Materials Across the Diaspora | Intro to Interior Design 101
Materials Across the Diaspora | Intro to Interior Design 101
Course & Semester Overview | HillmanTok University
Welcome to our 4-week course on interior design and cultural identity. We’ll look at how culture shapes the spaces we live in. We’ll talk about color, materials, furniture, and more. There will be discussions, hands-on projects, and case studies.
📝 Week 3, Lecture 3: Materials Across…
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I agree with Ebony. Incorporating Afrofuturism into an African Diaspora interior design aesthetic means reimagining the future through a culturally rooted, liberatory lens rather than a Eurocentric or purely modernist one. Instead of relying on sleek minimalism, Afrofuturism in this context draws from African spirituality, symbolism, and cosmology—using traditional crafts, indigenous materials, and sustainable practices to shape futuristic forms. It emphasizes storytelling, with furniture and art reflecting diasporic journeys, ancestral wisdom, and imagined futures. Functionality is centered around communal living and adaptability, with pieces that serve multiple purposes and reflect the fluid nature of Black life. Vibrant colors, layered textures, and sensory elements like sound and scent evoke both the memory of the homeland and visions of tomorrow. Ultimately, Afrofuturism becomes a tool for envisioning a future where Black identity, culture, and creativity are central, not secondary.
💐💐💐Blessed. Thanks for bringing this to life.❤
Late to the party but loving the inspo and education! NEW SUB! = )
As a kid growing up in London in the 1970s , The blaxploitation film industry on reflection was a design aesthetic that is equivocal to AfroFuturism , from the production design of the film , interior design, fashion , to films / documentaries was a shared language , that gave ourselves permission to break the moulds of Eurocentric conventions, especially as those blaxploitation movies basically saved Hollywood, yet American culture doesn’t embrace black minds that create the phenomenons that it consumes like insensitive machine. Thank you for creating this space, it’s giving us even more colours for creative discernment. Thank you 🙏🏾
Really enjoyed this conversation
I’ve been looking for African based interior design inspiration that is not gimmicky for so long. Most interior design trends have never designated with me. I think because they tend to not be rooted in the richness of my our culture.
I’m so glad that you are spearheading this much-needed ongoing conversation
I just want to say that I am super grateful for finding your class. I haven't done any research on you yet 😅 but I would enroll in any classes you're offering. I am graduating this year with an interior architecture degree, and I wish I had classes like yours. Your class is truly what i think i was missing. "It fills the gap," if that makes sense. Thank you for gifting us with your knowledge. Wishing you a lot more success ❤
Amazing work 🙏🏾
This Afro-Futurism topic hit home for me. Such an important topic not only for the fact that we must push our roots and habits of the past forward but I really do think an emphasis on Afro-Futurism will get more and more people thinking about design in their everyday life and how it serves them or not. We need to no longer lean on the curriculum of people who haven’t experienced what we’ve experienced. Were told to operate a certain way in every medium but soon that shall be no more.
Are you going to keep doing YouTube?
How do I pay homage to my culture while incorporating my personality into it?
Wood, clay and grass I would say simply from the historical mud/ grass thatched houses/huts houses
These classes are so truly appreciated. Thank you!
Design:
Who was I supposed to be;
Before you made me into to who/what you needed me to be?
Yeah, that’s hard but we need to work together consistently to figure parts of it out.
Yeah, some folks will steal from it but, it never reads authentically. Much like the colonizer-collectors will never connect to us or our home, simply by covering a wall with us.
I love this dialogue and love hearing from the various perspectives calling in.
Thank you so much for this wonderful class! I have learned so much and have started to apply much of these principles to my home!! Do you have a book available for purchase?
45:37 wait, the last guest also chewed this up. the way she connected the practice of utilizing every part of the cow in Ugandan culture to the functionality of the pieces within the design of your home is wild liiiike what a beautiful brain
black women are unparalleled and i think this comes full circle when you say “we have it all, we are the root of it” … ok im done nerding out 🫱🏽🫲🏾
41:12 the line between controversy/ignorance is thiiiiin. this was a profound take, thank you. i’d never thought about the spaces we exist in chronically being eurocentric and emphasizing separation instead of community. simply put, our state of being was implemented and implied “luxury”. the ways in which this has passively and very intentionally modified the mentality/health of our community
thank you Paige for the intellectual plate 🍽️
More classes please!! This is so helpful 🙏🏾🙏🏾💕💕
Hello,
How do I sign up or register for your future courses?