Abstract
The concept of identity is complex and at the same time ambiguous. Architectural identity, however, is even more complex. This stems from the fact that architecture is the mirror that reflects the different political, cultural, social and economic factors that are shaping the city. In this research, Khartoum, the capital of Sudan is chosen as a case study to explore its contemporary architectural identity. Initial findings from interviewing different parties in the city including architects, academicians and planners highlighted the significant conflict in expressing the Sudanese architectural identity in contemporary architecture. This resulted in a total disregard in considering it in both urban and architectural design processes. While the majority of interviewed participants realised this, only a few undertook certain design approaches to confront it. Therefore, this research argues that it is necessary to confront the ambiguity of architectural identity by simplifying its complexity. In order to achieve this, simpler topics such as the architectural character and architectural features are introduced then explored as ways to interpret architectural identity more objectively. It could be concluded that addressing the complexity of architectural identity will provide important answers for the future of any contemporary architecture including that of Khartoum.
Highlights
The concept of identity is complex and at the same time ambiguous
With the aim of confronting the complexity of architectural identity, this paper will aim for the more objective exploration for architectural identity and it will focus on listing the physical characteristics and features of the architecture of each of the identified approaches, evaluate them and discuss their representation of the sense of identity according to users of the place as follows: Figure 2: Variables of architectural identity with the physical character as the focus of this research. pg
This research explored the issue of architectural identity in the context of Khartoum and focused in its centre Khartoum city centre (KCC) as a case study
Summary
The early exploration of this research has commenced with the hypothesis that architectural identity could be precisely identified. Identity is strongly linked to the memory as Bandyopadhyay and Montiel (2013, p.xiv) emphasise: “memory is intimately connected with the construction of identity; it is with the memories we collect throughout our lives that we construct our sense of identity and belonging”.Fearon (1999) argues that the use of the term ‘identity’ nowadays is a recent social construct that everyone knows how to use properly, it is still difficult to give a short and adequate summary that captures the range of its current meanings. It could be argued that there are places where the architecture does not have the ability to express any identity, but a chaotic image of different immature and contested identities An example of these places is Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan with its urban fabric that represents buildings from various styles, heights, colours and materials. While architectural identity is about the physical character, personal meanings, memories and the sociocultural and political identities, the existence of all these dimensions in the definition of identity made it a loose and fluid issue that could be described as complex and, an ambiguous and non-definable issue
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