Discourse on Contextualism in Architecture and Design: The French Hotels and the African Paradigm

Abstract

This article discussed the topic of Contextualism in architectural design through its relationship with Modern movement in architecture. Many writers have discussed the concepts of Context and Contextualism in architecture, mainly from the point of view of how Modern Architecture dealt with the subject. From these writings, one theme appeared recurrent: the notion that Modern architecture or Modern buildings neglected this very important requirement of architectural design, but rather presented a pseudo-industrial style of building that was intended to replace the academic eclecticism of the Beaux Arts. To do this, it employed imagery related to machinery rather than to previous building, thus symbolizing its belief in a social and a physical utopia to be created by technology. Very few, in their writings, discuss more than one dimension of this concept. Many tend to focus on physical context alone. However, the works of Robert Venturi explain to us that there may be more than one interpretation of the concept. He posits that one must necessarily include both the physical and cultural contexts. Other works such as those of Colin Rowe, Thomas L. Schumacher and Stuart Cohen have also delved into this concept from different dimensions, expounding on it from the perspectives of  Modernism, Post-Modernism, and Deconstructivism. Schumacher, for instance, proposes a scenario where the disparate theories of cultural and physical contexts are included rather than excluded.  In this particular article, a common Modern building type (hotel) is used to further explore and fathom the meaning of this concept and how it has been applied in the paradigm of African architecture. In contrast to the failures of Modern Architecture in dealing with the urban context, the French hotels of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Rococo period exhibited a remarkable response to the urban site conditions. These buildings, in a bid to become part of their site, assumed exterior forms that differed from their interior configurations. As opposed to Modern Architecture, the form was basically determined by contextual requirements and considerations rather than by programmatic requirements and considerations. The most profound example of Contextualism in African architecture is revealed in the Great Mosque of Djenne, in Djenne, Mali, West Africa. The profundity of the form cannot be understated as the building’s response to its physical and cultural contexts is unequivocally original and authentic. Finally, we looked at some examples of contemporary Nigerian (African) contextual architecture in the City of Enugu and saw how the buildings responded to context within the ubiquity of Urbanism.

Keywords: Contextualism, Symbolism, Modern Architecture, African Architecture, French Hotels