Even as national borders are becoming increasingly formalized, in contrast, cities are becoming franchised: globally-uniform spatial products comprised of the same interchangeable kit of parts. This homogenization often exacerbates the bureaucracy surrounding building procedures, resulting in the erasure of layers of culture and identity. How can we render visible again the ways that humans leave traces and transform their environments and contexts? It’s these traces that enable us to feel a sense of belonging; they add poetry, help us to navigate physical space, and establish relationships with our own histories, as well as other tribes and forms of life.
My family fled from India during the partition, to “The Building” in Pakistan, and then eventually to several different towns and cities in the UK; I will be looking to them as an example of a diaspora community that continues to rearticulate its image of “the home” in completely foreign contexts.
Sarah Aziz is a third year MArch candidate, originally from Halifax, UK. She graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2013 with a Bachelor’s of Art degree in Architecture, and subsequently worked as a graphic designer in Oslo, Auckland and Sydney. Sarah’s architectural practice centers around exposing and exploring interstitial spaces, where the eccentricities and complexities of cultural hybridization converge and coalesce.
