Date of Award
Spring 5-4-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Vyjayanthi Rao
Second Advisor
Keller Easterling
Abstract
This research explores everyday design practices in the Maghreb shaped by economic, political, and ecological struggles amid transnational debates on decolonizing design. To do so, it looks at objects in, through and with the sunset. Taking المغرب — the place where the sun sets — as a conceptual lens, Objects in the Sunset illuminates the savoir-faire born from dispossession, scarcity, and epistemic violence. Working across different scales of the built environment — infrastructures, spaces, objects, and materials — it shifts design away from Eurocentric conceptions: from rationalization to resourcefulness, homogeneity to heterogeneity, optimization to adaptation, disposability to repair, and universal standardization to multiplicity.
Recommended Citation
guetta, iskander, "Objects in the Sunset" (2026). Masters of Environmental Design Theses. 14.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/envdesign/14
Included in
Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Environmental Design Commons, Human Ecology Commons, Other Architecture Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social Justice Commons, Technology and Innovation Commons
Comments
The collection of essays assembled in this work articulate design practices and decolonial discourse with a bifold objective: to disclose the enduring and pervasive coloniality of design, while exploring ontological practices that open modes of inhabiting beyond the colonial fracture.