Designing at the Crossroads: Carnival, Black Architecture, and Representation in the Rio-África Cultural Center Competition

Abstract

This article presents the project entitled "At the Crossroads, the Sea Crosses Over," developed for the Rio-África Cultural Center within the context of the first international public architecture competition exclusively for Black architects and urban planners born in Brazil and African nationals from Portuguese-speaking African countries (Palop). The proposal is grounded in the notion of the Crossroads as a fundamental site of symbolic-spatial intersection, drawing on archetypal figures from Afro-Brazilian and African religions, such as Exu, to structure a space of memory, culture, and urban fabulation. From the outset, the project also sought to approach Carnival narratives not as aesthetic-decorative metaphors, but as a method of spatial, political, and mnemonic construction. Beyond common programmatic elements such as the public square, gathering areas, and exhibition spaces, the project articulates corporeality, rhythm, festivity, and cosmologies as design foundations, invoking alternative epistemologies for architectural practice. By adopting drawing as a critical and narrative tool, the work displaces conventional disciplinary representation and frames architecture as a gesture of symbolic reparation within urban space and within the architectural field itself.