

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of modern architecture that in a way, rewrites,

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modernity in terms of migrations, translations, as opposed

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to this colonial nationalist and separative framework.

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So it means seeing a much more connected world,

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because of the people ideas of objects, technologies,

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images, information that travel between spaces,

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and that gets,

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translated each time rather than seeing a world

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that depends on these segregated, isolated, racial

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or geographical, categories.

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Um, and one of the hardest narratives to challenge,

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if you want, you ask me to give some examples.

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For instance, one of the hardest narratives to challenge,

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is this established history that sees modernity,

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or enlightenment as a European

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and North American invention,

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that was then disseminated to the rest of the world.

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In a way, this, narrative sees the Wests

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and global dominance, over modern world

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as something to be proud of.

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Um, but this narrative also obscures how modernity was,

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indeed produced in a global network, of,

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creations.

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Uh, for instance, it's curious that, the French

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and American revolutions are usually treated in

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architectural history or in history in general, as big leaps

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of humanity as benchmarks of modern symbols

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of self-governance, freedom, and so on.

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But, Haiti revolution,

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or the slave revolts

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that were happening simultaneously are not really,

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integrated into, into this narrative.

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So, for that reason, in my own classes, rather than

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treating, let's say, teaching only French Revolution

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as a chronological macro, freedom, equality, human rights,

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and so on, I try to see, the connected history

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between American French and Haiti, revolutions,

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or to give another example,

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when teaching Industrial Revolution,

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I do not look only at the impact of new materials,

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technologies and mass production in the architecture

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of London, Paris, and Chicago.

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But I also discuss strong cause

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and effect relation between industrialization

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and colonization of, Africa and, west Asia.

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Or when I'm teaching post-colonial independence, I also,

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look at the continuing Western mandates

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and the era of erasure of ethnic minorities in the name

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of anti-colonial resistance.

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So I try to kind of, present, a history

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of the world that is much more, connect, connected,

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and sees both the colonial

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and cosmopolitan ideals, in disconnected history.

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Um, and I think the ultimate aim of this history is,

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to expose the racism,

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but at the same time, to build some sort

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of justice and peace.

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Uh, therefore, this history needs to also excavate, some

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of the good examples, some cosmopolitan potentials

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contributions of the hio erased, minority architects

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of any gender, any race from any place of world.

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To build for a more just, picture of,

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of architectural history, in that book,

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I look at the racialization, of Muslim immigrants

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and refugees, in Germany as,

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it reflected on public housing and memory, debates.

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Um, so open architecture, for me, I mean, I define it,

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as a new ethical welcoming, into the design process.

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Um, in a way, the book asks

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what would've happened if architectural profession were

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shaped by a welcoming toward the racialized immigrant,

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and I call this open architecture.

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So I try to look at formal programmatic

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or procedural steps towards open architecture.

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Um, and as you said,

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I look particularly at the urban renewal

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of Berlin Rosberg in the, 1980s.

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Uh, and the state of the art public housing buildings,

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are well known in the field of architecture,

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in professional debates

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because of the famous international

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architects that built there.

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I mean, there's a very long list

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of famous architecture names.

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In a way, the fact that these buildings were built in an

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immigrant district had not been addressed.

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Um, and the Rosberg borough at the time,

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it was along the Berlin Wall.

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The Berlin Wall stood at the time,

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and that neighborhood had been heavily bombed,

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during the Second World War.

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And it was left, to, it was neglected,

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without municipal repair.

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Uh, and at the time, it was composed

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of almost 50% immigrants, predominantly from Turkey,

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who had arrived either as guest workers, since 1961,

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or as refugees, in the aftermath

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of the 1980s Cota in Turkey.

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Um, I mean, there are many layers in the book,

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but the one that I think would be relevant

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for your question is this racialization

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of these immigrant Muslim immigrants in Germany.

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Uh, and the book defines, in a way, two major steps,

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for an what might be called an anti-racist,

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architectural history.

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Uh, the first step is to write this history in a way

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that exposes discrimination,

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because even that is, was not, acknowledged.

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Um, and the second, is to show, the agency

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of these immigrants in the making of, the urban spaces

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that we assumed had been created by white male architects.

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Um, so in terms of the first step about,

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exposing discrimination, the Middle Eastern,

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because this was never done in a very, overt way,

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we're talking about 1980s,

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but I tried to disclose how hidden,

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and sometimes not so hidden waste,

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racializes immigrants, not so hidden waste included,

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like toilet decrease, ex explaining how

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to handle human waste.

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Um, the German

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and Turkish children were,

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separated into different classes.

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Uh, there were many newspaper advertisements

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that made it clear that immigrants were not eligible

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to rent apartments.

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Landlord and housing bureaus consistently turned down

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migrants applications

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and pushed them into rundown buildings.

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Then they define those rundown buildings

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as ghettos in the sense of source of trial,

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troubled crime and chaos.

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Um, and the landlords took advantage

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of the Turkish tenant's lack of rights,

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and they did not perform legally required maintenance.

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Uh, and there was also some very hidden ways,

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that racialized,

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or exerted discrimination, for instance, the government,

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legal ways to handle,

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this issue was very discriminatory.

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In the 1970s, the Berlin Senates passed a series

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of housing laws

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and regulations,

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that relied on these racialized categorizations.

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For, for instance, there was something called the ban on

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entry and settlement, which prohibited the movement

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of additional immigrant families into rosberg.

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Um, or there was something called the desegregation

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regulation, which mandated that only 10% of units would be,

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rented to, immigrants all over West Berlin.

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For instance, if there was a building with 10 apartments,

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and if one apartment was occupied by a Turkish family,

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no other Turkish family could move in.

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There was a quota. In other words,

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and the social Democrats justified these regulations

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as integration.

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Um, but according to immigrants themselves,

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these regulations were meant to obstruct them,

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from constructing social and, cultural networks.

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And during the urban renewal, the,

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government also shifted, to Christian Democrats who,

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mobilized anti-immigration policies.

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For instance, the building senator that was responsible

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for Berg's urban renewal clearly said, you know,

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whoever runs to Germany must feel like a German.

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If you don't want, just go back to our country.

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So there were these anti-immigration, policies as well.

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Uh, and this urban renewal, very ly,

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translated these policies into the functional program,

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of the buildings, for instance, in the new buildings,

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the, government made sure that only five

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or 10% of the apartments will new public housing,

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apartments will be big apartments that would have been,

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good for the, immigrant families.

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Um, so in other words, the, governments,

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had assessed that there were too many immigrants in Rosberg,

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and they wanted to make sure

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that the Germans benefited from the new urban renewal

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and high quality public housing.

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So they made sure that only apartments that were,

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not good for big Turkish families were constructed.

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So, in other words,

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this program would either diminish the immigrant

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families chances to move into new public housing,

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high quality public housing,

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or, it would welcome them only if they changed

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how they lived and fit, the, standards

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of German family size.

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So this collapsibility between race

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and non-citizen conveniently served

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to exert discrimination under the pretext of, law.

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Uh, so in the book, I discuss how these policymakers,

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use architecture as a mechanism of racial control,

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but I also analyze how architects in a way, responded

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to this, this situation.

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Some were complicit, some were naive, politically naive,

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some were ironic, and some were indeed subverted.

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They really, some of them subverted, these,

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laws for non-citizens,

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and made sure that the new urban renewal

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and public housing benefited the,

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racialized immigrants as well.

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So there's maybe two part question. One is methodological.

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The other is, how did this non rights to the city were,

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enabled in a way?

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How, how were these discriminatory laws subverted?

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So, speaking to the first part, methodologically, I want

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to extend, the theme of the book Open Architecture to

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a format of writing.

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I tried to, like, maybe,

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find an open form of writing history,

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by giving voice not only to the established

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or understudied architects,

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but also to the immigrant residents.

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Architectural history usually gives, voice

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to the architects, but not necessarily the, residents.

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Um, so I rang every bell basically in Berlin Rosberg,

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during the research of this book.

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Um, and I came to, I identify

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and build trust, with those immigrants who were willing

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to tell their stories at length to me over a few years.

15:10.465 --> 15:13.525
And I tried to configure their voices,

15:14.945 --> 15:17.365
Biogen inspired by oral history,

15:17.385 --> 15:20.085
and storytelling rather than sociology, ethnography,

15:20.085 --> 15:21.925
or other forms of environmental science

15:22.585 --> 15:24.605
and oral history was my preferred method,

15:24.605 --> 15:27.405
because I think an oral historian rephrase

15:28.205 --> 15:30.485
refrains from representing an entire ethnicity

15:30.505 --> 15:33.165
and entire race, and as the name,

15:33.185 --> 15:35.645
of the underrepresented individual into history.

15:36.025 --> 15:39.405
So rather than saying immigrant, or rather than saying 50%

15:39.425 --> 15:41.085
or 60% a percentage,

15:41.425 --> 15:43.525
and rather than trying to find the totality,

15:43.965 --> 15:47.605
I use the preferred name of the individual migrants

15:47.625 --> 15:49.405
to give credit to their agency.

15:50.105 --> 15:51.165
Um, so,

15:52.385 --> 15:55.445
and I think it's not worth it that many researchers who do,

15:55.585 --> 15:59.165
research with recent migrants in con conflict zones

15:59.165 --> 16:03.445
and refugees conclude with the same, need.

16:03.925 --> 16:07.525
I mean, they say that migrants always say, see me, see me

16:07.525 --> 16:10.525
as a human being, as an individual, not like, you know,

16:10.665 --> 16:14.045
representative of a race or a number and so on.

16:14.625 --> 16:18.085
So in a way, all history historian does not have claims

16:18.185 --> 16:21.245
to represent ability, totality, generalizability,

16:22.345 --> 16:25.765
but, trust the, even, even one, each story

16:25.825 --> 16:27.365
of each individual matters.

16:28.065 --> 16:30.965
Uh, so it's not about calculable analytics,

16:31.145 --> 16:34.605
but it's about, telling the stories,

16:34.745 --> 16:35.925
how residents changed,

16:36.565 --> 16:39.045
appropriated corrected their, stories.

16:39.265 --> 16:42.805
It kind of enables writing architectural history, I think,

16:42.805 --> 16:46.165
as a story, as a storytelling in the sense of experience

16:46.165 --> 16:48.605
that's passed from mouth to mouth,

16:49.025 --> 16:52.605
or, in the sense of understanding architecture as spaces

16:52.635 --> 16:55.325
that are filled with the fabric of everyday life.

16:55.905 --> 16:59.925
Um, and I think storytelling, telling the, stories

16:59.945 --> 17:02.925
of the individuals also give us a,

17:03.565 --> 17:06.725
a very textured story about the political harm,

17:06.745 --> 17:08.365
on the individuals of these racism

17:08.625 --> 17:10.925
and the discriminatory regulations that I,

17:10.955 --> 17:12.045
just, mentioned.

17:12.625 --> 17:14.605
Um, it also allowed me to write more women

17:15.115 --> 17:17.085
into architectural history,

17:17.085 --> 17:19.565
because once you tell the story of a space

17:19.745 --> 17:21.045
and how it has been changed

17:21.545 --> 17:25.125
and appropriated by the woman, it allows, us

17:25.145 --> 17:27.165
to put more, woman

17:27.305 --> 17:29.645
and have a feminist architectural history.

17:30.425 --> 17:33.325
Um, and the second part of your question about

17:33.465 --> 17:37.645
how non-citizen rights to the city, was performed,

17:37.975 --> 17:40.925
maybe it might be good to remember that in our current, and,

17:40.945 --> 17:43.965
and that's, a critique that is done by many,

17:43.965 --> 17:47.205
political philosophers as well in our, current

17:47.855 --> 17:49.045
human rights regime.

17:49.465 --> 17:51.605
In a way, the human and citizenship rights,

17:51.605 --> 17:53.765
even though they're supposed to be separate,

17:53.875 --> 17:55.685
they are kind of attached.

17:55.965 --> 17:58.525
I mean, despite all the,

17:58.525 --> 18:00.645
talk about refugee rights in a way,

18:00.645 --> 18:03.645
individuals human rights are actually secured when they're

18:03.645 --> 18:07.085
full citizens and migrants do not necessarily have,

18:07.185 --> 18:09.125
the same, privileges

18:09.145 --> 18:11.805
or rights that are, enjoyed by citizens.

18:11.805 --> 18:13.725
And the discriminatory housing regulations

18:13.725 --> 18:17.205
that I just mentioned five minutes ago are a good example,

18:17.585 --> 18:21.925
that shows how citizenship law, was, kind of,

18:22.025 --> 18:23.885
weaponized, in order to

18:24.605 --> 18:26.645
exercise racism against migrants.

18:27.385 --> 18:28.765
Uh, so in this sense,

18:28.885 --> 18:31.165
I think subversive examples matter in this

18:31.195 --> 18:32.805
non-citizen rights to the city.

18:33.065 --> 18:36.285
Um, and Rosberg is also a good example.

18:36.505 --> 18:39.245
Uh, even though there were many complicit architects,

18:39.245 --> 18:40.605
ironic architects, there were also

18:40.605 --> 18:41.805
some subversive architects.

18:41.845 --> 18:46.005
A group of architects called Iba Alpa, renovated the,

18:46.145 --> 18:49.445
buildings in one part in their part,

18:49.445 --> 18:52.485
through a participatory urban renewal process without

18:52.495 --> 18:56.125
displacing the current residents, in a way they achieved

18:56.145 --> 19:00.165
to carry out a very radically democratic urban renewal.

19:00.825 --> 19:04.125
Uh, basically they prepared countless handouts

19:04.125 --> 19:06.845
to explain the renewal process to the immigrants.

19:07.075 --> 19:09.365
They organize house meetings for each

19:09.365 --> 19:13.165
and every building in order to record the neighbor's,

19:13.165 --> 19:15.005
requirements, sometimes conflicting

19:15.005 --> 19:16.525
and complimenting requirements.

19:17.105 --> 19:19.725
Uh, tenant advisors went door to door,

19:19.745 --> 19:21.165
to each and every apartments.

19:21.195 --> 19:23.085
They employed many translators

19:23.855 --> 19:25.685
architects removed and edit walls.

19:25.685 --> 19:29.045
They combined or divided units, they added stairs based on

19:29.045 --> 19:30.285
what the immigrants wanted.

19:30.945 --> 19:34.085
Um, and the immigrants themselves, agreed,

19:34.185 --> 19:35.725
to put up with the construction.

19:35.725 --> 19:39.405
They didn't, did not leave their apartments with the,

19:39.405 --> 19:41.325
fear that they may not be able to return.

19:41.465 --> 19:44.285
So they agreed to put up with the construction,

19:45.185 --> 19:46.605
in their apartments.

19:46.605 --> 19:48.245
They kept renewing their apartments.

19:48.585 --> 19:52.125
And as a result of this process, no single,

19:52.155 --> 19:54.765
immigrant non-citizen family was unwillingly

19:54.765 --> 19:56.045
displaced from their apartment.

19:56.505 --> 19:58.885
And this kept the original percentage

19:58.925 --> 20:00.445
of immigrants, insect.

20:00.605 --> 20:02.565
I mean, in a way, the government wanted

20:02.705 --> 20:06.245
to reduce the percentage of immigrants in cross back to 10%

20:06.345 --> 20:08.005
or less than 10%.

20:08.235 --> 20:13.165
Whereas with this urban renewal strategy, 50% could stay

20:13.265 --> 20:16.325
or whatever was the percent almost close to 50%.

20:16.325 --> 20:18.005
We don't know the numbers very well,

20:18.345 --> 20:20.365
but, 50% could stay.

20:21.025 --> 20:24.085
Um, so in other words, the government's moving quota

20:24.385 --> 20:27.005
or discriminatory laws were subverted,

20:27.005 --> 20:29.485
during the urban renewal by a group of professionals

20:29.485 --> 20:32.245
that were employed, by the Senate itself,

20:32.245 --> 20:35.565
which enabled this non-citizens right to stay home.

20:35.825 --> 20:37.995
Um, and,

20:38.215 --> 20:41.075
and again, for me, showing the agency of the,

20:41.075 --> 20:43.915
these immigrants in the making of their apartments,

20:44.115 --> 20:45.795
buildings and cities were equally important.

20:46.035 --> 20:49.285
I tried to record all the small little details

20:49.315 --> 20:52.725
that they made, they changed, and, so on and so forth.

20:53.185 --> 20:56.445
Um, so that we understand how Kreisberg was built

20:56.505 --> 20:59.685
by these immigrant, not just, the famous architects

20:59.685 --> 21:01.285
that we know on no of.

21:01.285 --> 21:04.725
And today, I think Kreisberg is one of the charming places

21:04.865 --> 21:08.245
to live, thanks to in no small part,

21:08.305 --> 21:09.925
to these renovated apartments

21:10.235 --> 21:12.845
that provide these unique surprises In inside,

21:12.845 --> 21:16.805
they have idiosyncratic floor plans, in addition to,

21:16.825 --> 21:19.605
of course, cosmopolitan population, human rights, protests,

21:19.625 --> 21:22.365
energy, art, and music scene in addition

21:22.365 --> 21:23.805
to the cafes and so on.

21:24.385 --> 21:27.565
Uh, so I think studying this urban renewal process both

21:27.565 --> 21:31.205
allowed me to see the roots of, racism,

21:32.025 --> 21:35.325
and hidden ways that architecture wa was used to,

21:35.325 --> 21:36.965
discriminate to,

21:37.915 --> 21:40.325
establish ratio control on the one hand,

21:40.625 --> 21:44.205
and to give due acknowledgement to the migrants, black

21:44.205 --> 21:47.605
and brown migrants that made our cities,

21:47.635 --> 21:51.565
that we perceive, that we thought were, created

21:51.785 --> 21:53.605
by white male architects.

Quick Answers

Defining Race: Architecture and Social Constructs

00:00:00 - It might be useful to say a few words about how I define race. I understand race, to be a social constructed category, that produces racism, based on what people look like, how they sound, or where, where they come from. so the categorization of races and its product, racism is in a way an artificial ification of human bodies, with some essential, characteristics that are attached to them, to these bodies by birth.
00:00:34 - with the actual human bodies, but more, to do with the sciences, politics, that divide, classify and label, them. So races, I think, are racialized. and needless to say, to undo racism, we have to speak about race. and for that reason, I think architecture and architectural education or the history courses in architectural, education is a very productive medium to speak about how race has been constructed.
00:01:06 - knowledge, modern epistemology or, phenomena like slavery and colonization relied on these categories of race that we still live in. and at the same time, however, I think we need to study race, with the anticipation that it, racial studies will not be needed, in the future will disappear when racism is undone. and concerning your question about what does race have
00:01:38 - so many levels to this. think of the segregation of urban neighborhoods or buildings, building parts or redlining, or the association of beauty with European classical architecture. the perceived hierarchy between the climates of the world and their association with beauty and progress, architectural symbolism, the ranking of architectural styles, the racial separation between elite designers
00:02:07 - So, actually, architecture and buildings have a lot, to do with, with racism. Discrimination based on gender, family inheritance, skin color caste existed throughout, centuries, in many parts of the world. but today we live, in an age that inherits, to a large extent European racial categories of the 19th century. in a way these categories,
00:02:37 - of architectural history as a discipline. in other words, you know, architectural history as a discipline at its foundation inherits many of the racial categories of European racial categories, of the 19th century. and for this reason, I think, to understand or under racism, we Also have to think of new knowledge, how to produce new knowledge, that goes beyond our comfort zones. so the narrative that has been produced

Challenging Eurocentric Narratives in Architecture

00:03:12 - of see architecture is it set of sequential, practices between white male architects. That's a Eurocentric canon. It has been very influential for many years now. It is, I mean, the weakness of that canon, is, well established. but the, alternatives that have been produced, against them is not totally, they, they reproduce some of the racial categories. For instance, after, admitting the weakness
00:03:44 - there's a tendency to divide world architecture into categories like Islamic architecture, Asian architecture, African architecture, to put more, to be more inclusive. But this, tendency also perpetrates conventional categories, and they assume these architectures are self-contained and often hierarchical, territorial zones. for instance, the clash of civilizations theory, is a very good, example of this.
00:04:16 - entrenching some of the, racial categories that produced racism in the first place. For that reason, in my own, writing or teaching, I, use something called an intertwined history approach. I try to see, the, intertwined history of modern architecture that in a way, rewrites, modernity in terms of migrations, translations, as opposed to this colonial nationalist and separative framework.
00:04:46 - because of the people ideas of objects, technologies, images, information that travel between spaces, and that gets, translated each time rather than seeing a world that depends on these segregated, isolated, racial or geographical, categories. and one of the hardest narratives to challenge, if you want, you ask me to give some examples. For instance, one of the hardest narratives to challenge, is this established history that sees modernity,
00:05:18 - and North American invention, that was then disseminated to the rest of the world. In a way, this, narrative sees the Wests and global dominance, over modern world as something to be proud of. but this narrative also obscures how modernity was, indeed produced in a global network, of, creations. for instance, it's curious that, the French and American revolutions are usually treated in
00:05:50 - of humanity as benchmarks of modern symbols of self-governance, freedom, and so on. But, Haiti revolution, or the slave revolts that were happening simultaneously are not really, integrated into, into this narrative. So, for that reason, in my own classes, rather than treating, let's say, teaching only French Revolution as a chronological macro, freedom, equality, human rights, and so on, I try to see, the connected history

Connecting History: Architecture, Colonialism, and Race

00:06:24 - or to give another example, when teaching Industrial Revolution, I do not look only at the impact of new materials, technologies and mass production in the architecture of London, Paris, and Chicago. But I also discuss strong cause and effect relation between industrialization and colonization of, Africa and, west Asia. Or when I'm teaching post-colonial independence, I also, look at the continuing Western mandates
00:06:55 - of anti-colonial resistance. So I try to kind of, present, a history of the world that is much more, connect, connected, and sees both the colonial and cosmopolitan ideals, in disconnected history. and I think the ultimate aim of this history is, to expose the racism, but at the same time, to build some sort of justice and peace.
00:07:27 - of the good examples, some cosmopolitan potentials contributions of the hio erased, minority architects of any gender, any race from any place of world. To build for a more just, picture of, of architectural history, in that book, I look at the racialization, of Muslim immigrants and refugees, in Germany as,
00:07:57 - so open architecture, for me, I mean, I define it, as a new ethical welcoming, into the design process. in a way, the book asks what would've happened if architectural profession were shaped by a welcoming toward the racialized immigrant, and I call this open architecture. So I try to look at formal programmatic or procedural steps towards open architecture. and as you said,
00:08:26 - of Berlin Rosberg in the, 1980s. and the state of the art public housing buildings, are well known in the field of architecture, in professional debates because of the famous international architects that built there. I mean, there's a very long list of famous architecture names. In a way, the fact that these buildings were built in an immigrant district had not been addressed. and the Rosberg borough at the time, it was along the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall stood at the time,
00:08:59 - during the Second World War. And it was left, to, it was neglected, without municipal repair. and at the time, it was composed of almost 50% immigrants, predominantly from Turkey, who had arrived either as guest workers, since 1961, or as refugees, in the aftermath of the 1980s Cota in Turkey. I mean, there are many layers in the book, but the one that I think would be relevant

Anti-Racist Architectural History in Germany

00:09:28 - of these immigrant Muslim immigrants in Germany. and the book defines, in a way, two major steps, for an what might be called an anti-racist, architectural history. the first step is to write this history in a way that exposes discrimination, because even that is, was not, acknowledged. and the second, is to show, the agency of these immigrants in the making of, the urban spaces
00:10:00 - so in terms of the first step about, exposing discrimination, the Middle Eastern, because this was never done in a very, overt way, we're talking about 1980s, but I tried to disclose how hidden, and sometimes not so hidden waste, racializes immigrants, not so hidden waste included, like toilet decrease, ex explaining how to handle human waste.
00:10:29 - and Turkish children were, separated into different classes. there were many newspaper advertisements that made it clear that immigrants were not eligible to rent apartments. Landlord and housing bureaus consistently turned down migrants applications and pushed them into rundown buildings. Then they define those rundown buildings as ghettos in the sense of source of trial, troubled crime and chaos. and the landlords took advantage of the Turkish tenant's lack of rights,
00:11:01 - and there was also some very hidden ways, that racialized, or exerted discrimination, for instance, the government, legal ways to handle, this issue was very discriminatory. In the 1970s, the Berlin Senates passed a series of housing laws and regulations, that relied on these racialized categorizations. For, for instance, there was something called the ban on entry and settlement, which prohibited the movement
00:11:31 - or there was something called the desegregation regulation, which mandated that only 10% of units would be, rented to, immigrants all over West Berlin. For instance, if there was a building with 10 apartments, and if one apartment was occupied by a Turkish family, no other Turkish family could move in. There was a quota. In other words, and the social Democrats justified these regulations as integration.
00:12:00 - these regulations were meant to obstruct them, from constructing social and, cultural networks. And during the urban renewal, the, government also shifted, to Christian Democrats who, mobilized anti-immigration policies. For instance, the building senator that was responsible for Berg's urban renewal clearly said, you know, whoever runs to Germany must feel like a German. If you don't want, just go back to our country. So there were these anti-immigration, policies as well.

Racial Discrimination in Urban Housing Policy

00:12:34 - translated these policies into the functional program, of the buildings, for instance, in the new buildings, the, government made sure that only five or 10% of the apartments will new public housing, apartments will be big apartments that would have been, good for the, immigrant families. so in other words, the, governments, had assessed that there were too many immigrants in Rosberg,
00:13:02 - that the Germans benefited from the new urban renewal and high quality public housing. So they made sure that only apartments that were, not good for big Turkish families were constructed. So, in other words, this program would either diminish the immigrant families chances to move into new public housing, high quality public housing, or, it would welcome them only if they changed how they lived and fit, the, standards
00:13:33 - So this collapsibility between race and non-citizen conveniently served to exert discrimination under the pretext of, law. so in the book, I discuss how these policymakers, use architecture as a mechanism of racial control, but I also analyze how architects in a way, responded to this, this situation. Some were complicit, some were naive, politically naive, some were ironic, and some were indeed subverted. They really, some of them subverted, these,
00:14:06 - and made sure that the new urban renewal and public housing benefited the, racialized immigrants as well. So there's maybe two part question. One is methodological. The other is, how did this non rights to the city were, enabled in a way? How, how were these discriminatory laws subverted? So, speaking to the first part, methodologically, I want to extend, the theme of the book Open Architecture to a format of writing.
00:14:39 - find an open form of writing history, by giving voice not only to the established or understudied architects, but also to the immigrant residents. Architectural history usually gives, voice to the architects, but not necessarily the, residents. so I rang every bell basically in Berlin Rosberg, during the research of this book. and I came to, I identify and build trust, with those immigrants who were willing
00:15:10 - And I tried to configure their voices, Biogen inspired by oral history, and storytelling rather than sociology, ethnography, or other forms of environmental science and oral history was my preferred method, because I think an oral historian rephrase refrains from representing an entire ethnicity and entire race, and as the name, of the underrepresented individual into history. So rather than saying immigrant, or rather than saying 50%

Empowering Migrants Through Individual Narratives

00:15:41 - and rather than trying to find the totality, I use the preferred name of the individual migrants to give credit to their agency. so, and I think it's not worth it that many researchers who do, research with recent migrants in con conflict zones and refugees conclude with the same, need. I mean, they say that migrants always say, see me, see me as a human being, as an individual, not like, you know,
00:16:14 - So in a way, all history historian does not have claims to represent ability, totality, generalizability, but, trust the, even, even one, each story of each individual matters. so it's not about calculable analytics, but it's about, telling the stories, how residents changed, appropriated corrected their, stories. It kind of enables writing architectural history, I think,
00:16:46 - that's passed from mouth to mouth, or, in the sense of understanding architecture as spaces that are filled with the fabric of everyday life. and I think storytelling, telling the, stories of the individuals also give us a, a very textured story about the political harm, on the individuals of these racism and the discriminatory regulations that I, just, mentioned. it also allowed me to write more women
00:17:17 - because once you tell the story of a space and how it has been changed and appropriated by the woman, it allows, us to put more, woman and have a feminist architectural history. and the second part of your question about how non-citizen rights to the city, was performed, maybe it might be good to remember that in our current, and, and that's, a critique that is done by many, political philosophers as well in our, current
00:17:49 - In a way, the human and citizenship rights, even though they're supposed to be separate, they are kind of attached. I mean, despite all the, talk about refugee rights in a way, individuals human rights are actually secured when they're full citizens and migrants do not necessarily have, the same, privileges or rights that are, enjoyed by citizens. And the discriminatory housing regulations that I just mentioned five minutes ago are a good example, that shows how citizenship law, was, kind of,
00:18:24 - exercise racism against migrants. so in this sense, I think subversive examples matter in this non-citizen rights to the city. and Rosberg is also a good example. even though there were many complicit architects, ironic architects, there were also some subversive architects. A group of architects called Iba Alpa, renovated the, buildings in one part in their part, through a participatory urban renewal process without

Radically Democratic Urban Renewal for Immigrants

00:18:56 - to carry out a very radically democratic urban renewal. basically they prepared countless handouts to explain the renewal process to the immigrants. They organize house meetings for each and every building in order to record the neighbor's, requirements, sometimes conflicting and complimenting requirements. tenant advisors went door to door, to each and every apartments. They employed many translators
00:19:25 - They combined or divided units, they added stairs based on what the immigrants wanted. and the immigrants themselves, agreed, to put up with the construction. They didn't, did not leave their apartments with the, fear that they may not be able to return. So they agreed to put up with the construction, in their apartments. They kept renewing their apartments. And as a result of this process, no single, immigrant non-citizen family was unwillingly
00:19:56 - And this kept the original percentage of immigrants, insect. I mean, in a way, the government wanted to reduce the percentage of immigrants in cross back to 10% or less than 10%. Whereas with this urban renewal strategy, 50% could stay or whatever was the percent almost close to 50%. We don't know the numbers very well, but, 50% could stay. so in other words, the government's moving quota or discriminatory laws were subverted,
00:20:29 - that were employed, by the Senate itself, which enabled this non-citizens right to stay home. and, and again, for me, showing the agency of the, these immigrants in the making of their apartments, buildings and cities were equally important. I tried to record all the small little details that they made, they changed, and, so on and so forth. so that we understand how Kreisberg was built by these immigrant, not just, the famous architects
00:21:01 - And today, I think Kreisberg is one of the charming places to live, thanks to in no small part, to these renovated apartments that provide these unique surprises In inside, they have idiosyncratic floor plans, in addition to, of course, cosmopolitan population, human rights, protests, energy, art, and music scene in addition to the cafes and so on. so I think studying this urban renewal process both allowed me to see the roots of, racism,
00:21:51 - discriminate to, establish ratio control on the one hand, and to give due acknowledgement to the migrants, black and brown migrants that made our cities, that we perceive, that we thought were, created by white male architects.

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