Design idea competition aims to elevate Alabama’s Africatown as a major cultural heritage tourism destination

Africatown is a small but vibrant neighborhood established in 1872 just north downtown of Mobile, Alabama, by a small group of formerly enslaved West Africans smuggled to the Gulf Coast a decade prior aboard the ship Clotilda. Today, the history-rich district serves as the physical and spiritual heart of a sprawling, multi-site “cultural mile” proposed as part of an international design ideas competition now in its early stages. While the Africatown community and its namesake design competition will be the subject of an in-depth profile to be published in the forthcoming July/August print edition of The Architect’s Newspaper, the registration deadline of September 19 is quick approaching.

Below is a brief run-down of the competition with all the pertinent details.

The Africatown International Design Idea Competition first launched on Juneteenth of last year, kicking off a (since-extended) registration period during which Africatown gained further public awareness outside of Alabama through its inclusion as one of 25 global sites on the 2022 edition of the World Monument Fund (WMF)’s World Monuments Watch list of imperiled heritage sites. Per the WMF, the specific threat facing Africatown, which was one of three North American sites to make the 2022 list, is underrepresentation along with encroaching industrial development and the impacts of climate change within the coastal South. “Commitment to elevating underrepresented heritage means more than identifying and preserving the material vestiges of peoples’ pasts,” the New York City-headquartered conservation nonprofit explained. “In the case of Africatown in Mobile, Alabama, inclusion on the 2022 Watch will bring further visibility to a shameful episode in history.”

“Amid the rows of shotgun houses and simple forms of mid-twentieth-century American architecture, Africatown embodies the resilience of survivors of enslavement,” said the WMF. “A self-governing refuge based on traditions and ways of life from their homelands, Africatown embraced a new community where residents could simultaneously retain their unique African identities and learn to navigate the often hostile cultural, political, and economic challenges of post-Civil War America.”

Africatown was nominated for inclusion on the 2022 World Monuments Watch list by professional competition Advisor Renee Kemp-Rotan on behalf of the Africatown community.

The launch of the competition also comes two years after the discovery of the sunken wreckage of the Clotilda, believed to be the last ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States, in the marshlands of the Mobile River delta. The discovery of the vessel was a catalytic one, spurring members of the Africatown community—including roughly 100 direct descendants of its founders—to embark on a widespread effort to preserve and bring widespread awareness to their home, which has suffered from decades of disinvestment. As noted by the WMF, the discovery of the Clotilda sparked an “onslaught of economic opportunities embraced by the descendant community. Now, the task that lies ahead requires balancing visitor curiosity with lasting community benefit and ensuring that this important part of American history continues to be told by the descendants themselves.”

As envisioned by The Africatown International Design Idea Competition, the Africatown community would not just be preserved for future generations but act as the epicenter of the so-called Africatown Cultural Mile, a local economy-bolstering cultural heritage tourism destination spanning three different cities—Mobile, Chickasaw, and Prichard—and four unique sites, both rural and urban: Historic Africatown and the Josephine Allen Public Housing Site in Mobile, the Africatown Connections Blueways Sites in Chickasaw, and the Africatown USA State Park in Prichard. In total, 16 ventures are envisioned for the Africatown Cultural Miles—four at each site—including a Clotilda boathouse, a genealogy center and Black Studies Institute, the Africatown Museum and Performing Arts Center, a memorial garden, a “signature spa hotel” and convention center, new housing, an Africatown Yacht and Scuba Club, and much more.

Per the competition rules, entrants can pick one or multiple cultural mile sites if they’d like but must submit designs for all four venues assigned to each site.

As detailed on the competition website:

“This multi-site Idea Competition seeks architectural concepts using African design principles, creative placemaking and world-class destination planning. Winning designs should: honor the Africatown story; anchor current and future redevelopment plans; preserve Africatown’s unique cultural identity; and spark community economic revitalization.

Designs should incorporate the latest digital technologies, imbued with ‘Wakanda Forever’ Afrofuturistic sensibilities. Additionally, LEED architectural standards and ways to produce sustainable green energy solutions are encouraged.”

As mentioned, the competition deadline has been extended since its launch with the registration deadline now falling on September 19. Design proposals must be submitted by January 19, 2023; winning design submissions will be announced two months later on March 19. The competition, which includes a total cash prize of up to $100,000 for the first, second, and third place winners, is open to all: architects, landscape architects, students, urban planners, and historians are all encouraged to join. Individuals as well as multi-disciplinary teams of up to four members are permitted to register.

As for the 16-person competition jury panel, it is split equally between eight design professionals and eight local community leaders. Joining jury chair Jack Travis, an architect and author of African American Architects: In Current Practice, on the professional side are: Mario Gooden, a New York-based architect, author, educator, and newly named president of the Architectural League of New York; William A. Gilchrist, a designer, planner, and expert in the vernacular architecture of coastal Africa who serves as Director of Planning and Building for the City of Oakland, California; Kwesi Daniels, head of the Department of Architecture in the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University and former editor of NOMA magazine; Nmadili Okwumabua, an urbanist, educator, and African architecture historian who serves as founder Community Planning & Design Initiative Africa (CPDI Africa); Dr. Natalie S. Robertson, a historian, scholar, and author of The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown USA; Dr. Michael Blakely, an esteemed biological anthropologist and author of The Rubric: Engaging Descendant Communities in the interpretation of Slave History; and Kamau Sadiki, a research diver who serves as president of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers and lead diver with the nonprofit Diving with a Purpose.

You can read more about the full jury panel here.

And remember to keep an eye out for our upcoming feature on the Africatown International Idea Competition.