Architectural Historiography Research Articles

Historiography of the Morava Architecture: Controversial Points of the Study

Historiography of the Morava Architecture: Controversial Points of the Study

Historiography of post-war modern architecture in Hungary – evaluation – research – preservation

Reviewing the research on post-war modern Hungarian architecture we find a serious backwardness. This paper presents an overview of the situation and an explanation focusing on three factors. The first is the underestimation of the socialist modern architecture by the lay public, but also by some professionals. The second field of investigation is the research background: institutes, researchers, funds and the accessibility of archival material, and the results achieved despite the difficulties. The paper also surveys the preservation of this heritage, and finally presents a recent rehabilitation project, one of the few positive examples.

Immigrant architects in Brazil: old and new tools for a historiographical discussion

The role of human displacement and migration in cultural processes as well as in the development of form in art and architecture has long been recognized. Throughout the last two decades, however, with the increase of human exchange and experiences of exile, issues concerning dynamics of cultural transfer have come to guide the course of mainstream architectural history. Bringing together old and new ideas surrounding these issues, this article opens up a discussion about the self-perception of Brazilian modern architectural historiography, addressing the role of foreign and immigrant architects in the spread of architectural modernism.

Communicating “space and form?”: The history and impact of the journal Tér és Forma as the Hungarian pipeline of Modernism

In the interwar era, architectural journals were at the forefront of professional attention and had the power to disseminate the Modern Movement in architecture globally. The Hungarian journal Tér és Forma (1928-1948) took the lead to introduce international modern architecture to the Hungarian public, while continually reporting on the newest building projects in interwar Hungary. Virgil Bierbauer, the periodical’s long-time editor (1928-1942), presented the broad panorama of contemporary architecture and his followers from 1943 intended to continue his legacy even in wartime. The impact of the periodical did not halt at its cessation in 1948 but, directly as well as indirectly, continued to define 20th century architectural historiography in Hungary.

Is there something behind the Iron Curtain? Documentation and conservation of Modernism in former Eastern Europe

Although many 20th century phenomena have seen comparisons made across the European continent, divided by the former Iron Curtain for a half of the century, there is still room for confrontation and reconciliation. Firstly, because research continues, new contexts are emerging, the perspective of evaluation and the perception of the heritage of Modernism is changing, but also because, in addition to the artificial political structure of the Iron Curtain, which has disappeared along with the disappearance of the Eastern and Western Blocs, a number of constructs such as the territorial or thematic marginalization of parts of European architectural historiography remain to be overcome. After a long period of focusing on iconic personalities and works of architecture it is time to concentrate on thematic research, which will illustrate connections and differences in the Modern Movement of Europe and worldwide.

Muerte, ciudad y arquitectura. Aproximaciones disciplinares para el estudio de los procesos de muerte en buenos aires, 1868-1903

El siguiente texto se origina ante el reconocimiento de un campo poco trabajado desde nuestra disciplina, que por lo tanto produjo una serie de interrogantes y dificultades al momento de estudiar las relaciones entre procesos rituales de muerte, a fines del siglo XIX en la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Asumiendo la enorme potencia simbólica que implica la muerte, y las elaboraciones y actuaciones que en tiempos de epidemias comenzaban en el dormitorio del enfermo, y, con buena fortuna culminaban con una digna sepultura, ¿cómo es posible que no exista registro disciplinar que ponga en relación las diferentes etapas de estos procesos, y sus articulaciones con los espacios?Nos proponemos como primer objetivo, sintetizar las principales relaciones entre prácticas funerarias y la historiografía de la arquitectura, basadas en ideas de estilo, monumento y restauración. Considerando que estos modos de tratamiento presentan limitaciones a la luz de enfoques basados en el habitar, introduciremos al debate las nociones de rito de paso, ritual, performance cultural y proceso de muerte, que desde la antropología colaboran a concebir la muerte como elaboraciones espacio-temporales de compleja significación e interrelación con los territorios y diversos ámbitos arquitectónicos y urbanos. Finalmente, y como objetivo principal, presentaremos una propuesta que articule estas teorías con nuestro campo de especialización histórica.

Environmental representation: Bridging the drawings and historiography of Mediterranean vernacular architecture

Architectural drawings, which are projections of spaces on a paper surface, can be categorized according to the projections’ directional and temporal relation with the represented space. A projection becomes a documentation when it departs from an existing spatial organization for recording it on paper. The projection serves the design process when it departs from the present to foresee a spatial proposal in the future. While the former records the present within limited interpretive range, the latter is more constructive. While these two types of projections are known widely, there is another highly interpretive type of projection, the potentials of which, are generally underestimated. As the architectural historian’s tool, this third projection type represents bygone architecture. The task of this drawing, which is one of the least questioned issues of architectural history, is to restore an incomplete image by referring to material and textual sources. This drawing type contributes to the methodology of architectural historiography while conceiving, explaining and representing space.For illustrating this situation, this study analyzes the vernacular settlements and their environmental integration because this selected context reveals the interpretive nature of the third type of projection in a successful way. In this framework, the cut-away axonometric is considered as an appropriate drawing method for uncovering the integrity between architecture and its site or culture and nature. The outcome of this theoretical insight into the prolific relations between drawing and architectural history is coined as “environmental representation.”In history architectural products have been integral components of the environment. Then, the architectural representation of historical buildings through drawings becomes critical since the majority of architectural drawings tend to isolate buildings from their environment. This conventional representation of historical architecture has been the dominant tool of typological analysis. Typology, which is intertwined with plan drawings, categorizes historical buildings according to their spatial, structural and material organizations and disengages the buildings from their socio-cultural and environmental context. If this methodological problem of typology is regarded as a problem of drawing, a new mode of “environmental representation” can be proposed.This study proposes “environmental representation” of architecture through cut-away axonometric. This graphic proposal is based upon the theoretical references of “environmental aesthetics”, which is an interdisciplinary field analyzing the participatory human engagement in environment. “Aesthetics,” as a term, defines this bodily engagement into environment through the use of all human senses. In this theoretical framework this study challenges the assumptions of scientific theory for architectural representation of the “abstracted object” and proposes an alternative method of “environmental representation” on the basis of “aesthetics”. Within this scope, the proposed cut-away axonometric drawings produced by the author is analyzed in order to represent exemplary historical contexts of architecture selected through the vernacular settlements of the Anatolian Mediterranean.

Teresina e as moradias da região central da cidade (1852-1952)

This research deals with urban housing in Brazil, notably in the period that goes from the second half of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, having as its north the transformations resulting from the search for modernity, health and comfort and their relationship with the architectural styles adopted. For that, it analyzes the residences built in the central region of the city of Teresina, founded to become the capital of the State of Piauí, which, together with social and economic factors, technical limitations and local climatic conditions, originated an architecture of very peculiar characteristics. It seeks, therefore, to understand and characterize the transformations that took place, as well as their diffusion in the city, focusing on the agents involved in this process and on the appropriation of the Teresina society of the different residential typologies. It is based mainly on documentation consulted in local and private archives - such as almanacs, newspapers, reports, legislation and images from the time -, surveys, interviews, as well as bibliography of local historians, with emphasis on Teresinha Queiroz, Monsenhor Chaves and Odilon Nunes. In order to support the analyses, it also seeks theoretical support in consolidated authors such as Carlos A. C. Lemos and Nestor Goulart Reis Filho. It contributes, in this way, to broaden the knowledge of the production of urban housing in Teresina-PI, so little present in the historiography of Brazilian architecture.

Summa/historia: disolución y reconstitución en la historiografía de la arquitectura (1970-1978)

En julio de 1974 salió el primer fascículo que oficiaba como introducción de los capítulos de Summa/historia que iban a ir saliendo hasta 1977, luego reunidos en el libro Documentos para una historia de la arquitectura Argentina. Allí Waisman explicitaba que s/h se articularía a partir de los planteos realizados en La estructura histórica del entorno que le había permitido posicionarse en la escena nacional. El contexto de producción de s/h nos permite analizar un momento muy particular en el proceso de constitución del campo de la historiografía de la arquitectura. Si durante los sesenta se apreciaba una consolidación en la producción historiografía, los setenta supusieron un momento de crisis y “disolución” de las dos únicas instituciones específicas que tenía la historiografía de la arquitectura, seguido de una relativamente rápida reconstitución, en la cual s/h tuvo un papel central, no sólo porque ofrecía una mirada integradora de la historia de la arquitectura en el país, no ensayada hasta el momento, sino también porque dinamizó redes y contactos que se prolongaron en el tiempo.

Geographies for Another History: Mapping the International Education of Architects from Colombia (1930–1970)

The history of Colombian architecture is poorly understood. This article maps the educational geographies of over 200 Colombian architects between the late 1920s and 1970, examining the historical, geopolitical, and disciplinary shifts that contributed to the international advancement of Colombian architecture. In the 1940s mobility was reoriented from Europe to the USA, while in the 1950s Brazil supplanted these destinations, becoming the main Latin American pole for Colombian student architects, and the Brazilian modernist repertoire was subsequently diffused in Colombia. This article revises long-held ideas about the architectural historiography of Colombia, expanding the geographical scope of the country’s leading architects to reveal the significance of the Americas in their education.

Miradas exploratorias. Fotografías inéditas del viaje a Italia de Asís Cabrero

<p><em>As was the case in not just a few of his contemporaries, Francisco Cabrero's modern advent is centred on his initial trip, in this case the one made to Italy in 1941. The historiography of Spanish architecture in general and the specific studies on the architect have shown the impact and the scope of this two-month trip on his later career. Fleeing the ruling academicism in Spain, Cabrero 'discovers' in Italy the rationalist and abstract expression of monumentality. Nevertheless, the access to a wide photographic reportage —unpublished up to now— accomplished by the architect during the trip, allows us to document his journey but also to put in to question those claims. The photographs introduce us for the first time to Cabrero the photographer —to his particular way of constructing an image— and as a result they pave the way for the recognition of this visual tool as an exploratory instrument of the gaze to the detriment of the pencil and notebook. Above all and paradoxically, they contradict the supposed fascination for modern language in Cabrero since discovering that historical architecture was almost the only objective of his selective photographic look and as a result, the primary source, of his transforming inspiration.</em></p>

Arquitectura Cuba and the Early Revolutionary Project

No prior scholarly work on Cuban architectural and intellectual history has yet focused on Arquitectura Cuba, a periodical published by the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos, as an archive. However, issues of the publication from the early years of the Cuban Revolution (especially 1959 and 1960) provide an indication of state-sponsored views on architecture, urbanism and the interplay between these and the socialist project in Cuba. Using articles and editorials from Arquitectura Cuba alongside other contemporary sources, this article focuses on and critiques three themes that recur throughout these issues: the idea of architecture as a socially minded profession, the need for urbanisation of the countryside as a core goal of the new Cuban state and the interplay between global modernism and localised practices. Ultimately, this investigation illustrates potential methodological directions and archival sources for Cuban architectural and social historiography, revealing another lens to read the Cuban Revolution and its legacies today.

Contribution of architect Danilo Vladisavljevic to the transformation of the public space of Belgrade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Architect Danilo Vladisavljević belongs to the generation of architects who, at the turn of the XIX century, left a significant mark in the Serbian architecture. His public buildings in Belgrade, which were mainly designed in cooperation with other architects, contributed to the representativeness of the city, which, at that time, began to intensively take on the characteristics of major European centres. The main feature of his work was a pluralist style, which involved evoking romanticism, use of academic postulates and art nouveau facades. He built various residential buildings for influential citizens and implemented pioneering urban projects on the territory of Belgrade, Military Hospital Complex in Vračar. He also built facilities for military purposes such as the military barracks in Niš, Valjevo and Smederevska Palanka and two hotels in a prestigious location at the very centre of Belgrade - the 'Splendid' and the 'Union'. Especially fruitful was his collaboration with the engineer Miloš Savčić on multi-storey outlet buildings such as The Trade and Export Bank, Vračar Savings Bank and the industrial complex of the Belgrade Slaughterhouse. During this cooperation, Danilo Vladisavljević was responsible for the facades and for further development of Miloš Savčić's designs. His collaboration with architect Svetozar Jovanović on the Officers' Cooperative Building produced one of the most representative examples of secession architecture in Belgrade. In the process of transforming public spaces in Belgrade, architect Vladisavljević particularly gave important contribution through cooperation with Milo Savčić in realization of the complex of the Belgrade Slaughterhouse, as well as the pioneering urban complex of the Military Hospital in Belgrade. As an important architect from the turn of the XIX century, Danilo Vladisavljević deserves contextualization and actualization in Serbian architectural historiography, and his structures should be treated as an important part of the Serbian architectural heritage.

Baltic modernism in Belgrade: Design of the building of the Monopoly Administration and the Ministry of Finance in Belgrade (1908) by Krichinsky and Vasilyev

The term “Baltic Modernism” in the contemporary architectural historiography is used to denote a specific regional branch of international Art Nouveau movement with the centers in Saint Petersburg and Helsinki, that spread from Stockholm, Riga, Tallinn and other Baltic cities in the period from 1900 to 1914. Although it was a blend of Nordic and Slavic artistic components it was endowed with a stylish consistency grounded on steady personal relationships between the Baltic architects. This also accounts for the renown Russian architects, Stepan Krichinsky (Stepan Samojlovič Kričinskij) and Nikolay Vasilyev (Nikolaj Vasil’evič Vasil’ev), whose awarded competition drawing for Belgrade Palace of Monopoly Administration and the Ministry of Finance (1908) has been partially addressed in the Serbian historiography. Albite comprehensive, it has never been fully examined in the architectural context from which it was derived.

Historiography of Mosque Architecture in Malaysia: Analysis of Texts by 5 Authors

Malaysian mosques exhibit remarkable variations, ranging from humble traditional timber structures to massive modern complexes. This evolution has been studied by numerous historians, architects, and academicians resulting in a steadily expanding historiography of mosque architecture. However, this body of work on the history and development of local mosques has never been formally studied in detail as a whole. Therefore, this paper focuses on 2 major aspects: first, identifying general research approaches present in the historiography of mosque architecture in Malaysia, and second, classifying the formal elements and characteristics used to describe the architecture of local mosques. Based on selected texts from 5 Malaysian authors, it was identified that these works are descriptive studies that are primarily structured on a combination of chronological, stylistic, cultural, geographical and typological approaches. Additionally, descriptions of mosque architecture by the authors were based on a set of formal elements and characteristics which falls into 5 distinct categories: i) typological element, ii) spatial organisation, iii) roof form, iv) building technology, and v) design articulation. These results reflect the complexity of mosque development in Malaysia and the multiple angles that are possible to holistically examine them. This paper also discusses 3 significant aspects embedded within the study of mosque architecture in Malaysia, covering unique elements and characteristics of local mosques, followed by issues related to language, conceptual, and factual ambiguity, and finally on the complexity of mosque classifications.

Um acervo, uma coleção e três problemas: a Coleção Jacques Pilon da Biblioteca da FAUUSP

RESUMO Este artigo examina a constituição do Acervo de Projetos de arquitetura da Biblioteca da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAUUSP), o tratamento da Coleção Jacques Pilon e os rendimentos do projeto de arquitetura como fonte documental a partir de três questões interligadas: a constituição do campo arquitetônico no Brasil; a história de São Paulo e sua arquitetura; e a contribuição dos arquitetos estrangeiros para a construção da cidade entre 1930 e 1960. A partir da abordagem de novas e velhas fontes de pesquisa, procura-se articular a história da arquitetura com outros campos do conhecimento nem sempre a ela relacionados, mas que juntos podem contribuir para uma leitura mais complexa da produção arquitetônica e para os esforços de revisão da historiografia da arquitetura moderna no Brasil.

PRIMER CONGRESO DEL COLEGIO DE ARQUITECTOS DE CHILE, CONCEPCIÓN, 1950. DISCIPLINA, PROFESIÓN Y MODERNIDAD

En ocasión del cuarto centenario de la fundación de la ciudad de Concepción, en 1950, la capital penquista se tornó un caleidoscopio cultural. Entre la multiplicidad de acontecimientos ocurridos entonces tuvo lugar el “Primer Congreso y Exposición Nacional de Arquitectura”. Si bien la historiografía de la arquitectura nacional prestó escasa atención a esta primera reunión convocada por el Colegio de Arquitectos, a partir del hallazgo de sus noticias en medios periodísticos penquistas, este artículo informa de su desarrollo y aventura sus alcances. El texto presentado1 es complementario a una investigación mayor, focalizada en los medios de comunicación de arquitectura editados en Chile; por ello, da cuenta de los hechos a través de una apretada crónica del encuentro y ofrece resultados preliminares en cuanto a una revisión en la trayectoria personal e institucional de los protagonistas pues, inmediatamente después de este evento, sus nombres se involucraron en la vanguardia arquitectónica como consecuencia del equilibrado ejercicio entre disciplina, profesión y modernidad.

El <em>Manifiesto</em> de Fernando Chueca Goitia. Algunas consideraciones en torno a la autoría del manifiesto de La Alhambra

The Manifesto of the Alhambra (1953) is among the most remarkable texts in the historiography of 20th-century Spanish architecture. This status has made it the subject of several studies, none of which has carefully addressed the question of its authorship. Although the Manifesto was signed by 24 Spanish architects, one of them –Fernando Chueca Goitia– considered himself to be its author. So, to whom should the text really be attributed: to the 24 signatories, or to only one of them? By studying Chueca Goitia’s career and through a careful analysis of both the composition and content of the text, this article attempts to show the role played by Fernando Chueca Goitia in the genesis of the Manifesto of the Alhambra, and the extent to which he could claim authorship of the text.

The Other Side of Tropical Paradise: Traces of Modernism within the Vernacular Landscapes of Early Twentieth-Century Bali

The island of Bali is arguably one of the most enigmatic locations to observe the lasting legacy of colonialism within the historiography of vernacular architecture in Asia. Despite Edward Said’s seminal thesis on orientalism and the subsequent production of postcolonial scholarship, architectural and traveling discourses on Bali carry through the hegemonic notion of otherness, with little resistance, far beyond the colonial era. The Orientalist notion of a traditional and authentic Bali is a powerful conception that has produced its own realities and governed the production of cultural and architectural markers on the island throughout the 20th century. Outside the established tourist path of the island’s southern coastline and its hilly hinterland, however, we are confronted with a multifaceted and cosmopolitan urban landscape. This other side of Bali challenges the established architectural categories, such as “traditional Balinese,” that have long governed the world’s interaction with and perception of the island’s built landscape. Unsurprisingly, most architectural and travel accounts have labeled these dynamic landscapes as inauthentic, culturally polluted, or insignificant. They are nonetheless conceived, built, and inhabited by the island’s diverse local population, unlike the architectural simulacra of Bali that dominate the island’s key tourist destinations, such as Ubud, Legian and Sanur, and were built for tourists.This article is an exploration of the forgotten facets of Bali’s architectural landscape. It showcases hybrid and modern architectural traces left behind as diverse localities on the island repositioned themselves within the changing time of the late nineteenth and early-20th centuries and the arrival of the tourist gaze. Focusing on the former capitals of three royal kingdoms of 19th century Bali—Badung, Klungkung, and Karangasem—it will examine how the vernacular, cosmopolitanism, and modernism interacted. Ranging from an insertion of modern architectural forms within the vernacular setting to a hybrid configuration of multiple cultural references, the case studies featured here illustrate a shifting vernacular landscape molded by the island’s dynamic power relations. They destabilize the notion of an authentic, autonomous, and real Bali that is championed not only by colonial and traveling discourses, but also by the majority of the island’s population today.

A Study on Hegel’s Influence in Architectural Historiography

The purpose of this paper is to review and analyse the influence of Hegel on architectural historiography. With the point of view that Hegel is the origin of architectural history, this study try to find out how Hegel`s philosophy and aesthetics deeply influenced the principle and method of architectural historiography. As a kind of meta-history Hegel`s idealism played a important role in the interpretation of architecture and its historiography. We can call it Hegelian legacy and it gave a determinant idea in the discours of architecture, especially Modernism. With a critical view point this study tries to reveal the mythical character of the premise and hypothesis of Hegel`s historicism and also reviews its positive aspects in the history of writing architectural history. Today Hegelian thinking in architectural historiography is seriously criticized and considered as a old way of writing history. But this study tries to find a possibility to recognize the contemporary architectural situation with Hegel`s concept of universal history. The return of Hegel necessarily does not mean the idea of totality and universality in practice as like in Modernism, but to widen the recognition in contemporary practice and historiography.