A South Forty
Showcasing the work of contemporary Southern American architects at the 2021 Venice Biennale
Living in the Gulf South is to call home a place regularly ravished by the effects of extreme heat, humidity, storms, and floods. Still, despite these environmental hurdles, we stay.
The region’s captivating and singular culture provides a convincing argument for remaining loyal to this low-lying land; but it is our homes, our offices, our community spaces, our buildings that provide the means for us to weather yet another storm.
Architects practicing in the Gulf South face a unique set of challenges and responsibilities—today perhaps more than ever before. The terrain they navigate is particularly fraught, and in their work they must consider not only the practical necessities of building structures that can survive this climate, but also the pressures to respect historic structures while also contributing something contemporary and original—all while paying mind to equity, in a region that historically has not been best at doing so.
The Southern American architecture of today is frequently overlooked in favor of the more widely-discussed designs of the East and West Coasts, or overshadowed by the historic shotgun homes and columned mansions of its own past.
Currently the exhibition, A South Forty, presented in conjunction with the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy, is bringing light to the work of thirty-six firms operating in the American South, each overcoming environmental and economic barriers to contribute striking, original, and simultaneously practical building designs to the landscape of contemporary architecture.
“These are people who are not resorting to interpretations of historical styles, but who are taking the vocabulary of modern architecture and combining it with the historical vernacular of architecture from the South to make things that are entirely new and inventive, to deal with very difficult problems—everything from a really intense climate to hurricanes to complex cultural conditions,” said Jonathan Boelkins, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas and principal at Jonathan Boelkins Architect. Boelkins designed the installations for A South Forty and coordinated with the thirty-six firms involved to execute Curator Peter MacKeith’s vision.
A Grand Stage: La Biennale di Venezia
While the world of contemporary American Southern architects is a relatively small one, the Venice Biennale, or La Biennale di Venezia, could not provide a grander stage for presenting their bodies of work to an international audience. The Biennale dates back to 1895, when the first International Art Exhibition took place. By the 1930s music, cinema, and theatre were also included (the 1932 Venice Film Festival marked the first film festival in history). The International Architecture Exhibition made its debut in 1980, followed by Dance in 1999. More than 500,000 visitors travel to Venice annually for the events, which encompass much of the city. A South Forty is currently on display as part of the TIME SPACE EXISTENCE exhibition for the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale in the Great Hall of the Palazzo Mora at the European Cultural Center.
“It is the most established and recognized platform for the discussion and presentation of contemporary architectural work, period,” said Jonathan Tate, principal architect at OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate) in New Orleans—one of the firms featured in A South Forty. “[The Venice Biennale] has been around the longest, it’s the one that everyone looks to as sort of a marker of what’s going on in the world, and it’s the one you want to participate in.”
A South Forty: The Contemporary Architecture of the American South
Behind the conception and curation of A South Forty is Peter MacKeith, dean and professor of architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at The University of Arkansas. MacKeith has been involved in the Biennale in some capacity since 1990, and in 2018 was struck by what a powerful venue the Palazzo Mora could provide for an exhibition.
“It is the most established and recognized platform for the discussion and presentation of contemporary architectural work, period,” said Jonathan Tate, principal architect at OJT (Office of Jonathan Tate) in New Orleans—one of the firms featured in A South Forty. “[The Venice Biennale] has been around the longest, it’s the one that everyone looks to as sort of a marker of what’s going on in the world, and it’s the one you want to participate in.”
At the time, it was also becoming clear to MacKeith, as well as his colleagues Boelkins and Chris Baribeau—the principal architect of modus studio in Fayetteville and a graduate of the Fay Jones School who also helped curate the exhibition—that there was a growing number of young, community-oriented, contemporary architectural practices throughout the American South producing work and ideas deserving of attention. “And at some point,” MacKeith said, “the perception comes to mind that there is this incredible vitality occurring across the Southern states, of firms and practices of a certain size who are doing work in their communities…what if we were to look at this collectively?”
The exhibition’s name, “A South Forty,” comes from the use of Interstate 40 as a sort of path connecting these firms, a path “which begins in Wilmington, North Carolina and runs west through the American Southeast, intersecting the major north-south interstates of I-95, I-55, I-49, and I-30 along its path, until reaching a delimiting inflection point in Oklahoma City,” wrote MacKeith in an essay published in the Summer/Fall 2020 edition of the Oxford American.
The title’s significance expands, as MacKeith writes, “The proposition for a contemporary, place-based, regionally-identified architecture of the American Southeast rests upon a literary and intellectual foundation as much as on a prolific period of constructed design excellence. The argument’s intellectual history can be traced back at least eighty years, with two particular points of reference, the first in 1941, appreciating and then advocating for an architecture distinctive to the American South, and the second forty years later, in 1981, advocating for an architecture of ‘critical regionalism,’ in an ever-expanding and seemingly general world culture, and with reference to an identifiable architecture of the new American South, rich on its own terms.”
The firms included in A South Forty cover a broad swath of the Southeast, from Virginia to Texas and down to the Gulf, with five of the firms based in Louisiana and Mississippi: emerymcclure architecture of Lafayette, OJT and EskewDumezRipple of New Orleans, unabridged Architecture of Bay St. Louis, and Duvall Decker of Jackson.
As for sharing such a grand stage, each of the featured architects concurred that they are in excellent company. “It’s nice to see a robust list of thoughtful practitioners in our region, and to be included in that list is an honor,” Tate said. “As much as we’re always looking outward in a lot of ways, we still live in and practice in this region, and to know that you’ve got people geographically-speaking that are close to you, that are making the same efforts and sort of struggling with the same struggles, it keeps you moving and motivated.”
“And at some point,” MacKeith said, “the perception comes to mind that there is this incredible vitality occurring across the Southern states, of firms and practices of a certain size who are doing work in their communities…what if we were to look at this collectively?”
Steve Dumez, principal architect and Director of Design at EskewDumezRipple in New Orleans, lauded MacKeith and the other organizers for not only the massive undertaking of organizing the firms and installation, but for recognizing the broader lessons Southern architecture can provide. “That Peter and his team were able to turn around and pull all of this off on such short notice, amidst a pandemic, is a testament to their resolve and a shared conviction in spreading the vital lessons Southern architecture has to offer,” he praised. “And the exhibit they’ve assembled is truly eye-opening.”
Beyond Shotguns: Dismantling Stereotypes of Gulf South Architecture
Part of the intent of A South Forty is to showcase that while architects in the South face unique challenges, their work is still relevant and important nationally, and even internationally.
“I think it’s about trying to make an argument that the adaptive reuse or the contextualism that the climate of the South somewhat demands does not mean that we cannot be part of the contemporary realm,” said Ursula Emery McClure, founding partner of emerymcclure architecture in Lafayette. “Which is probably why the East Coast and West Coast ignore us—they’re probably like, ‘Sure, whatever, you’re just gonna build another shotgun. And sure, they’re great, but I’m not really interested.’ And that’s why I think this exhibit is trying to say, ‘Hey! I’m gonna stand at the table too.’”
MacKeith agreed with Emery McClure that there are particular hurdles faced by architects in the Gulf South, from regional stereotypes to climate. “Part of this effort too was to supersede conventional perceptions, or try to jump past them; certainly, the perception that architecture in the South is white columned mansions or sharecropper shacks, take your pick,” MacKeith said. “There are a lot of these stereotypes. And these are tiresome, and they’re unhealthy, and ultimately unhelpful nationally as much as they are regionally. So, all that being said, there’s a real difference in some ways between the climate and life conditions if you’re practicing in North Carolina or if you’re practicing in Louisiana and Mississippi.”
Tate also spoke on the exhibition as a mechanism to overcoming generalized perceptions of Southern architecture. “Anything we can do to tell the story of what is happening and how this region is thinking beyond stereotypical notions of what the American South is, I think is a positive,” he explained. “I think it’s critical to show there is contemporary thinking in the architectural realm in our region.”
“When people think of the South, what is their immediate visual impression?” asked Allison Anderson, principal architect at unabridged Architecture in Bay St. Louis. “It’s things like the French Quarter and plantation houses. Those kinds of historic icons. But I think it’s really important to show an architecture that is very much of place and time, that’s being created for the next two hundred years, or four hundred years. It’s these new things, these innovative things that really can transform the ways in which people both approach the South or take lessons from the South.”
“When people think of the South, what is their immediate visual impression?” asked Allison Anderson, principal architect at unabridged Architecture in Bay St. Louis. “It’s things like the French Quarter and plantation houses. Those kinds of historic icons. But I think it’s really important to show an architecture that is very much of place and time, that’s being created for the next two hundred years, or four hundred years . . . "
Changing Climates
“Design excellence is occurring for most of these firms relative to the environment that we’re in—which is culturally rich, full of historicism, hot, humid, and volatile,” said Emery McClure, speaking to the distinctive climate and cultural factors that her firm and the others in Louisiana and Mississippi must address when approaching a project. “A lot of the work in the South is trying to mitigate and negotiate the fact that climate is becoming very different in this region—[this] is I think the value that [this conversation] holds on an international level,” she said. “How does architecture have to, no matter what, deal with climate change? And it has to do so in a way that looks back at the historical ways that the Native people who lived in South Louisiana negotiated the climate.”
Anderson agreed that the ways unabridged and the other firms in A South Forty address these nuanced issues contributes to their international relevance. “We are taking those questions that have great impact on the environment and the people that we work for, and we’re addressing them head on,” she said. “And these stories of transformation can become a model for other communities—it doesn’t matter if it’s in Italy, or if it’s in the Northwest, which is dealing with all kinds of heat and craziness right now. If we understand the impact of sustainability and resilience on the local level, we can apply those sorts of lessons in a much broader sense.”
Considering Equity and Accessibility
While factors like climate, environment, and historical precedents arise frequently in discussions about modern Southern architecture and A South Forty in particular, Tate and others also pointed out that sometimes less-tangible factors like equity, economics, and accessibility come into play when building in the Southeast in particular.
“What we are very interested in is providing access to individuals who aren’t customarily served by architecture in general,” Tate said. “We live in buildings, and we work in buildings, but they aren’t always the most thoughtful.”
"Design is not neutral, Dumez emphasized. “It can be employed in service of or in opposition to the common good,” he said. “The questions we ask of ourselves are: ‘How can we ensure design solutions uphold a tangible sense of place and community?’ ‘How can our architecture result in optimal outcomes for society and the environment at large?’”
Anderson is also interested in providing more democratic access to architectural services, particularly given the region’s historical struggles with equity. “The South kind of has that story of abandonment and decay,” she said. “It’s partly due to climate—we have a lot to contend with—but it’s also due to demographic and economic shifts. So especially in light of the new conversations that are being held about equity, architects have to be a little bit scrappy down here. We have to figure out ways—strategic ways—that we can work within very traditional sorts of environments. We have to figure out ways that we can work within strict budgets, and make something new.”
Design is not neutral, Dumez emphasized. “It can be employed in service of or in opposition to the common good,” he said. “The questions we ask of ourselves are: ‘How can we ensure design solutions uphold a tangible sense of place and community?’ ‘How can our architecture result in optimal outcomes for society and the environment at large?’”
Structured by Culture
“The South can be a place with limited resources and palpable needs, but also with engaging culture,” said Roy Decker, principal architect at Duvall Decker in Jackson, Mississippi. “It is a place of inequities and inspiring struggles for human dignity, a place of hot, humid summers with threatening storms, yet with shady welcoming porches. The South is a storytelling place with great writers and blues musicians that have spoken with the voice of this place and defined our time. Architecture can likewise make a difference as we work to make buildings, spaces, and sites that are engaging and alive, grounded in this place.”
Decker elaborated that the contemporary designs of the Southeast are pertinent internationally foremost because of their profound relevance to their own particular local time and place. “In the South, I think we understand that culture, art, architecture, and ideas spring from local insight––from small conversations and agreements. Culture is always local first,” he said. "When ideas travel, they do so because they make sense. Maybe it’s the climate, maybe it’s the limited resources. But in the South, we know that if an idea has currency beyond its place, it is the approach to form and not its emulation that is valuable. We hope our approach to connect a place to its environment, to search for form that is equitable and educational, has currency.”
“In the South, I think we understand that culture, art, architecture, and ideas spring from local insight––from small conversations and agreements. Culture is always local first,” Decker said. "When ideas travel, they do so because they make sense. Maybe it’s the climate, maybe it’s the limited resources. But in the South, we know that if an idea has currency beyond its place."
Dumez asserted that it is not despite, but because of the unique culture and challenges of the South that the work presented in A South Forty bears relevance globally. “Southern architecture has relevance the world over,” he said. “As we like to say here in New Orleans, ‘We have a front row seat to the future.’ We’re rooted in a city that is at once amazingly beautiful and unfortunately damaged. As we wrestle with the external factors of a climate emergency, we’re simultaneously asking ourselves deep, internal questions around race, identity, equity, diversity, and the role architecture plays in answering them.”
A Global Exchange
On October 5 and 6, members of each of the included firms have been invited to Venice for an opening party of sorts and a symposium, with a moderated discussion “about what we see in each others’ work, how we look at our own work maybe now with fresh eyes, especially at a certain distance,” MacKeith explained. The plan is to live-stream the event, to allow for the ideas to circulate widely into the world as well as back into each firm’s own work philosophies.
“I feel like the work that this group of architects is doing has the potential to have greater impact across America,” Anderson said. “If we take this opportunity to really not just introspectively consider our place and time in architecture, but to share those lessons, I feel like it could have real power to change things.”
A South Forty is on display at the Palazzo Mora in the European Cultural Center in Venice, Italy until November 21, 2021. For more information on A South Forty and the firms involved, to find information about live-streaming the October symposium, or to read Peter MacKeith’s 2020 essay in the Oxford American, visit asouthforty.org.