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Functional Environs: Austin Tetteh’s Situated World(mak)ing Planning Practice, 1950–80

Brenchat-Aguilar, Albert; (2023) Functional Environs: Austin Tetteh’s Situated World(mak)ing Planning Practice, 1950–80. Architectural Theory Review , 26 (3) pp. 458-485. 10.1080/13264826.2023.2180808. Green open access

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Abstract

Functionalist sociologist and planner Austin Tetteh was the first African Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 1971. KNUST soon became a pioneer anticolonial institution that nonetheless incorporated the neocolonial influences of its global staff in order to succeed. European planners in KNUST advocated for architectural functionalism and rapid action, reacted to European rationalist planning, provided paternalist education, considered expertise as universal, and saw humans as resources of the capitalist market economy. On the other hand, although continuist, Tetteh presented an approach to planning that was informed by sociological functionalism, emphasized the detriments of colonial legacies, sought collaboration instead of imposition from Europe, spoke to global networks from a socio-geographic situated position, and considered humans as active resources for national and continental developmentalism. The term “Environ”, used by KNUST staff and students in the 1970s, summons these aspects from an African situated cosmopolitan perspective on ecology and society.

Type: Article
Title: Functional Environs: Austin Tetteh’s Situated World(mak)ing Planning Practice, 1950–80
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/13264826.2023.2180808
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2023.2180808
Language: English
Additional information: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords: KNUST; regional planning; Afropolitanism; sociological functionalism; etic-emic dilemma
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171137
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