Soft Architecture: Afro-Indian Spatial Strategies under hard Migrations - Public Talk and Drawing Workshop by Amina Kaskar

Lecture + Drawing Workshop Description

When the world feels hollow from ongoing violence, displacement, and cultural instability, there is an urgent need to develop new spatial practices that challenge the use of infrastructure and architecture as tools to displace, erase, and destroy life. This work advocates for a transformative shift in architectural design by drawing on the material and spatial practices of migrants in exclusionary environments, uncovering opportunities for reclamation and agency through temporal and inter-scale practices.

Upon entering a hard place of arrival, migrants have often used soft architectures in both the literal construction of their spaces and through the soft spatial systems tied to certain micro-transactions and community organisations. These soft spatialities engage with restrictive systems and policies in the built environment, offering an alternative reality where cultural and social production can thrive, and where joy, relief, and resistance are enacted against oppressive systems. Within the South African Indian diaspora these collective identities can be made tangible through the tactility of plants, food, and textile. This work uses visual ethnographic methods to explore diasporic rituals examining their role in creating spaces of solidarity and resistance.

Amina will present her body of work which will set the stage for an open conversation and drawing workshop with the attendees. To enrich this process, we invite you to bring an object that represents your understanding of soft architecture—something that evokes meaning, joy, or agency for you or your community. This could be anything from a cookbook to a prayer mat, a fashion magazine to a musical instrument. Using drawing as a tool, we will explore how these objects communicate temporal practices, social agency, and spatial contributions. This activity will serve as a personal entry point for storytelling, fostering cross-cultural connections and deepening our collective understanding of softness and solidarity in architecture. 

This event is part of UTS School of Architecture’s Solidarity public program curated by Dr Endriana Audisho. 

Biography

Amina Kaskar, a South African architect and the newly appointed Rothwell Chair Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney, brings a unique lens to the intersection of architecture, migration, and cultural identity. Her work is grounded in her recently completed PhD at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research builds on ideas developed through her practice at Counterspace, a Johannesburg-based studio she co-founded from 2014-2020, which focused on interventionist architectural responses including exhibitions, installations, and public events—most notably, the design of the Serpentine Pavilion in 2020.

Image: Family photographs capturing women hanging fabrics on washing lines for shade and celebrating festivities with food and laughter. Source: Amijee family 1980.