Architectural Narratives Research Articles

Architectural Narratives in Urban Fabric - Shaping Place Identity through Adaptive Reuse in Brooklyn -

Architectural Narratives in Urban Fabric - Shaping Place Identity through Adaptive Reuse in Brooklyn -

Recovering the Historical Construction and Materials of Erik Gunnar Asplund’s Stockholm Public Library

This work presents the first detailed study of the construction and materials of the Stockholm Public Library. As the building undergoes a rare period of maintenance and renovation, the floors and walls of the library are examined from three perspectives. First, using available but limited archival documents and plans; second, with non-destructive ground-penetrating radar measurements; and finally, through on-site surveys during local interventions for the maintenance and renovation process. The ensuing results emphasize the complementary nature of this combined research approach in recovering lost or forgotten construction details and further reveal several important findings. In the case of the unique wall finishing of the library’s rotunda, multiple layers of lime mortar, each varying in thickness and coarseness, were used to build up and craft the relief-like interior wall surface. With the use of in-situ aerated concrete and prefabricated Solomite panels in the library’s 1931–32 floor construction, a material connection between Asplund and the broader modern movement in architecture is further highlighted. At first glance, these construction-related findings seem to reinforce the common architectural narrative of the library as a transitional project between neoclassicism and modernism. At the same time, however, the library’s separate periods of construction of 1925–28 and 1931–32 and their distinct materials can be seen as a continuity of construction culture, with the innovative use of local raw materials related to the Swedish landscape.

Architectural Narratives: Exploring Anandi by Ghulam Abbas within the nexus of Place Theory, Social Logic of Space and Phenomenology

Architectural Narratives: Exploring Anandi by Ghulam Abbas within the nexus of Place Theory, Social Logic of Space and Phenomenology

For the greater good: modern China’s struggle on housing shortage

The examination of housing shortages in China presents a fascinating subject that is rarely directly addressed. This topic not only captures our interest due to the irony in a communist country but also in light of the profound transformation of Chinese society, evolving from an agrarian civilization to a modern industrialized state. The objective of this essay is to establish a comprehensive framework that encompasses economic, social, and architectural narratives as an integrated whole. This essay delves into the historical trajectory of housing shortages in modern China, tracing the evolution of this issue within Chinese society since the founding of the communist regime in 1949. Given China’s unique industrial and residential policy framework, housing provision is intrinsically linked to state-owned factories and residential certification, commonly referred to as hukou. As the political and economic foundations have shifted over time, so too has the root cause of housing shortages. In addition to general historical and theoretical research, we have undertaken an in-depth examination of Lanxi City, one of the industrial clusters established in China. The case study of Lanxi City involves a series of visits and interviews conducted within local factories and communities. Our analysis identifies two distinct phases in this evolution: the “fundamentalist communist era” and the transitional period toward a market economy. Each of these eras can be further subdivided into four distinct phases, providing a more nuanced perspective. Our findings reveal that various housing distribution mechanisms have contributed to the issue of housing shortages. During the first era, housing shortages were primarily a result of hukou restrictions, industrial disparities, sluggish construction processes, and corporate profit considerations. In the latter phase, spanning the 1980s and 1990s, housing shortages were exacerbated by escalating costs and a slow rate of housing unit replenishment. As the new millennium unfolded, real estate bubbles compounded the housing crisis, with older neighborhoods ill-suited for modern living. Our interviews and visits complemented our literature research, offering valuable insights into the systemic exploitation of specific groups in pursuit of broader goals, hence the title. This paper underscores the housing shortage in China as a consequence of economic disparities between urban and rural regions, as well as between the prosperous East coast and the underdeveloped West hinterland.

The architecture of visual narrative: Can text-to-image algorithms enhance the power of stylistic narrative for architecture

Architecture has always been a means of communicating stories through its design, with its structures and spaces serving as visual narratives. However, recent advancements in technology have created opportunities for architects to enhance their storytelling capabilities through the use of text-to-image algorithms. These algorithms have the potential to improve visual narratives by enabling architects to translate written descriptions into tangible visual representations. This article explores the architecture of visual narrative and how text-to-image algorithms can enhance it in diverse styles. This inquiry aims to help architectural epistemology understand and foresee the potential impact of this technology on the field of architecture. To understand the limits of AI in generating styles to enhance architectural narrative, six distinct styles were chosen for experimentation. The styles were selected based on their unique features, including an architect’s style, movement, or era. These styles include Zaha Hadid, Brutalist, modern-minimalistic, Peter Zumthor, Gothic, and Gaudi. The narrative was kept the same for each style while observing the changes in AI-generated visuals. The results were evaluated by comparing AI’s interpretations in terms of stylistic, environmental, material, form-based, and atmospheric features. While the results showed promise in terms of variations in each category, AI was not successful in implementing all stylistic features while keeping the narrative stable. In particular, after the second environment layer, the modern-minimalistic, Zumthor, and Brutalist styles lost their distinct features, while Gothic and Gaudi-inspired visuals were hardly generated even in the second environment layer. As a result, AI performed well in generating detailed environmental features without any given narrative and creating an atmospheric environment with enlightening the environment for the last layer.

The Creation of “Sacred Place” through the “Sense of Place” of the Daci’en Wooden Buddhist Temple, Xi’an, China

After the Industrial Revolution, new technologies and architectural forms gradually replaced China’s wooden construction system, which had lasted for thousands of years. The architectural narrative also turned a new page. As pieces of architectural and cultural heritage and as the residence of “gods”, wooden Buddhist temples carry the indelible imprints of history and religion and have become a healing place or spiritual home for people living in urban areas. In order to preserve the local cultural context and explore the creation of a spiritual “sacred place”, this study traces the spiritual and cultural value of Xi’an’s wooden Buddhist temple through ethnographic qualitative methods of text analysis, observation and interviews. The case study examines the metaphorical symbolism of the architecture’s “sense of place” and religion in terms of architectural structure and components, and the advantages of creating a “sacred place” are examined based on the characteristics of wooden materials. The results show that the design elements of wooden Buddhist temples connect cultural identity and collective memory, which are inseparable from religion, and because of the material properties of wood, they sublimate the sacred atmosphere of religion. Moreover, identifying the “sense of place” and the atmosphere of sacred spaces through the structure, components, and material characteristics of wooden temple architecture offers a new perspective that focuses on architectural emotions and creates a new topic of “sacred places”. Such temples have the potential to enhance human spiritual health and well-being.

Prologue for a “Weak”

This essay offers the first graphic arguments as a prologue to identify a “weak”: a neologism proposed to classify a moment in the Biobío River delta that the authors see as the architectural antithesis to the military fortifications that have historically categorized this body of water as a border, a word that has been rooted in the Chilean colonial national imaginary fundamental to our identity. Methodologically, the authors use graphics to explore the possibilities of a photographic disarticulation of this space, and the creation of alternative imaginaries with the aid of artificial intelligence, giving way to a new “misty” artifact that positions itself against the projective arguments of the established architectural narrative.

The Implication of 19th Century Colonial Facade Characteristics on Residence Design in Tianjin, China

This research delves into the intricate implications of 19th-century colonial facade characteristics on residence design in Tianjin, China. As a prominent city in the early 20th century, Tianjin boasted a unique blend of foreign concessions and indigenous Chinese architectural heritage. The study aims to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the significance of colonial heritage in residence design and its cultural preservation. The research objectives encompass exploring colonial facade traits of the 19th-20th century, experimenting with their integration into modern residence design, and proposing their relevance for Tianjin's context. Tianjin's historical evolution, initially marked by its status as a treaty port shared by various nations shaped its architectural identity. The research employs a qualitative approach, involving on-site visits and photography to gather primary data from heritage buildings, both colonial-owned and those influenced by colonial aesthetics. This method facilitates a comprehensive assessment of architectural details, enabling a deep understanding of the interplay between colonial and indigenous elements. The study also employs a survey questionnaire to further investigate how colonial facade characteristics impact the residents' perceptions, motivations, and design choices. This approach enhances the analysis of intricate design decisions that link past colonial influences to contemporary residence design. Through content analysis and data triangulation, the study reveals insights into the interwoven cultural, historical, and aesthetic factors that have shaped Tianjin's architectural landscape. By bridging the gaps in understanding regarding the effects of colonial aesthetics on residence design, this research contributes to a broader discourse on architectural preservation and urban development. It underscores the importance of acknowledging and integrating colonial heritage to create a distinctive architectural narrative that captures the essence of Tianjin's rich history. Ultimately, this study enriches the discourse surrounding architectural preservation, cultural continuity, and the symbiotic relationship between past and present in urban design.

The Implication of 19th Century Colonial Facade Characteristics on Residence Design in Tianjin, China

This research delves into the intricate implications of 19th-century colonial facade characteristics on residence design in Tianjin, China. As a prominent city in the early 20th century, Tianjin boasted a unique blend of foreign concessions and indigenous Chinese architectural heritage. The study aims to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the significance of colonial heritage in residence design and its cultural preservation. The research objectives encompass exploring colonial facade traits of the 19th-20th century, experimenting with their integration in modern residence design, and proposing their relevance for Tianjin's context. Tianjin's historical evolution, initially marked by its status as a treaty port shared by various nations, shaped its architectural identity. The research employs a qualitative approach, involving on-site visits and photography to gather primary data from heritage buildings, both colonial-owned and those influenced by colonial aesthetics. This method facilitates a comprehensive assessment of architectural details, enabling a deep understanding of the interplay between colonial and indigenous elements. The study also employs a survey questionnaire to further investigate how colonial facade characteristics impact the residents' perceptions, motivations, and design choices. This approach enhances the analysis of intricate design decisions that link past colonial influences to contemporary residence design. Through content analysis and data triangulation, the study reveals insights into the interwoven cultural, historical, and aesthetic factors that have shaped Tianjin's architectural landscape. By bridging the gaps in understanding regarding the effects of colonial aesthetics on residence design, this research contributes to a broader discourse on architectural preservation and urban development. It underscores the importance of acknowledging and integrating colonial heritage to create a distinctive architectural narrative that captures the essence of Tianjin's rich history. Ultimately, this study enriches the discourse surrounding architectural preservation, cultural continuity, and the symbiotic relationship between past and present in urban design.

Chernobyl's Palimpsestic Shelters

The more than 400,000 cubic-meters of concrete meant to contain the deadly debris of the largest nuclear accident of the 20th century in Chernobyl in the Ukraine were named “Sarcophagus” in the Western world— an architectural term describing the stone enclosure of a dead body. It would not remain the only structure built to contain the catastrophic fallout. After 1986, the supposedly ever-durable material of modern architecture started to crumble under the radiation. A new enclosure needed to take shape. In an international architecture competition held in 1992 by the Ukrainian government, an arch was chosen as “New Safe Confinement” (NSC) to keep the toxic matter sealed inside. Built from steel this time, this new shell was completed after lengthy delays in July 2019—a monument containing a brutalist radioactive ruin. Its building technology, implemented to delay leakage to protect future human generations, in turn needs those very generations precisely for its own maintenance. This article poses the many hulls of Chernobyl as architectural palimpsest: a deathly bind of matter and time, of decay, ruin, and construction in the fall-out’s ongoing aftermath. Written as history of architectural knowledge, the making space for a destructive non-human occupant (under human care) turns a seemingly straightforward architectural narrative into the story of a structure built too late to keep the world around it inhabitable.

The Place of Ekphrasis in the Formation of Architectural Narrative

In the architectural design process, the architect(designer) engages in an internal dialogue with themselves, the object of their design, and other stakeholders. This dialogue, in turn, takes place through language and reveals a narrative. Within the architectural design, this language is established through (architectural) representation/ drawing. However, architectural drawing possesses symbolic and semantic layers akin to any language. This study focuses on these layers through “ekphrasis”, which is based on the relationship between visual and verbal representation, and asks: “How does ekphrasis as a method relate to the meaning of architectural drawing, and how does it find a place for itself in the architectural narrative?” In this study, the text-meaning-drawing relationship is examined using the deconstruction method and case study techniques. Therefore, a drawing workshop was conducted utilizing Homer’s Iliad, as it was the first ekphrastic text. The findings are then discussed in relation to the role of ekphrasis in shaping the architectural narrative.

Religious Buildings in Early al-Andalus: Origins, Consolidation and Prevalence in Urban Contexts

The arrival of Islam to the Iberian Peninsula at the beginning of the 8th c. brought important changes to the urbanism of cities which contributed to turn the previous late-antique realities into medieval Islamic settlements. Among all the transformations that took place, the introduction of mosques and the reconfiguration of cities’ religioscapes is one of the most relevant. The processes through which the earliest mosques were first inserted in urban landscapes in al-Andalus are unclear, since so far there are no remains that can be undoubtedly dated before the Umayyad period. From that moment on, and alongside the Umayyad organization of the Andalusi state, the founding of mosques becomes clearer and traceable, and their urban, religious and political roles more evident. This contribution seeks to identify how and why mosques appeared in the Iberian Peninsula, how they (re)configured religious spaces in cities, and how they contributed to consolidate their significance through specific written and architectural narratives. This topic will be explored also seeking for parallels and connections in the Bilād al-Shām region.

Membaca Mitos Perempuan Dalam Buku Surat-Surat Dari Mollo, Suatu Analisis Semiotika

Letters from Mollo is a collection of stories and recipes by 12 authors. This book bringstogether literary, ecological, gastronomic, and architectural narratives from a place in the MolloMountains in South Central Timor. This book is an important literary work created to perpetuateregional wisdom in which women are the mainstay of life. This book focuses on the importantpresence of women in the daily life of the people of the Mollo Mountains. They showed pride inthe role of women in protecting the Earth. Dissecting the book Letters from Mollo will make usunderstand more and more the role of Mollo women in saving the world. The work of thevillagers who prioritize local wisdom will be studied using Roland Barthes' semiotic theory sothat messages through text and illustrations in the book will convey their meaning to readers.Understanding the book by means of this qualitative test will provide information on how greatthe Mollo women are. This book will open the eyes of the world to how important it is forhumans to communicate with nature.

US Urbanism and Its Pacific Histories

US Urbanism and Its Pacific Histories Kelema Lee Moses (bio) Sean Connelly, Learning from Lē'ahi, Koa Gallery, Kapi'olani Community College, Kalāhu, Pālolo, Kona, O'ahu, 09 23– 12 21, 2021. Kapi'olani Community College's Koa Gallery is located on the slopes of Lē'ahi, a crater on the island of O'ahu that the United States government designated as Diamond Head Military Reservation in 1906. Attuned to the site specificity and history of this place, Sean Connelly's solo exhibition, Learning from Lē 'ahi, visually exposed the environmental and societal effects that the US military has imposed on the Hawaiian Islands. Through bold and engaging visuals—from billboards and street signs to 3D models and GIS maps— Learning from Lē'ahimakes central the role of the architect in perpetuating militarized urbanism in Hawai'i. The show persuasively envisioned possibilities for architectural demilitarization that would lead to sustainable futures for human and more-than-human beings. Learning from Lē'ahioffered visitors an opportunity to reflect on and process their relationship to the Hawaiian Islands as Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians), arrivants, settlers, and/or tourists. The exhibition encouraged architects to acknowledge a shared responsibility to the land and its people by challenging—through text, image, and sound—discourses that have relegated Hawai'i to the academic and architectural periphery. Learning from Lē 'ahiwas Connelly's latest work to situate architecture's practice and pedagogy within an activist ethos. Connelly is a self-described "expert witness geomancer mystic" from Honolulu, working as an artist, design theorist, and architectural historian. 1Their architectural interventions within galleries and cityscapes appear as critical commentaries on the environmentalism and materiality rooted in Pacific Islander mores. Connelly engages Kanaka Maoli sociospatial epistemologies that are spiritual and sensory repositories of cultural knowledge to produce projects that have consistently critiqued settler colonialism and the architect's role in the objectification of Hawai'i's lands. 2Their site-specific works center Indigenous placemaking and imagine architecture's future possibilities. These concerns have been in place for a long time. Thatch Assembly with Rocks (2060s)(2017), for instance, exemplifies the [End Page 419]way architecture's materiality is tethered to place-based knowledge. The long angular form in Honolulu's Foster Botanical Garden was constructed from local wood and features volcanic rocks that produce an aestheticized flooring and thatched loulu palms that provided a thermal protectant. Thatch Assembly with Rocks (2060s)used Hawaiian building techniques and materials for architectural construction that are in harmony with the land and its people. Thatch Assembly with Rocks (2060s)was inspired by Hawaiian hale, traditional shelters for sleeping, cooking, storing canoes, social activities, and communal gatherings. Connelly adopted Hawaiian hale construction methods for the structure to make visible what they describe as a "blind spot" in the theory, history, and education of architecture. 3Until the early twentieth century, Kanaka families and "house-builders" constructed hale using pou (posts), kaupaku (ridgepoles), a'ho (small sticks), and o'a (rafters) latched together with pili grass, pandanus leaves, or ti leaves. 4Hale have vast, open interior spaces that do not make use of columned structural supports. This Pacific Island design feature, an architectural feat not deployed in the United States until the mid-twentieth century, dates back thousands of years. Connelly's desire to interject a deeper historical knowledge about Hawai'i's lands, peoples, and epistemologies into architectural narratives resonated with Dominic Leong, an architect with familial ties to Hawai'i. 5Connelly's work appealed to Leong, in part, because of its engagement with Hawaiian architecture and US legacies of colonial trauma and unrest in the Pacific. In an interview with Flux Hawaii, Leong remarked that he had "a specific responsibility within the architectural discipline, as [a member of the] Kanaka Maoli diaspora, to help pluralize the canon and articulate a more enriched understanding of architecture that is not limited by a Eurocentric legacy." 6In 2020, Connelly and Leong partnered to establish Hawai'i Non-Linear (HNL), a nonprofit collaborative that seeks to "empower Indigenous futures in the built environment" through architectural education. 7 Learning from Lē'ahi's moniker was emblazoned across the...

Convergence and Entanglement: Reconsidering the Mongol Architectural Narrative

Abstract Among nearly four hundred buildings that survive from the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), or the period of Mongolian rule in China, less than 1 percent have features that sharply distinguish them from the rest. Five of these are a pagoda, a mosque, an observatory, a mausoleum, and a rock-carved site. Previous research has cited the pagoda, minaret, and observatory as evidence for the infiltration of foreign architecture into China during this period. This study reexamines those buildings, demonstrating that although they are so distinctive one might refer to them as anomalies, none includes features that were not already part of the long-established repertoire of Chinese building. This study turns to the processes of convergence and entanglement as both metaphor and methodological framework to help explain how these structures took form.

Militarized urbanism in the cold war era: The resettlement of the refugees in Khan Younis

The resettlement of Palestinian refugees is often studied through two distinct approaches: the first uses settler colonialism as an analytical framework to explore structural violence and Indigenous transfer, expressed through counterinsurgency and urbicide; the second investigates practices of care and governance and their representations within a universalized discourse of humanitarianism. This article introduces a new approach, exploring historical (post)colonial architectural narratives—rooted in international discourses of humanitarian relief and development aid—to interrogate the complex settler-colonial conditions and practices of Israel’s resettlement of refugees. Such narratives emphasis the materialization of resettlement, in which structural violence is culturally co-produced. The article focuses on the Khan Younis refugee resettlement project in the Gaza Strip (1983-1993), drawing on archival materials and in-depth interviews to offering ‘militarized urbanism’ as a novel description of the violence of resettlement. Situated at the junction between military technologies and cultural practices, ‘militarized urbanism’ represents the transformation of the geopolitics of colonial warfare to the colonization of the everyday, where urban and architectural knowledge are reshaped by security logics in the mediation of conflicting civilian and political agendas.

Earthly Matters, Earthy Visions: National Architecture Narratives and the Unexpected Culture of Norwegian Rammed Earth Houses

Abstract: This research paper shares the neglected story of rammed earth houses in Norway, with a focus on the past conditions that enabled its craft and emergence. Architectural representations in the country have been inexorably tied to craft traditions and localisms, framed as a marriage of natural materials and the built form; however, wood and stone occupy center stage of this material-oriented ethos. Very little attention is given to old rammed earth building techniques. Beyond tectonic considerations, the paper's aim is to document the value-tinged discourse around the making of rammed earth houses, or jordhus, built at the end of the nineteenth century, between 1920 and 1930, and during the post–World War II building boom. I examine and document the social circumstances and ideologies that caused Norwegian individuals to turn to—and away from—such a material. Based on Asbjørn Klepp's seminal "Jordhus i Norge," as well as Akershus Museum's little-known surveys, building projects in Østland, Vestland, and Sørland are the focus of this study of the social, cultural and technological histories embedded in rammed earth free-standing walls. Notions of sustainability and craft, of vernacular knowledge and home aesthetics are then utilized to qualify and weigh the significance of jordhus for present-day building narratives of Norway, thus shedding new light on established methods for the writing and telling of the country's architectural narratives: in the concluding section, I briefly comment on rammed earth's resurgence in the face of current climate concerns and describe a contemporary case study (Raab Jordhus, 2019) that shows the material's significance for future Norwegian architectural cultures.

Heritage and Rehabilitation Strategies for Confucian Courtyard Architecture: A Case Study in Liaocheng, China

During the past decades, many traditional vernacular buildings have been forced to be demolished or abandoned due to the accelerating trend of urbanisation in China, which has resulted in regional culture, historical memory, and architectural narratives being gradually lost. The contemporary development of courtyard-style architecture under the influence of Confucianism, an important architectural form that carries Chinese culture, remains unclear. To preserve these vernacular buildings and local culture, this paper traces the historical value of courtyard houses. Through a case study, the effectiveness of local courtyard-style building rehabilitation in Shandong is assessed, and key components, building materials, and construction techniques corresponding to Confucian cultural connotations are examined, leading to a more comprehensive dialectical analysis of building rehabilitation. The results indicated that rehabilitation can be effective in preserving vernacular components and cultural narratives in the context of sustainable development strategies for traditional buildings. Moreover, by identifying and evaluating the sense of place and rehabilitation strategies of the architectural heritage, new perspectives are offered to the world of vernacular architectural practice, and existing knowledge of the architectural courtyard is expanded.

Reusing concrete panels from the industrial mass housing of the 1960s

A strong political strategy of demolishment is currently seen in the social housing sector from the 1960s and the early 1970s in Denmark. Architecture and building technology of that period are based on industrial mass production of concrete panels. The ideas behind the current demolition strategies are to overcome social problems by erasing housing blocks and replace them with new housing types and new functions. In this processs, even architectural heritage is demolished and the neighborhoods transformed into so-called mixed areas. Valuable building materials and a great number of excellent flats are downcycled into banal gravel. In contrast this paper will provide considerations concerning the question of reusing concrete panels in future architectural construction in Denmark. The paper clarifies potentials and barriers for reusing concrete panels in Denmark. It is the ambition to develop a more environmentally friendly thinking concerning the transformations of the neighborhoods towards more responsible housing areas. It is argued that if more environmental regards were taken, concrete panels can be reused as building materials in their second life and thereby as building components create both an architectural narrative of what was here, and at the same time apply for a more ecological use of already existing building materials. The paper forms a knowledge foundation to which further research regarding reuse of concrete panels can be developed in new architecture in Denmark.

Embodied Time: Applied and Incidental Architectural Narratives

In this analysis of storytelling through building, encompassing a search for practical applications for how future buildings can embrace the passing of time, narrativity has been categorised into: the ‘applied’ or ‘artificial’, meaning the construction of a directed story, identity or philosophy; and the ‘incidental’ or ‘organic’, the accidental erosion and patination caused by weathering and human use. In ‘Building Time’, David Leatherbarrow considers three groupings for his analysis of buildings inhabiting the temporal dimension. The ‘Time of the Project’, the alterations, adaptations and adjustments made to a building, can be considered a prototype for ‘applied’ narrativity, while his ‘Time of the World’ can be linked to the gathering of ‘incidental’ narrativity. Leatherbarrow’s third aspect, the ‘Time of the Body’, can be compared to the phenomenological aspects linking these categories together, directing human passage and activity through design cues and through the traces of those who have come before (Leatherbarrow, 2021). At times these categories overlap and intertwine with each other, mirroring the idea that in the communication of narrative the “the corporeal is not more fundamental than the intellectual, but… are entangled” (Austin, 2012: 108). In summary, the aim is for an architecture that may “articulate the experiences of our very existence” (Pallasmaa, 2009 :19). Therefore, as time passes and our experiences become history, we can still tell our stories through the medium of building. This methodology to create buildings with a high degree of ‘story-ness’ was later tested in the design of a new library and literary museum. Based in Nottingham’s Lace Market, the existing tale of County House, a derelict and crudely adapted Georgian townhouse, was clarified, curated and secured, while the adjacent plots provided opportunities to experiment with applied and incidental narratives told through new buildings.