Architecture For "Other"? Building A Critical Account On Architecture "Othering" From Colonial To Post-Colonial Time (19 th Century -Present Time)

Historically architecture as an art form design medium has prevailing characters used to express various messages. Architecture is manifested to serve different ideologies and philosophies. One defining issue is how architects dealt with "other" (contrary to self, alien) geography, context, culture and situation? Within constructed mindsets that understand "other" as distinct, strange, weak, uncivilized and "self" as strong, civilized, universal and etc. This dichotomy served imperialist ideology and exploitation and paved the way for architects to find "other" as an opportunity to impose their beliefs, annihilate alterity, and exploit it. These three trends incepted from imperialist ideology in colonial times and continued their influence until now. This paper critically explores how architecture for "other" is constructed, manifested and represented by "self" through the discourse of colonialism to the post-colonial era. The architecture for "other" research has adopted a methodology different from the normative historiography of post-colonial scholarships that emphasises the West vs. non-West confrontation. It is based on foundational meanings derived from the philosophy of "other" and "Self". Whether it is the relationship between colonizer/ colonized, postwar cultural politics of American influence on Europe, Asia and elsewhere and the socialist globalisation by soviet and multiple globalisation from different parts of the world have marked lasting impacts on constructing "other" architecture. This paper unmasks this issue by specifically elaborating on the triad features of 'self' and 'other' binary relations in architecture discourse. These triad features of architecture for "other" are; architecture as a medium for practising hegemony, the architecture of rationalism (civilizing world), and others as a platform to experiment with the newest architectural ideas.