Last year the Victoria & Albert Museum showcased a project during the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice entitled "Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa". The display presented an analysis of the work of the Department of Tropical Studies, and explored how the architectural style it developed was employed as a tool to support colonial rule before being adapted by new African nations to promote new visions for a Pan-African future.
The insights from this showcase have now been expanded upon for a more comprehensive event at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, titled "Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence" (running until September 22nd). This exhibition offers a deeper exploration, featuring models, drawings, letters, photographs, and sculptures that chronicle the journey of the Tropical Modernist movement.
Characterized by clean lines and minimalist facades, Modernism gained prominence through advocates like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. Architect couple Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry became notable figures in Britain for embracing this style, emphasizing materials such as concrete, glass, and steel, as well as employing rigorous forms.
However, their minimalist approach, exemplified by Maxwell Fry's Sun House in Hampstead (1935), failed to resonate with British tastes. Consequently, Fry and Drew found more opportunities in West Africa and India.
During the Second World War, Fry was stationed in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where Drew later joined him in 1944 to advise British colonial governments in West Africa on town planning.
Drew and Fry designed schools, colleges, community centres, libraries, and other institutions funded by the Colonial Office's substantial post-war budget - equivalent to £6 billion in today's currency. The facilities were seen as ways to modernize Britain's colonies and counter demands for independence.
Drew and Fry attracted international attention for their books, "Village Housing in the Tropics" (1947), a pocket guide to self‑building in hot climates, and "Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone" (1956), offering practical insights into self-building in hot climates and architectural designs informed by climate science.
The architects developed indeed a localized adaptation of Modernism, analyzing solar paths and meteorological data to design buildings that facilitated passive cooling and maximized shade and ventilation.
They strategically oriented buildings so that solid walls on the East and West blocked the sun's strongest rays, while the longer North and South facades remained open, incorporating features such as brise soleils (the semi-permeable screens that allow a breeze to enter a building and cool the interior, while deflecting sunlight), adjustable louvres (they offer protection from sun and rain while allowing natural ventilation) and wide eaves (the edges of a roof that overhang a building's walls and shield the interiors from intense sunlight and rain) to enhance cross-ventilation and provide shade.
However, despite their contributions to architectural innovation, Drew and Fry's vision remained entrenched in colonialist ideals (the curriculum at the Department of Tropical Architecture founded at the Architectural Association (AA) London, by Fry, Drew and their colleague James Cubbit, also had a western bias maintaining that Tropical Modernism was superior to the solutions provided by traditional buildings).
They largely ignored local building traditions and predominantly featured British architects in their works, occasionally incorporating superficial nods to local culture, such as African patterns on brise soleils.
For instance, at Opoku Ware school, the repetitive perforations in the brise soleil were inspired by the crescent shape of an Ashanti ceremonial stool (note for architecture and fashion fans: make a comparison here with the African brand highlighted in yesterday's post, Maxhosa. Drew and Fry tended to incorporate African patterns in a superficial way into their modern architectures, while the African brand we examined yesterday seamlessly integrates African motifs into its modern designs, resulting in a more authentic and culturally resonant aesthetic. Note for fashion design students: ponder on these two approaches, as they represent different perspectives – Drew and Fry refused to acknowledge local traditions yet they superficially incorporated them in their designs; Maxhosa takes pride in incorporating traditional motifs in contemporary design).
Besides, Drew and Fry's definition of "the Tropics" encompassed a vast geographical region within the British Empire, overlooking regional climate variations and local cultures and traditions.
Their architectural endeavors were therefore aimed primarily at providing colonial administrators with comfort in tropical climates, while also striving to cultivate a more compliant colonial populace and, as stated above, mitigate calls for independence.
The exhibition then explores Drew and Fry's work in India, where they were enlisted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1950 to design a new city at Chandigarh, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
The city would become independent India's first large-scale modernist project and to design it they invited French architect Le Corbusier to join them and design a capitol of government buildings, for the assembly, the law courts and the secretariat.
Indian architects also joined the Chandigarh team, including Aditya Prakash, and Sikh model maker Giani Rattan Singh, who worked with Le Corbusier to translate his drawings into three dimensions.
This section of the exhibition presents a dichotomy between a stringent interpretation of Modernism, embracing an international avant-garde approach, and a more traditional perspective advocating for the incorporation of local styles and motifs.
This contrast is vividly illustrated through the juxtaposition of Le Corbusier's modernist buildings with the whimsical sculptures from The Rock Garden.
The Rock Garden, a remarkable example of outsider architecture, was created by the self-taught road inspector Nek Chand in secrecy.
Using discarded materials such as stones, broken glass, ceramics, iron-foundry slag, and porcelain electrical switches, Chand crafted a landscape populated with statues depicting human beings, gods, and animals (expect J.W. Anderson at Loewe to borrow from the garden sculptures ideas and inspirations for future collections...).
This juxtaposition highlights the tension between established architectural paradigms and the creativity of ordinary individuals with a very unique vision and imagination. While Le Corbusier's structures represent the epitome of Modernist principles, The Rock Garden embodies a more intuitive and locally rooted expression of art and architecture.
The next section explores the architecture in Ghana under Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. Ghana became independent in 1957 and Nkrumah encouraged the Black diaspora to return and contribute to its liberation and reconstruction – activist Malcolm X, boxer Muhammad Ali and poet Maya Angelou visited Ghana, while W.E.B. Du Bois and George Padmore emigrated there.
Symbolic structures like the Independence Arch, contrasting with the "door of no return" from the era of slavery, represented a "door of return", exemplifying Nkrumah's desire to inspire unity and empowerment among Africans worldwide.
Nkrumah persuaded, for example, Victor Adegbite back from America to become the government's Chief Architect. Adegbite was commissioned to design Black Star Square, a parade ground built in Accra on former colonial playing fields.
Nkrumah's commitment to Africanization policies extended to art, music, fashion and architecture and Ghanaian architects were mandated to participate in all construction projects. Additionally, he established an architecture school at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi to cultivate a new generation of homegrown architects, reducing the reliance on foreign expertise and encouraging national identity and pride (John Owusu-Addo and Max Bond taught there as well).
Instead of viewing traditional African architecture as obsolete or inferior, as Fry and Drew did, KNUST embraced the study of local styles. Tropical Modernism was thus re-appropriated to define a new African identity that transcended national borders.
In 1963, the Department of Tropical Studies formed a partnership with KNUST, with involvement from Fry, Drew, architects from Eastern Europe, and China. Buckminster Fuller also contributed to this movement, leading a workshop at KNUST in 1964 (the geodesic dome in the exhibition is a reference to Buckminster Fuller, who thought that his mud-covered aluminium domes could address Ghana's housing crisis. However, there was a significant design flaw: when it rained, the mud covering the aluminium-framed domes would slip off...).
In the '60s Nkrumah's government turned increasingly authoritarian and, in 1966, a military coup toppled him, signaling the decline of Tropical Modernism and the end of an era.
The exhibition culminates with a three-screen film shot in Ghana, showcasing archive footage, contemporary views of key buildings like the Community Centre in Accra by Fry and Drew, and Unity Hall at KNUST in Kumasi by John Owusu-Addo. Interviews with figures like Samia Nkrumah, politician and Nkrumah's daughter, as well as Ghanaian architects who worked alongside Drew, Fry and the AA's John Lloyd provide further insight.
"Tropical Modernism" at the V&A does not draw definitive conclusions, but serves as a valuable learning resource. It also prompts exploration into how African art and motifs influenced European artists, contributing to the development of a Modernist aesthetic.
Artists like Eduardo Paolozzi (who taught alongside Fry and Drew at the Department of Tropical Studies), for example, incorporated African elements into their work, often stripping them of cultural context.
From an architectural perspective, there are lessons to be learnt, including the adaptation of Fry and Drew and Le Corbusier's principles by architects like John Owusu Addo in Ghana and Balkrishna Doshi and Prakash in India. Besides, the potential of open facades for natural cross-ventilation, especially in the context of climate change, is worth reconsidering. And fashion-wise, features like elaborate brise-soleils could inspire innovations in garments and accessories.
The dismissal of African architecture by Fry and Drew also offers a reminder of the broader issues of colonialism and appropriation in other fields as well: parallels can be observed within the fashion industry where local crafts are often disregarded until appropriated by luxury houses.
This reflection prompts us to consider how colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary practices and attitudes, particularly in the creative industries. So, engage with this exhibition and try to extract valuable insights from "Tropical Modernism" to understand more deeply the themes of colonialism, appropriation, cultural exchange and identity.
Image credits for this post
1, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16. Installation shots of "Tropical Modernism - Architecture and Independence" at the V&A South Kensington © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
2. Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry with a model of one of their many buildings for the Gold Coast, 1945. Image courtesy RIBA.
3. Community Centre, Accra, 1953. Image courtesy RIBA.
4. Diagram of a brise soleil at Aburi Girl's School, Ghana, from Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone, 1956, publisher B.T Batsford, Courtesy of RIBA.
5. University College, Ibadan: Library veranda. Courtesy of RIBA.
6. Illustration from The Architectural Review, 1953. Courtesy RIBA Collections © Gordon Cullen Estate.
7. "The Tropics" as identified by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, 1947, Reproduction of illustration from Village Housing in the Tropic, Publisher Lund Humphries, Courtesy of the estate of Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
8. Le Corbusier in Chandigarh with the plan of the city and a model of the Modular Man, his universal system of proportion, 1951 © FDL, ADAGP 2014.
9. Aditya Prakash, photo album of architectural projects, people, landscapes, circa 1960s-2000s © Aditya Prakash fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture. Gift of Vikramaditya Prakash.
10. Pierre Jeanneret, portrait of model makers, Rattan Singh and Dhani Ram, at work on the model for Capitol Complex, Sector 1, Chandigarh, India, circa 1960. Pierre Jeanneret fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture. Gift of Jacqueline Jeanneret. © CCA.
14. Black Star Square, Accra © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
17. Eduardo Paolozzi, Klokvormig Masker, 1946-47. Courtesy Flowers Gallery, London © Trustees of the Paolozzi Foundation, licensed by DACS.
18. Film still of Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast by Fry, Drew and Partners - for "Tropical Modernism - Architecture and Independence" © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
19. Film still of Scott House, Accra by Kenneth Scott - for "Tropical Modernism - Architecture and Independence", © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
20. Sick Hagemeyer shop assistant as a seventies icon posing in front of the United Trading Company headquarters, Accra, 1971 © James Barnor. Courtesy of Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière.
Comments