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History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology

Selected Works

Suakin

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Full-Text Articles in Architecture

Reflections On The Red Sea Style: Beyond The Surface Of Coastal Architecture, Nancy Um Mar 2019

Reflections On The Red Sea Style: Beyond The Surface Of Coastal Architecture, Nancy Um

Nancy Um

In 1953, a British architect named Derek H. Matthews introduced the idea of “The Red Sea Style” in print, with a modest article of that title. Although brief and focused on a single site, this article proposed that the architecture around the rim of the Red Sea could be conceived of as a coherent and unified building category. Since then, those who have written about Red Sea port cities have generally accepted his suggestion of a shared architectural culture. Indeed, the houses of the region’s major ports, such as Suakin in modern-day Sudan, Massawa in Eritrea, Jidda and YanbuΚ al-BaΉr …


Greenlaw’S Suakin: The Limits Of Architectural Representation And The Continuing Lives Of Buildings In Coastal Sudan, Nancy Um Mar 2019

Greenlaw’S Suakin: The Limits Of Architectural Representation And The Continuing Lives Of Buildings In Coastal Sudan, Nancy Um

Nancy Um

Despite its ruined modern state, the coral-built architecture of the island city of Suakin on Sudan's Red Sea coast is well known to scholars of vernacular architecture. Its enduring reputation may be attributed to the copious documentation of its houses, mosques, and public buildings that appeared in the 1976 publication The Coral Buildings of Suakin by the artist Jean-Pierre Greenlaw. This paper considers the visual project of Greenlaw and its legacy, with a focus on the intertwined relationship between the processes of architectural documentation, the writing of architectural history, and the directives of preservation during the last years of British …