US studios WXY Architecture and Jerome Haferd Architecture are among four firms that have won a competition to design several cultural venues for historic Africatown in Alabama.
The Africatown International Design Idea Competition, spearheaded by Renee Kemp-Rotan of local architecture firm Studio Rotan, called for proposals to assist a Mobile, Alabama community in the improvement of the historic Africatown district.
WXY Architecture is among four studios that have won the Africatown International Design Idea Competition. Courtesy of WXY Architecture
The four first-place winners ? WXY Architecture, Jerome Haferd Architecture, Body Lawson Associates, and Fabl Design ? answered the call for the design of four sites, each possessing four venues, across a single cultural mile. Included in the winning proposals was a design for a cemetery, an Africatown Museum, affordable housing, a marina, a hotel, a performance centre, and a "gateway" back to Africa.
The studio designed a memorial using rammed-earth walls. Courtesy of WXY Architecture
Located on the outskirts of Mobile, Africatown is the landing location of America's "last" slave ship, Clotilda, which held 110 enslaved African peoples that were illegally transported to the country after an 1807 legislation prohibiting the importation of the enslaved.
Upon reaching land, it was burned and sunken to destroy any evidence of its existence and to keep the transporters from legal prosecution.
Jerome Haferd Archite...