In the late 1940s, architecture embraced modernity. Glass, concrete, and steel were the order of the day. This aesthetic was brought by European powers to their colonies. A political tool used to consolidate Europe's position, this "tropical modernism" also embodied, in stone, the symbol of a post-colonial future. This epic story, unfolding between Ghana and India, is recounted by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through a major exhibition.
The exhibition begins with the two British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Both convinced that the utopia embodied by modern architecture would build a better world, they settled in what is now Ghana in the aftermath of the Second World War. Taking advantage of a construction boom in West Africa, they successfully adapted European modernism to the hot and humid tropical conditions. Their comfortable buildings were primarily designed for British administrators, while those designed for Africans were intended to counter any aspirations for independence, according to the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The museum institution also highlights African architects, whose work has only recently been recognized, through the trajectories of two Ghanaians: Theodore Shealtiel Clerk and Peter Turkson.
It also evokes the new existence of this architecture once the era of decolonization was over. We continue to follow Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry who, in 1950, were recruited by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, to build the country's new modern city, Chandigarh. A certain Le Corbusier would join the project, seeing it as an opportunity to build his ideal city. Given the insistence that architects employ locals rather than members of their own firms, several Indians would receive training on this project. These same architects and artists, figures like Giani Rattan Singh, Aditya Prakash, and Nek Chand, would contribute to building this modern India in the aftermath of colonization.
In India, tropical modernism flourished for about twenty years. During this period, two opposing camps emerged: on one side, the modernists, aspiring to an international and avant-garde approach to architecture, and on the other, the revivalists, desiring an architecture that more clearly evoked India. This strong opposition led to explicit demands from certain officials to establish a policy in this area, aiming to promote a more traditional aesthetic.
A necessary exhibition, which underlines the eminently political dimension of the art that is architecture.
« Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence » Victoria and Albert Museum South Kensington
Cromwell Road, London (England)
