I began the research for my thesis thinking about how architecture can encode a cultural identity into the built environment, and more specifically, into the condition of former colonialist cities in Caribbean nations, mindful of the fact that the people who currently live in those cities inhabit remnants of the colonial era. I chose to travel to two cities, Port of Spain in Trinidad and St. George’s in Grenada, because they are emblematic in scale of many other cities in the Caribbean. In my travels I understood more clearly a thriving urban condition of cultural identity in the Carnivals there, with which an architectural dialogue could be opened.

I examined the Carnival because for Caribbean people it represents a form of cultural identity. The costumes, music, food and general atmosphere of collective euphoria is as tangible as any monument, emblem or flag. In Trinidad I interviewed a number of Carnival participants – musicians, calypsonians, costume designers and artists who were in the midst of preparations for the Carnival that would take place two months later. They understood their roles as competitive players in the projection and propulsions of the annual festival, but on a more fundamental level, they were together working on the Carnival as a collective, cultural and urban project.

Then I turned my attention to the actual urban form. In Port of Spain I engaged in conversations with architects, writers and urban dwellers. I recorded a number of insights about the city as it is, its potential and also, interestingly, its past potentials – unrealized plans for the city that were speculated upon during the independence movement. It was brought up in many conversations that too much of recent urban development has been skewed towards satisfying purely political and economic forces. Similarly, in St. George’s, plans are currently in deliberation to privatize the bay around which the city is built for yachting, cruise ship and marina purposes as economic development takes precedent.

It was crucial for me to be able to visit the archives of these cities to see firsthand unpublished historical maps and speculative plans of the cities dating from the 1500s to the present. The director of the archive was in the process of writing a book that depicted the history of the city when it was ruled by the French in the 17th and 18th century, prior to the British. In a walking tour of St. George’s with the director and a local architect, we engaged in a conversation about the future of the Caribbean city and the important role architecture plays in shaping that vision. 

There are many more interesting and crucial experiences that I was lucky to have had on this trip. I found that an architectural project for the Caribbean region would need to address some of the issues I learned about and that the Carnival provided a lens through which one can see the Caribbean city in a different light and act architecturally within it with a cultural sensitivity.