Bhabha for Architects (Thinkers for Architects)

155 Pages·2010·1.19 MB·English

by  Felipe Hernandez

BhaBha for architects
Thinkers for Architects
Series editor: Adam Sharr, Cardiff University, UK
Editorial board
Jonathan A. Hale, University of Nottingham, UK
Hilde Heynen, KU Leuven, Netherlands
David Leatherbarrow, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Architects have often looked to philosophers and theorists from beyond the
discipline for design inspiration or in search of a critical framework for practice.
This original series offers quick, clear introductions to key thinkers who have
written about architecture and whose work can yield insights for designers.
Deleuze and Guattari for Architects
Andrew Ballantyne
Heidegger for Architects
Adam Sharr
Irigaray for Architects
Peg Rawes
Bhabha for Architects
Felipe Hernández
Merleau- Ponty for Architects
Jonathan Hale
Bourdieu for Architects
Helena Webster
Benjamin for Architects
Brian Elliott
THINKERS FOR ARCHITECTS
Bhabha
for
Architects
Felipe Hernández
first published 2010
by routledge
2 Park square, Milton Park, abingdon, oxon oX14 4rN
simultaneously published in the Usa and canada
by routledge
270 Madison ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2010 felipe hernández
all rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
hernández, felipe, 1971-
Bhabha for architects / felipe hernández.
p. cm. – (thinkers for architects ; 4)
includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Bhabha, homi K., 1949- 2. architecture–Philosophy. i. title.
B5134.B474h47 2010
720.1–dc22
2009037166
ISBN 0-203-85593-0 Master e-book ISBN
isBN10: 0-415-47745-X (hbk)
isBN10: 0-415-47746-8 (pbk)
isBN10: 0-203-85593-0 (ebk)
isBN13: 978-0-415-47745-1 (hbk)
isBN13: 978-0-415-47746-8 (pbk)
isBN13: 978-0-203-85593-5 (ebk)
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Illustration Credits ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
Bhabha’s theoretical context 9
Postcolonial theory 14
Bhabha and architecture 18
The plan of this book 21
2 Translation 24
Walter Benjamin and the ‘task of the translator’ 26
Translation in Bhabha’s work 30
3 Ambivalence 39
Postcolonial ambivalence 42
The ambivalence of architectural history 50
4 Hybridity 58
Bhabha’s hybridity 60
Critiques of hybridity 73
Hybridity as form in architecture 77
Representing non- western architectures 82
5 The Third Space 89
Theorising the Third Space 90
v CONTENTS
Spatialising the Third Space 93
Third Space and architecture 96
6 The Pedagogical and the Performative 99
Cultural difference and the agency of minorities 100
The nation and some ideas on nationalism 104
Bhabha’s critique of the nation 108
Questioning duality in the history of colonial cities 117
The performative temporality of contemporary cities 120
Architecture and the performative 123
7 Conclusion 130
Works Cited 133
Further Reading 135
Index 137
vi CONTENTS
Series Editor’s Preface
Adam Sharr
Architects have often looked to thinkers in philosophy and theory for design
ideas, or in search of a critical framework for practice. Yet architects and
students of architecture can struggle to navigate thinkers’ writings. It can be
daunting to approach original texts with little appreciation of their contexts.
And existing introductions seldom explore architectural material in any detail.
This original series offers clear, quick and accurate introductions to key thinkers
who have written about architecture. Each book summarises what a thinker has
to offer for architects. It locates their architectural thinking in the body of their
work, introduces significant books and essays, helps decode terms and provides
quick reference for further reading. If you find philosophical and theoretical
writing about architecture difficult, or just don’t know where to begin, this
series will be indispensable.
Books in the Thinkers for Architects series come out of architecture. They pursue
architectural modes of understanding, aiming to introduce a thinker to an
architectural audience. Each thinker has a unique and distinctive ethos, and the
structure of each book derives from the character at its focus. The thinkers
explored are prodigious writers and any short introduction can only address a
fraction of their work. Each author – an architect or an architectural critic – has
focused on a selection of a thinker’s writings which they judge most relevant to
designers and interpreters of architecture. Inevitably, much will be left out.
These books will be the first point of reference, rather than the last word, about
a particular thinker for architects. It is hoped that they will encourage you to
read further; offering an incentive to delve deeper into the original writings of a
particular thinker.
The Thinkers for Architects series has proved highly successful, expanding now
to seven volumes dealing with familiar cultural figures whose writings have
vii SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
influenced architectural designers, critics and commentators in distinctive and
important ways. Books explore the work of: Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari;
Martin Heidegger; Luce Irigaray; Homi Bhabha; and Maurice Merleau- Ponty.
Forthcoming titles include Benjamin for Architects and Bourdieu for Architects.
The series continues to expand, addressing an increasingly rich diversity of
contemporary thinkers who have something to say to architects.
Adam Sharr is Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff
University, Principal of Adam Sharr Architects and Editor (with Richard Weston)
of arq: Architectural Research Quarterly published by Cambridge University
Press. He is author of Heidegger’s Hut (MIT Press, 2006) and Heidegger for
Architects (Routledge, 2007), and joint editor of Quality Out of Control:
Standards for Measuring Architecture (Routledge, 2010) and Primitive: Original
Matters in Architecture (Routledge, 2006).
viii SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
Illustration Credits
Professor Homi K. Bhabha, page 4
Courtesy of Department of English, Director of the Humanities Center at
Harvard University
Reconstruction of a Malay House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, page 78
Photo by Felipe Hernández
Reconstruction of the Temple d’Angkor. Paris Exposition 1931, page 85
Courtesy of Topham Partners LLP
Arcade in the Fort Area, Mumbai, India, page 122
Photo by Rahul Mehrotra
Quinta Monroy (before occupation), Iquique, Chile, page 126
Project and photograph by ELEMENTAL Chile
Quinta Monroy (after occupation), Iquique, Chile, page 127
Project and photograph by ELEMENTAL Chile
ix IlluSTRATION CREDITS