Abstract
This article defends an attention to past meanings of ‘Europe’ as a prospective idea, focusing on the circulation of architectural ideas between European states and settler territories in late colonialism. It proposes research that questions the relation between present-day European architectural expertise and ‘Europe’ as a colonial space-time horizon. The latter term denotes how past colonial futures, understood as circulatory formations, entailed an imagination of social spaces that was never fully actualized, acting instead as a guiding device. Drawing on archival research in South Africa and in Mozambique, the article examines how during the Second World War architects in the region projected a ‘European’ space that, while being envisioned in contrast to an unequal non-European space, was not simply a propagation of coeval space-time in European cities. In addition, it notes how professional discourse in the 1960s articulated the hierarchies of development that structure the domain of Europeanness. However, the article does not stress the mere denunciation of ‘Europe’ as integral to colonial rationality, recalling instead the potential of prospective ideas as a form of open daydream.
Highlights
The Architectural History of Europe as a Prospective Idea This article contributes to our reflection on the present-day meaning of ‘Europe’ in architectural history by defending an attention to past meanings of Europe as a prospective idea circulated through various domains of expert knowledge and practice, including architecture
His letter seems to represent the concerns of architects regarding the design of future urban division, which demanded a transformation of the social space-time of South Africans of European descent: To build such towns would demand some alteration in social conditions ... [M]y friends in the dorps [i.e., villages or towns] plant a few vegetables, have an orchard, run a few hens, and, more often than not, keep a cow
As in Johannesburg, Portuguese experts dealt with cities where their fellow settlers came from various European states; while many were Portuguese there were sizeable British, Greek, or Italian contingents
Summary
The Architectural History of Europe as a Prospective Idea This article contributes to our reflection on the present-day meaning of ‘Europe’ in architectural history by defending an attention to past meanings of Europe as a prospective idea circulated through various domains of expert knowledge and practice, including architecture.
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