A similar narrative and promise mobilized by a reciprocal process between identity and representation occurred in ancient Africa 6,000 years ago. The Nubian Arch/vault, an inverted catenary curve, symbolized a ‘people.’
Social reciprocity in Egyptian society was the moral code governing social interactions and exchange. In the long run, it developed trust, affection, and cooperation, which created social capital, allowing individuals, families, and groups access to more extensive social networks.
The Nubian arch/vault, predicated on the structural reciprocity of its mud bricks, produced spaces and forms expressing its social determinate.
These spaces and forms acted as guided imagery and gestalt, symbolizing the spatial representation of the community's wealth of ethical behavior and commercial success to others.
It found its most extensive acceptance as an expression of social capital - access to networks - among potters and kiln makers, and through their solidarity, the in-group knowledge spread worldwide, shaping ceramics, sculpture, housing, storage facilities, and burial chambers.
It's time for structural reciprocity in space and form to find again their place in the urban landscape to advocate for a social narration that redefines constructs like family, freedom, play, sexual equality, and democracy.
The promise of the compass and straight edge has reached its limit. The promise of structural reciprocity has yet to be fully fulfilled. Hampered by a lack of strength of materials and construction techniques, the Nubian arch/vault has remained relatively obscure. But those hindrances are no longer an issue.
