Book reviews
African Identity in Post-Apartheid social, and aesthetic issues are raised in
Public Architecture: White Skin,
Black Masks
by J. A. Noble
Ashgate Publishing Limited, Farnham,
2011; 293pp; £65 hardback
ISBN 978 0 7546 7765 9
This book focuses on the identity of
African architecture during the period that
followed apartheid. In his refined and
challenging analysis, Noble attempts to
unravel what are the prevailing aspects that
contributed to clarify and define the
direction followed by the new post-
apartheid architecture. The book invites the
reader to enquire into the collective
identity of South Africans, and to ask
critical questions as to what constitutes
contemporary African identity and its
relation to local architecture.
It is structured around five public design
works, which are the outcome of design
competitions that took place during the
first South African democratic period in
1994. The case studies were selected for the
political, social, cultural aspects and the
questions of identity that they raised, and
their relationship to local architecture. They
included emblematic buildings such as: The
Mpumalanga Legislature, Nelspruit; The
Northern Cape Legislature, Kimberley;
The Constitutional Court of South Africa
and Constitution Hill, Johannesburg; The
Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication,
Kliptown and, finally, Freedom Park,
Pretoria.
The foundations on which decisive
architectural and ideological debates were
developed during the selection process of
the projects are disentangled. This is
achieved mainly by formulating political
and architectural questions as to what
should constitute an appropriate expression
for African identity nowadays. Political,
300 Journal of Town & City Management Vol. 2, 3 300–303
researching what represents authentic
African identity and how this is developed,
through the analysis of five post-apartheid
design works — a recurring theme of this
book.
The detailed histories presented for each
process of the five design competitions allow
the reader to gain fundamental knowledge
about the political circumstances, and the
singular deliberations that took place. These
enable understanding of the criteria used to
select certain design submissions and reject
others, while the identity issue was always
standing at the core of the architectural
debate. In this regard, an important aspect of
the book is that it is able to inform how the
post-apartheid public buildings were
produced as the outcome of a process of
dialogue and public participation.
The conflictive relation between the pre-
colonial history and the dominant power of
the apartheid period is a recurrent topic
developed in the different chapters,
contributing to the controversial debate
over what constitutes authentic
architecture. The selection of projects
representative of recent public designs is
decisive in showing how it is possible to
consider indigenous traditions and local
landscape as inspiring sources for design.
Using rich descriptions, the book offers an
opportunity to understand contemporary
African approaches in depth. A common
shared characteristic of current public
projects is the use of multiple references to
past traditions as a major design approach.
In this sense, Noble shows how historical
awareness can serve as a metaphorical
source for architecture of inclusion, rather
than architecture of segregation. This is
achieved by using the resources of symbols,
traditional architectural types, local
materials, images, and social patterns. All
these are appropriated, elaborated and
# Henry Stewart Publications 1756-9538 (2011)

transformed to produce new contemporary
hybrid forms, materialised through formal
fragments, constructive details, or surface
treatments. In this way, rural references are
combined with modern high-tech
materials.
But on the other hand, the book could
have profited from the inclusion of
examples of pre-colonial architecture in
order to allow the reader to visualise the
references to historical patterns of African
architecture in those times, and understand
how they were used and adapted in
contemporary African buildings.
The volume has a reasonable number of
black-and-white figures, including
photographs and drawings. Although the
photographs are relevant and well
connected to the text, the inclusion of
coloured pictures would have made a
difference by showing the importance that
vivid colours have in the language of post-
apartheid African architecture.
Moreover, the topics of identity and the
processes of identification in design are
cleverly approached from the perspective of
a post-colonial subjectivity. The metaphors
of mask and skin, as brought together by
Fanon’s non-essentialist theories of race,
culture and identity,1 provide a theoretical
frame for analysing and discussing the new
African architecture. Such an approach is
also considered when dealing with the
complexities of social confrontations,
mainly with regard to the colonialist and
the colonised, the repressed and the
dominant forms of expression. Noble
demonstrates how the identity of African
public architecture is mainly the outcome
of the dialogue established between skin
and mask. In this way, the purity of
modern architecture is confronted by
central elements of African identity, such as
# Henry Stewart Publications 1756-9538 (2011) Vol. 2, 3 300–303
Book reviews
climatic conditions, topography, natural
landscape, local culture, pre-colonial
patterns, craft traditions, local building
types, tectonic aesthetics, and life
experiences — giving birth to a new
hybridity. But it is also good that Noble
does not spare criticism of unsuccessful
designs, such as The Walter Sisulu Square.
At the end of the book, Noble elaborates
and reflects on the case studies with respect
to the major themes presented in the
different chapters: authentic and inauthentic
forms of expression, mask and skin,
repressed and dominant narratives, and the
influence and importance of socio-political
modes of architectural representation. This
final section is fundamental in helping the
reader to make sense of the major
similarities and differences between the
buildings and their relation to African
identity. However, an earlier organisation
into the main themes of the book would
perhaps have contributed to synthesising
and simplifying the large amount of
information analysed in the different
chapters.
As a final remark, it can be said that in
addition to introducing the reader to post-
apartheid African architecture, the book
offers an exemplary attitude to
contemporary architecture to be followed
these days, where the emergent influence of
globalisation is blurring the borders of local
architecture.
Reviewed by Hernan Casakin
Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture
Ariel University Center of Samaria, Israel
E-mail: casakin@bezegint.net
Reference
1. Fanon, F. (1986), ‘Black Skin, White Masks’, Pluto
Press, London.
Journal of Town & City Management 301
Book reviews
Krajobraz kulturowy Japonii
[Cultural Landscapes of Japan]
Edited by Krystyna Pawlowska
/
Special issue of Czasopismo Techniczne,
Vol.12, Kraków, Poland, 2010
ISSN 0011 4561
This book is a collaboration between
scientific teams from Poland and Japan
from 2008 to 2010. It comprises a collection
of articles by both Polish and Japanese
authors. The Polish authors (architects,
urban planners, a geographer and a
landscape architect) undertook to describe
the identity of the Japanese cultural
landscape as seen by investigators from
Central Europe. The Japanese authors
(urban planners) discussed some aspects of
this field from the Japanese point of view.
The book includes considerations of the
condition, protection, and shaping of
landscape — both urban and open. The
articles are written in Polish (with English
summaries) and English (with Polish
summaries). In addition, the book contains
over 190 colour illustrations. The editor of
the volume is Professor of Architecture,
Krystyna Pawlowska,
/
who works at the
Landscape Architecture Institute of the
Kraków University of Technology
(Politechnika Krakowska).
For an observer from Europe, the first
and foremost feature of the Japanese
landscape is its difference not only from
European landscapes but also from the
stereotypic representations about Japan.
Generally known are only some features
including, for example, the beauty of
Japanese temples and gardens, the particular
grace of nature, minimalist aesthetics, and
impressive technological solutions in
contemporary architecture. Far less known,
and in this way more surprising, are the
instances of unbelievable overcrowding and
spatial chaos in the colossal metropolitan
areas, and difficulties associated with the
development of the mountain areas
dominating the country.
302 Journal of Town & City Management Vol. 2, 3 300–303
The Polish-Japanese collaboration on
cultural landscape is the first attempt at this
type of study. It was initiated by Professor
Hiroshi Yahagi of the Graduate School for
Creative Cities at the Osaka City
University. The collaboration included an
individual scholarship by Krystyna
Pawlowska
/
at Osaka City University and
her two-year Polish-Japanese project
financed by the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science and the Polish
Academy of Sciences, entitled: A
Comparative Study of the Preservation and
Utilization of Historical Cities Kyoto,
Kanazawa, Krako´w and Warsaw. The
collaboration resulted in a number of
publications in Japanese, English and Polish.
The book recommended here is the most
extensive of these.
The research and observation of the
Japanese landscape was conducted in the
great conurbations of Kyoto, Tokyo and
Osaka, and the large and medium-size cities
of Kanazawa, Sendai, Sapporo, Kurashiki,
Nara, Asuka, Himeji, Yonezawa,
Kamakura, Miyoshi and Yamanaka.
Moreover, the project also encompassed the
mountain rural landscape of the provinces
of Yamagata, Fukui and Ishikawa on
Honshu, and Tokushima on Shikoku. The
lectures, seminars, presentations of the
results of research, and direct exchange of
ideas between participants of the
programme took place at Osaka City
University, Chiba University in Tokyo,
University of Tokyo, and at the
International Center for Japanese Studies in
Kyoto. Numerous public institutions, that
were involved with spatial planning in the
various cities, hosted the Polish scientists on
their visit.
At first glance, the justification of
Japanese–Polish comparative studies may
seem dubious due to the dissimilarity
between the cultural landscapes of Poland
and Japan emphasised by the authors. The
principal differences are very noticeable
immediately on arrival. In referring to
# Henry Stewart Publications 1756-9538 (2011)

Japan, the editor of the book in the
introductory article writes: ‘a different
nature, a different landscape, different cities,
different architecture, different religion,
different customs and lifestyle, different
people.’ One should also add: and an
entirely different course of history. What,
therefore, was the objective of the
exchange? What examples might Poland be
looking for in Japan and the other way
round — Japan in Poland? An attempt at
answering these questions, at a time of
proliferating globalisation, will be found by
the reader in the following articles:
— Landscape — architecture — people.
Japanese-Polish comparative study by
Krystyna Pawlowska
/
— an attempt at
presenting what is the most
characteristic in the Japanese landscape;
— Lyrical beauty, mystery and tranquillity —
historical and contemporary Japanese
gardens by Agata Zachariasz — a
presentation of what is the most
beautiful in the Japanese landscape;
— Public participation in heritage protection in
Japanese historic cities — case study of an
old merchants’ house in Kyoto by Anna
Staniewska — an account of a civic
initiative of protection and
revitalisation of heritage, decisive for
the identity of traditional Japanese
architecture;
— Modern or ‘unmodern’? Understanding the
landscape disputes of Kyoto Tower and
Kyoto Station by Yoshihiko Baba — a
report on a public discussion of the
relationship between the modern
elements of architecture and the
traditional landscape of Kyoto;
— Phenomenon of Kanazawa by Jacek
Konopacki — a description of the city
# Henry Stewart Publications 1756-9538 (2011) Vol. 2, 3 300–303
Book reviews
that is considered to be a good example
of the preservation of Japanese tradition
and that wishes to incorporate these
values in its future development;
— ‘Next Japan’ in planning by Joanna
Bach-Glowińska,
/
concerns the standards
of European urban planning introduced
to the contemporary spatial planning
practices in Japan;
— A report on the influence of ageing and
depopulation on the landscape of Japan by
Fumihiko Seta, concerns the
phenomena persistent in many cities of
the world, but also ones that are
exclusively Japanese;
— Specific character and original features of
Sapporo landscape by Iza Sykta and
Renata Szarek — a description of a city
that is special, as it was built on
American templates;
— On environmental aspects of tourist
attractiveness of Japan — stereotypes
confronted with travel experience by
Urszula Myga-Pia˜ tek — observations
on the stereotypes met while on her
travels.
Europeans find Japan fascinating, mainly
because it is puzzling. Joint work, joint
observations, and direct exchanges of
thoughts and ideas are a good way to
promote mutual understanding, even
though the road is certainly long and still
difficult.
Urszula Immamura
Owner
Immamura Art Galery Orient-Occident
ul. Floriañska 36
Krakow
Poland
E-mail: immamura@onet.eu
Journal of Town & City Management 303