Abstract
"At Chicumbane, the (Swiss) mission's hospital was too small, so I designed alternatives for three extending wards linked to the existing building. We only built the first one, the maternity ward. (…) The whole community participated in making it this building for their children. Muchlanga, the mission's foreman, could not read or follow conventional architectural drawings, but he knew how to build like a craftsman – a Swiss missionary builder had taught him."
These Pancho Guedes's (Portuguese emigré architect in Mozambique) words pertain to a series of educational, religious, and healthcare infrastructures that were commissioned to him by the Swiss Mission during the late colonial era (the 60s, 70s). Against the Portuguese Catholic regime, the Protestant Swiss formed alliances with Guedes - the outsider, an emerging African milieu, and foreign donors to provide the indigenous population with a frugal yet efficient architecture that catered to primary needs.
The paper focuses on the healthcare cluster in the village of Chicumbane, where Guedes designed a maternity ward and a nurses' school, which to this day continue to serve their original purposes. Guedes and the Swiss's medical modernism represents an overlooked part of the colonial material legacy worthy of examination within this SAH panel. Guedes' architectures for the Swiss Mission exemplified a form of ambivalent material heritage and tangible manifestations of (alter) modernity within a deeply segregated socio-spatial context. By facilitating the nurture of the public sphere, these spaces resisted the divisive dynamics of colonial and anti-colonial struggles, instead promoting an alternative political project centered on postcolonial reconciliation. Consequently, they stand as exemplars of pioneering foreign assistance originating from within the country itself.
"Bargains in a tropical bush style," as Guedes named these architectures, "avoid the complications, expensive gymnastics, and frills of International fashions."
Panel: Modernism and Healthcare in Africa, Covenors: Stuart Leslie (Johns Hopkins University) and Ola Uduku (University of Liverpool).
These Pancho Guedes's (Portuguese emigré architect in Mozambique) words pertain to a series of educational, religious, and healthcare infrastructures that were commissioned to him by the Swiss Mission during the late colonial era (the 60s, 70s). Against the Portuguese Catholic regime, the Protestant Swiss formed alliances with Guedes - the outsider, an emerging African milieu, and foreign donors to provide the indigenous population with a frugal yet efficient architecture that catered to primary needs.
The paper focuses on the healthcare cluster in the village of Chicumbane, where Guedes designed a maternity ward and a nurses' school, which to this day continue to serve their original purposes. Guedes and the Swiss's medical modernism represents an overlooked part of the colonial material legacy worthy of examination within this SAH panel. Guedes' architectures for the Swiss Mission exemplified a form of ambivalent material heritage and tangible manifestations of (alter) modernity within a deeply segregated socio-spatial context. By facilitating the nurture of the public sphere, these spaces resisted the divisive dynamics of colonial and anti-colonial struggles, instead promoting an alternative political project centered on postcolonial reconciliation. Consequently, they stand as exemplars of pioneering foreign assistance originating from within the country itself.
"Bargains in a tropical bush style," as Guedes named these architectures, "avoid the complications, expensive gymnastics, and frills of International fashions."
Panel: Modernism and Healthcare in Africa, Covenors: Stuart Leslie (Johns Hopkins University) and Ola Uduku (University of Liverpool).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Unpublished - 17 Apr 2024 |
| Event | Society of Architectural Historians 2024 - Albuquerque Convention Center, Albuquerque, United States Duration: 17 Apr 2024 → 21 Apr 2025 Conference number: 77 http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.sah.org/docs/default-source/conference/sah-2024-albuquerque-conference-program-web.pdf |
Conference
| Conference | Society of Architectural Historians 2024 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | SAH 2024 |
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Albuquerque |
| Period | 17/04/24 → 21/04/25 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- Pancho Guedes
- healthcare modernism
- Africa
- Swiss Mission
- colonial modernism
- Mozambique