New Black Worlds
The concept of world-building exists not only in the fictional world of Afrofuturist novels and films, but in the real world as well. Architects across the African Diaspora have designed sustainable buildings that rely on traditional resource-management while utilizing cutting-edge design – creating futures where Black life can flourish. Working together in collectives, urban planners and designers are rejecting negative assumptions about the value of Black homes and neighborhoods, while visual artists are creating fantastical sculptures, paintings, and immersive installations.
At this moment in time, all of us should be thinking of radically different worlds.
Emanuel Admassu, architect and co-founder of Black Reconstruction Collective
Reconstructing space – changing, redefining, imagining, or building new places to live – is part of the Afrofuturist imagination, whether in fantasy contexts like sci-fi novels and films, or in concrete ways like constructing urban landscapes.
Black architects, urban planners, and designers are imagining new futures for Black living by creating physical spaces that echo the past, acknowledge the current moment, and provide a vision for the future. This is not only the work of individuals, but also of collectives like BlackSpace and Black Reconstruction Collective.
BlackSpace
Members of the BlackSpace collective in 2019
BlackSpace is a national organization that grew out of conversations at the 2015 Black in Design conference. Bringing together Black architects and urban planners from major cities like New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, the group challenges traditional design standards and seeks to advance Black community knowledge and to combat historic forces like urban renewal, a government-supported redevelopment program that led to the destruction of low-income housing and neighborhoods.
Black Reconstruction Collective
Black Reconstruction Collective members
In 2019, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) began planning for “Reconstructions: Architecture and Black Art in America,” the first exhibit on Black architects in the 89-year history of the museum’s Department of Architecture and Design. The ten invited architects formed an architectural collective in order to present a unified front towards the museum and to work together to improve conditions for Black architects.
In order to think about possible futures, somehow we have to reimagine ourselves in new places and then find ways to get there.
Emanuel Admassu, architect and co-founder of Black Reconstruction Collective