Unique Design Challenge the First to Apply World-Class Afrofuturism for Architecture, Culture, Heritage and Tourism in the Only 19th Century Settlement Built by Africans in the U.S.A. After the Civil War
(Mobile, AL, June 5, 2023) – M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC and studio|rotan will announce winners of The Africatown International Design Idea Competition during a 2:00 p.m. awards ceremony on this Juneteenth holiday, Monday, June 19, 2023, at the Exploreum Science Center Theater in Downtown Mobile, Alabama.
This international competition, the world’s first multi-site design challenge centered on Afrocentric architectural concepts, sought to ensure the historic preservation and community regeneration of Africatown through world-class design ideas that match the under-served Black community’s historic significance as a global heritage site.
Competition organizers M.O.V.E. and studio|rotan note that the designs and essays submitted in response to the design challenge are as spectacular as the initial 2018 Clotilda Discovery (publicly confirmed in Spring 2019), which launched this unique and innovative effort five years ago, all to ensure the preservation and revitalization of the Africatown community.
For the designers and the Competition organizers alike, this architectural challenge represented a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to apply African/African-American aesthetics to the only 19th-century settlement created by a group of Africans. Africatown’s founders were among the 110 souls pirated to Mobile, Alabama, from Dahomey (present-day Benin) as human cargo aboard Clotilda, the last known ship that sailed to Africa in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Competition website received more than 21,000 page views from countries around the world — from Andorra, Australia, Barbados, Benin, China and Cyprus to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It logged 118 registrations, with 169 design boards and 142 pages of essays from 23 final team submissions for the 4 Sites outlined in the challenge, which touches 3 cities and connects 2 continents.
“The designers responded exceptionally well to the challenges posed to them in the multi-site design briefs,” said Renee Kemp-Rotan, Associate AIA/NOMA, who conceived the Competition and wrote its design programs for 4 sites and 16 land- and water-based venues that the organizers dubbed The Africatown Cultural Mile. “The level of thoughtfulness these global designers put into their culturally-relevant, world-class concepts and essays will elevate the conversations about how this unique global community we call Africatown can look— as its leaders, residents and supporters plan its future.”
Kemp-Rotan, a master urban planner /design activist, is CEO of studio|rotan, the Birmingham, AL-based cultural heritage/civic design firm that specializes in achieving design excellence for clients with complex cultural heritage projects. She has worked as a cabinet-level urban design and development advisor to 10 mayors in cities that include Atlanta and Birmingham. At one time, Kemp-Rotan headed the National Design Competitions/National Design Demonstrations Programs for the Design Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.
For these reasons, M.O.V.E. Gulf Coast CDC commissioned studio|rotan to organize its vision for a unified Africatown redevelopment strategy built on Africatown’s own past, present and future revitalization plans. M.O.V.E. sought to use the Clotilda Discovery as the “critical mass” to jumpstart community plans outlined in the 2016 Africatown Neighborhood Plan, sponsored by the City of Mobile. The Africatown International Design Idea Competition was the brainchild of studio|rotan, the recommended tool to organize M.O.V.E.’s vision and launch its Africatown Blueprint Initiative.
“We believe that, without a unifying vision behind Africatown’s community plans — which must be coupled with powerful visual concepts that people can dream about and manifest — the people there will continue to suffer,” says Vickii Howell, M.O.V.E.’s President/CEO. “Seeing is believing. The power of design can inspire strategic actions that people living in this under-served community can take to improve their own condition.”
Africatown community members said, “Yes” to the Competition after studio|rotan presented the entire design challenge in community-wide meeting organized by Africatown C.H.E.S.S. (Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe and Sustainable) in June 2019.
As Professional Competition Advisor, Kemp-Rotan pulled on her list of powerful contacts in the world of architecture and got national seed funding from The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). She recruited an A-list of highly experienced African American architects from around the country to serve on the design jury. She asked New York-based architect Jack Travis, FAIA NOMAC, to lead the 16-member jury panel of experts in architecture, history, archeology, and community development.
The jury also includes Africatown leaders, Clotilda Descendants, and community advocates to review the designs and essays submitted to the Competition. The jury will choose the winning teams or individuals, who will receive cash prizes totaling up to $100,000, provided by the Better Place Foundation of Birmingham.
Their winning designs will be showcased during the Competition Awards Ceremony on Juneteenth (June 19th) 2023, in Mobile, Alabama.
COMPETITION SPONSORS:
American Institute of Architects (AIA); National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA); World Monuments Fund; Visit Mobile; the City of Prichard; 400 Years of African American History Commission;
Cash Prize Sponsor: Better Place Foundation of Birmingham, Alabama;
Event Sponsor: Poarch Creek Indians.