Counting Quality, Seeing Patterns

Ijlal Muzaffar teaches in the Department of Theory and History of Art and Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. He has written extensively on the intersection of modern architecture and Third World development discourses. His current research looks at how modern architectural framings of local materials, self-help, and climatically responsive buildings helped bypass the central dilemma of mid-20th century decolonial world order: how to make plausible the idea of spontaneous Third World development without accounting for centuries of capital drain under colonial rule.