Modernism on the margins: A genealogy of Namibia’s (post-)apartheid spaces

Abstract

Namibian spaces have been shaped, transformed, and ordered according to the ideas and practices propagated by the Modern Movement. These ideas were originally transferred from Europe and adapted to the South African context, then subsequently introduced to Namibia via South African institutions, urban practitioners, and architects. However, the modernist design ideas reached the empire’s margins in an altered and often contradictory form, and with quite different social, political and economic intentions. Their deployment in support of the colonial/apartheid project in Namibia resulted in a recalcitrant and enduring legacy. Today, more than three decades after the fall of apartheid, space-making practices continue to work in-line with this inherited spatial fabric. This paper unpacks this modern spatial genealogy in Namibia, offering an example of the discursive power of built form.