Audio Interviews

 

 

Archives in the past have been spaces where peoples of the Global South are over searched by Global North academics. Yet they have also been made invisible through the lack of archival records written from Global South perspectives. We believe that a direct and transparent channel into the perspective of the individuals in the communities would be made visible through an audio-recorded interview. Through these recordings, we are able to integrate oral histories into the archive. 

In many indigenous forms of knowledge, oral histories are the primary mode of record keeping. In the context of our research including an audio component in the archive engages more personally with the authors of the project. It encapsulates information within the context of a project and educates from within it. Information also becomes more accessible to those who prefer alternatives to written records. 

For example, a Project Archive member Uthman Olowa, interviews the principal architect, Benjamin Saxe of the firm Studio Saxe from one of our featured projects. The project we interviewed him for is Villa Saxo located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. 

Through these audio interviews, the information about the context is made accessible.  The myth and glamour of indoor-outdoor living is dispelled. We now begin to gain insight into homeostasis of human bodies and their relationship to architecture in tropical climates. This particular insight about the context of Guanacaste isn’t described in the text on most architecture blogs , neither his website. It also cannot be accurately depicted solely by photographers in images.