At the 2021 Chicago Architecture Bienniale, Riff Studio - a New York-based collaborative bringing together designers Rekha Auguste-Nelson, Farnoosh Rafaie, and Isabel Strauss - presented a project entitled "Architecture of Reparations" (AOR).
The project delved into the history and impact of the "slum" clearance program - carried out by the city and state governments during the Illinois Institute of Technology campus expansion and Chicago's urban renewal program - in Bronzeville. This historic South Side Chicago neighborhood was once a vibrant Black Metropolis. The clearance facilitated land condemnation and subsequent land acquisition for private gain.
Riff Studio developed the AOR project in response to the historic injustices inflicted upon the Black community.
Through a combination of public policy analysis, architectural history, and reparations, the project uncovered the intentional displacement of thousands of families and advocated for Reparations through housing in Bronzeville.
By presenting a public request for proposals (RFP), the collective invited new ideas for restorative housing, addressing vacancy and disinvestment while honoring the neighborhood's past. The project also prompted people to reconsider the design of cities and explore possibilities for communal space.
Riff Studio brought a response to the AOR proposal at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (until 26th November).
Entitled "Case Study House: Chicago" the proposal incorporates various forms of protective domestic programming that aim to address and alleviate the anxiety experienced by Black individuals living in the United States, recognising that the persecution of African Americans extends beyond the legal abolition of slavery.
The piece on display in the Central Pavilion at the Giardini, entitled "A Window (Detail) from the Future (Case Study House)" alludes to protective domestic techniques. Utilizing methods such as crystal glass manufacturing and "ayeneh kari" mirror mosaics (a traditional decorative technique of embedding fragments of mirrored glass in plaster) developed by Farnoosh Rafaie, the design refracts light and distorts forms. By acting as a kaleidoscope, the window with its Islamic pattern combined with a Modernist exploration of abstract geometric forms, obscures the residents inside, making it difficult to pinpoint or target them from the street.
Riff Studio's design is symbolically placed in front of Carlo Scarpa’s window that opens up on the canal outside and that was rediscovered while looking at the original plan for the building during the making of the 16th Architecture Biennale.
The intricate pattern of Riff Studio's window looks like a lace motif and this intriguing detail holds potential for further exploration within the fashion context.
It would be interesting to see if a Black fashion designer would be willing to incorporate the pattern in a collection. By juxtaposing the notions of hiding and revealing, concealment and disclosure, designs incorporating such a pattern would indeed weave through the interplay of shadows and transparency on the human body an architectural narrative and represent a thought-provoking symbolism.
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