The Gift of Architecture

24th November 2021 | British Academy | Online Event

The gift of architecture: spaces of global socialism and their afterlives

About the Conference

During the Cold War, the gifting of architecture was among the most visible manifestations of global socialism, or the multiple, evolving and often contradictory exchanges between the socialist countries and the decolonising world. In collaboration with local actors, Soviet, Eastern European and Chinese institutions designed, constructed and equipped hundreds of buildings for education, health, culture, industry and habitation in Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mongolia, Tanzania, Vietnam and elsewhere. This conference will gather architectural historians and anthropologists who will discuss the ways in which the dynamics of gift-giving impacted the design, construction and the afterlives of these buildings. Scholars will debate whether the generosity and violence specific for gift-giving, the principle of reciprocity and the changing geopolitics and foreign trade in the Cold War facilitated the production and everyday uses of gifted buildings. By focusing on their continuous appropriation by inhabitants and users in Africa and Asia, this conference and the resulting publication will offer a more differentiated genealogy of global urbanisation and its architecture.

Convenor: Professor Łukasz Stanek, University of Manchester. Conference support: Ksenia Litvinenko, University of Manchester

Speakers: Professor Fantahun Ayele, Bahir Dar University, Professor Anna Bronovitskaya, Institute of Modernism in Moscow, Professor Ana Ivanovska Deskova, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Dr Nikolay Erofeev, University of Basel, Professor Hannah Le Roux, University of the Witwatersrand, Professor Duanfang Lu, University of Sydney, Kuukuwa Manful, SOAS University of London, Dr Michał Murawski, University College London, Dr Thuc Linh Nguyen Vu, University of Vienna, Dr Joseph Oduro-Frimpong, Ashesi University, Professor Ruth Prince, University of Oslo, Professor Christina Schwenkel, University of California, Riverside, Dr Ke Song, Harbin Institute of Technology, Professor Taoufik Souami, Paris School of Urban Planning, Professor Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov, Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Professor Łukasz Stanek, University of Manchester, Dr Miruna Stroe, independent scholar