Abstract
Since the latter part of 19th century photography has played a central role in the development of architecture for its persuasive visual impact. But, despite this clear interaction, there is still reluctance from scholars in accepting less rigid approaches to the two disciplines. Indeed, the combination of the subjects, with the necessary rigour, can open up new and effective horizons for architectural history, with a potential influence on the perceived reality: this could gradually establish attention towards less known heritage. In the case we present here, by means of a provocative exhibition on Cambridge’s buildings after the Second World War, we have used photography to re-evaluate modern architecture. Cambridge in Concrete. Images from the RIBA British Architectural Library Photographs Collection, was held on the occasion of the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture’s Centenary (1912-2012). The cues for our task were contained in the collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects: the photographic archive is the world’s biggest holding of architectural images which, since 2012, has been renamed in honour of Robert Elwall (1953-2012), first curator of the collection. As part of the exhibition we published a limited edition catalogue; we have here revisited, combined and enlarged our original essays.
Highlights
Since the latter part of 19th century photography has played a central role in the development of architecture for its persuasive visual impact
In the case we present here, by means of a provocative exhibition on Cambridge’s buildings after the Second World War, we have used photography to re-evaluate modern architecture
The reasons are, first, that I was trained as an art historian in a History of Art Department which happened to be attached to a School of Architecture that happened to be in an historic city, Cambridge, which was being daily violated by unsympathetic buildings of the kind I have been speaking
Summary
Since the latter part of 19th century photography has played a central role in the development of architecture for its persuasive visual impact. He was a central figure for the parabola of the modern Cambridge, recruiting new lecturers in the School, like Sandy Wilson and Colin Rowe, later followed by Peter Eisenman, and visiting teachers such as James Stirling Martin achieved his ‘modern programme’ by sitting on influential committees for the selection of the firms to design the university buildings, with the consequential appointment of the most avant-garde British architects in University town. The reasons are, first, that I was trained as an art historian in a History of Art Department which happened to be attached to a School of Architecture that happened to be in an historic city, Cambridge, which was being daily violated by unsympathetic buildings of the kind I have been speaking These did deliberate violence to the visual and social patterns that had given the city and the university its particular character over the centuries. Peter Smithson, perhaps the most important architect of the New Brutalism, a central character of innovative exhibitions like Parallel of Life and Art (1953) and This is Tomorrow (1956), completely omitted any contemporary building in his descriptions; ratifying, for an unknown reason, the exclusion of the Modern Movement from Cambridge
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