Title: The Empire Reparations Commission. Empire & Selective Heritage in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter
Author: Lydia Whitehouse
Year: 2020
Abstract: Over the past decade, institutions in the West have been increasingly expected to recognise their past and present links to colonialism, as an act of care to the multicultural societies they serve. However, the UK Government has remained largely silent in these conversations.
The Empire Reparations Commission (ERC) looks to change this, providing a platform to tackle divisive topics surrounding the UK’s empirical legacy. This fictitious government agency would be responsible for advising the government on how to decolonise their practices, from how Empire is taught in schools to whether the UK should be paying reparations.
Typically, government spaces would be the least appropriate place for these conversations, as they are covered in empirical imagery, and based on deeply ingrained practices of exclusion. This project therefore proposes new headquarters in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, built following a de-institutional design agenda and combining the commission with community facilities and learning resources. The building further aims to disrupt its context by offering an alternative history to the romanticised and selective heritage surrounding Birmingham’s Jewellery Trade.
By challenging the traditional institutional model, the ERC’s headquarters become a different kind of political space – one more about empowering us all to tackle this national conversation both inside the building and out.
© Lydia Whitehouse 2020