History Of Modern Architecture Research Articles

Irkutsk regionalism as a trend of Soviet modernism

The article investigates the monuments of Irkutsk Soviet modernism and early postmodernism in order to reveal their identity and peculiarities, to determine the significance of these structures for the specific urban environment of the Eastern Siberian capital, as well as for the history of modern architecture as a research discipline. The research involved a review of bibliographic sources, a full-scale survey of objects belonging to the mentioned periods, and in-person interviews with the architects of the buildings under study and other Irkutsk citizens. Along with attracting interest to the urgent problems of cultural significance, objective assessment, and modern appearance of the heritage of the second half of the 20th century, the authors clarified the chronological framework of the main stages in the development of the modern city and provided a scientific definition of the Irkutsk regionalism term. As a result, it was established that the response to the challenges of the late Soviet years became a recognizable architectural segment, which, although rapturing the fabric of historical urban environment, reassembles it for functional aspiration for the future. The Irkutsk architecture, having an industrial beginning, has nevertheless remained authorial, and even uncompromising in the doctrines of Vladimir A. Pavlov and his followers, who supported his initiatives in the following era of postmodernism.

Designing deaf spaces: education, hygiene, and citizenship in nineteenth-century France

ABSTRACT This article examines the changing architectural environments of deaf education in the nineteenth century, taking the national institutes in Paris and Bordeaux as its main focus. Founded in the late eighteenth century and initially housed in government-expropriated properties, both schools underwent comprehensive renovation and reconstruction projects in the nineteenth century to emerge as modern educational spaces. Although these projects remain overlooked in the history of modern architecture, they were closely tied to contemporary discourses on education, hygiene, and citizenship. The renovation of the Paris Institute for Deaf-Mutes during the 1820s–30s engaged pressing questions about hygiene and social progress in the postrevolutionary era of national reconstruction. The architectural transformation of the Bordeaux Institute for Deaf-Mute Girls from the 1860s not only reflected the changing pedagogical focus from sign language to oralism; it was also imbricated in broader debates about laïcité and educational standardisation as France transitioned from empire to republic. Far from being marginal, these institutions functioned as key sites for working through notions of citizenship and national identity. Their histories reveal how architectural and material frameworks could serve to impose ideology on the one hand, and provide important grounds for the formation of a minority community on the other.

Theoretical formation in the field of critique: a critical reading of Chinese architectural anti-waste campaign in 1955

ABSTRACT This study appraises the ideological criticism that emerged in the Chinese architectural sphere during the anti-waste campaign of 1955, which marks a pivotal moment in the history of modern Chinese architecture. Within this timeframe, architects and architectural scholars such as Chen Gan, Shui Fengman, and Liu Dunzhen, respectively questioned, defended, and criticized Liang Sicheng’s architectural ideas. Their articles were published in prominent Chinese publications including People’s Daily, Wenyi Bao [Art News], Jianzhu Xuebao [Journal of Architecture], and Xin Jianshe [Journal of New Construction]. By delving deep into the conceptual framework and the logical structure of these long-neglected critique articles, this study unveils the intricate debates in Chinese architectural practice and theoretical concepts during the 1950s. The findings highlight that the ideological critique during the anti-waste campaign not only reflects the infiltration of politicized rhetoric into the architectural domain but also assumes a profound significance in terms of the early attempts of Chinese architects to re-evaluate architectural historiography through the lens of Marxist theory. This pivotal event laid the foundation for the gradual formation and consolidation of a series of discursive patterns within the Chinese architectural community, exerting a lasting influence on contemporary architectural discussions and writings in multifarious ways.

Research and Analysis of Modern Consulate Complexes --Taking Yantai Hill in Fuzhou City as an Example

Since the First Opium War, foreign forces have flooded into China, building a great variety of public buildings across China, and importing Western culture. As one of the representatives of the recent Western culture, the consulate building plays an important role in history. As the political, economic, and cultural center of Fujian Province, Fujian was introduced to many Western cultures as one of the five port cities after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. Foreigners set up all kinds of buildings and municipal facilities here, such as consulate buildings, customs, foreign firms, churches, hospitals, workshops, clubs, etc. Western architectural techniques and forms have collided and fused with the traditional architectural culture of Fuzhou, together constituting a diverse modern architectural history of Fuzhou. Taking the modern consulate building complex in Yantai Mountain of Fuzhou City as an example, through field research and literature arrangement and induction, we analyze the buildings of modern consulates, understand the historical evolution of consulate buildings in Fuzhou, the architectural form and the existing situation, excavate their characteristics and summarize them, to provide basic information for the study of modern architectural history in Fuzhou. The article concluded that the Western consulate architecture is characterized by the central axis symmetry, the characteristics of each country are obvious, while retaining part of the local characteristics, to achieve the fusion of Chinese and foreign.

Transformation of tradition in Kenzo Tange’s projects as a way of shaping contemporary Japanese architecture

This study explored the transformation of tradition in contemporary Japanese architecture, with a focus on Kenzo Tange’s works as a potential solution to the lack of national identity in modern urban spaces, particularly prevalent in post-socialist countries. Such homogenisation, as established by previous research, has negative implications for human psychology. The purpose of this study was to identify K. Tange’s creative approach to the use of tradition in the context of modernity. Ukrainian, Japanese, English, American, and other sources on the history of traditional and modern architecture in Japan, including the theoretical achievements of K. Tange himself and several sources on the architect’s works, were used in the study. A considerable amount of photographic material was also collected for the study. The paper described certain types of traditional religious architecture in Japan. The architecture of Shinto and Buddhism were considered as prototypes. Accordingly, the following objects of K. Tange were analysed: The Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, in comparison with the Ise Shrine Complex; Kurashiki Town Hall in comparison with the main pavilion of the Buddhist temple complex; the Kagawa Prefecture Government Office Building in Takamatsu in comparison with the Buddhist wooden pagoda. As a result, it was found that the transformation of tradition in K. Tange’s works can occur at four levels: the organisation of the master plan, the formation of the interior space of the building, the formation of its overall structure, and at the level of semantics. For each example of transformation, appropriate references were made to certain features of Japanese architecture or traditional Japanese worldview that were discovered during the study. In addition, an algorithm for introducing traditional features into modern architecture was presented, which, given the need to rebuild Ukrainian cities destroyed as of 2023, could help revive them while avoiding the architectural shortcomings of the past

Color in modern architecture of Olivetti's town

AbstractIvrea is a small city known throughout the world as the home of the Olivetti company. For many years, the innovative urban and architectural experiment inspired and supported by Adriano Olivetti, financed by his company for a large part of the twentieth century, was less well known internationally. His patronage and his far‐sighted vision for urban society have produced results of great relevance in the history of Italian industrialization and Modern Architecture. Since 2018, the architectural assets, the archives, cultural heritage and social experiments, have become part of the UNESCO Catalogue of World Heritage Sites (Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century). Today, many of these heritage buildings, characterized by external surfaces decorated with colored tiles of different types, have several conservation problems, due in many cases to the lack of ordinary maintenance. At the same time, the unavailability of original materials makes the planning of appropriate intervention solutions for maintenance and restoration difficult. This report intends to give an account of this event through two convergent approaches: (i) on the level of method, continually seeking a precise analysis of the materials, trying to refrain from the image of an ‘Olivetti's architecture’ flattened only on rationalist models—chromatically limited—to do justice to a less minimalist vision that has characterized the architectural heritage on matter since its inception; (ii) on the operative level, giving an account of the attempts to recover and restore that “world of colours” that is the Olivetti's city, also with a correct lexical reading of the architectural elements and the finding of materials (an operation declined toward “what can be done today”, given that many original products are unavailable and manufacturers are no longer in activity).

Classification of the qilou (arcade building) using a robust image processing framework based on the Faster R-CNN with ResNet50

ABSTRACT Qilou (arcade building) is a particular type of Chinese historical architecture combined with western and eastern building elements, which plays a significant role in the history of modern Chinese architecture. However, the recognition and classification of the qilou mainly rely on manual inspection, suppressing the cultural dissemination and protection of qilou relics. In this paper, we present a new framework that adopts multiple image processing algorithms and a deep learning network to automate qilou classification. First, image dataset of the qilou is enhanced based on the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) algorithm. Then, an improved Faster R-CNN with ResNet50 (Faster R-CNN-R) is deployed for qilou image recognition. A total of 760 images captured in Guangzhou were used for training, validation, and accuracy check of the proposed framework and several contrastive networks under the same conditions. Compared to other networks, the proposed framework works better than Faster R-CNN with VGG16 (Faster R-CNN-V) and FCOS. The accuracy of the proposed framework embedded with the Faster R-CNN-R, Faster R-CNN-V, and FCOS are 80.12%, 65.17%, and 66.35%, respectively. Based on digital images captured under different lighting conditions, the proposed framework can be used to classify nine different types of qilous, with high robustness.

Brown over Rietveld

In the post-war historiography of Dutch modern architecture, the monograph of Gerrit Rietveld written by the American architectural historian Theodore Morey Brown (1958) played a pioneering role. The Work of G. Rietveld, Architect was the first monograph of a by then already internationally renowned Dutch architect and since it was written in English it was also the only source of detailed information about Rietveld for an international readership. Brown was the first art historian in the Netherlands to write a dissertation on a living architect; as such, his book signalled the start of modern architectural history as practised by art historians. Yet despite the fact that it is almost impossible to overstate the significance of Brown’s study, the book remains until this day a curiosity. Why was the first scholarly work on Rietveld written by an American scholar and published in the English language? Who was Theodore Morey Brown and how did he end up at a Dutch university in the 1950s? This article examines the history of Brown’s book: its genesis from a research initiative by post-war Dutch professors of art history to the contents of the final book. It also discusses the international historiographical debate in which Brown participated. Brown’s book heralded a new era in the relationship between the art historian and the architect, one that was connected with the challenge to write contemporary history from an ideologically engaged attitude. As an ‘operative history’ Brown’s book was distinguished by its collaborative nature. While it was a book about a single architect written by a single historian, in the background there was a ‘team Rietveld’ consisting of, among others, the historian Pieter Singelenberg and the designer Truus Schröder-Schräder, who were vital to its creation. Only with the help of these people could the work of Rietveld be made accessible to a foreign scholar who, upon arrival in the Netherlands, did not speak the Dutch language. This article argues that Brown’s book was important not only for the historiography on Rietveld. The book also had an institutional significance as it ushered in the study of modern architectural history by art historians in the Netherlands.

Review: The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. II: Architecture, Topography and Military Maps

Review: <i>The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. II: Architecture, Topography and Military Maps</i>

William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult by Amandeep Kaur Mann

Reviewed by: William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult by Amandeep Kaur Mann Zachary R. Schwarze amandeep kaur mann. William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult. London and New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. 264. In William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult, Amandeep Kaur Mann identifies and analyzes occult influences upon the work of British architect William Lethaby (1857–1931). More precisely, Mann is interested in visual symbols of occult origin which populate Lethaby's oeuvre and, according to the architect, communicate profound truths about the cosmos. Among her goals is to show that these influences are not irrational or otherwise foolish quirks of the architect's mind, but rather constitute proof that Lethaby, along with a number of other architects and artists from fin de siècle Europe, worked within a sphere of profound occult influence. That is to say, occult symbols do not decorate Lethaby's drawings and realized structures, but instead inform at the most fundamental level what an architectural space is meant to do, i.e., affect spiritual transformation within a person inhabiting [End Page 472] that space. In crafting her methodological approach, Mann mirrors Lethaby's semiotic/allegorical mode of selecting symbols: if Lethaby selected symbols based on intrinsic, occult meanings or properties, then Mann's task is to identify those meanings and properties to understand the functions of individual compositions and structures. The book is divided into three parts. The first, titled "Lethaby, Occultism and Symbolism," situates Lethaby within the occultist milieu of fin de siècle Europe, particularly that of Victorian Britain. Here, Mann identifies the Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Éliphas Lévi as ideological influences. Lévi appears to be particularly significant, as the author inserts a scanned page of one of Lethaby's notebooks where he draws one of Lévi's magic squares and writes iterations of the word "abracadabra" (20). This section also lays out theoretical frameworks used by the author to interpret Lethaby's use of symbols. These include: semiotic theory, with particular attention to Carl Jung and Charles Sanders Pierce; a theory of magical symbols concerned not only with semiotic meaning, but also with tangible outcomes associated with the reproduction of certain symbols; and finally Victorian psychological associationism, as represented by John Ruskin and Wilhelm Worringer, which is concerned with a universal set of symbols and colors that evoke particular responses and may be learned and manipulated (26–33). The second and longest part of the book, titled "Elements of the Occult in Lethaby's Work," deals with identifying particular symbols which appear in Lethaby's oeuvre and tracing their meanings back to sources either encountered by or available to the architect. Mann separates symbols into two categories, alchemical and occult magical. Lethaby's use of alchemical symbols is predicated on the principle that people should not be passive observers of architectural space, but rather participate in it. His alchemical preoccupation is correspondingly concerned with journey and transformation. As an example, the author adduces references to the journey and transformation of the character Poliphilo in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili—which Lethaby read (45)—as a direct inspiration for the frontispiece he designed for the 1889 Architectural Association Sketchbook (59). The other category of symbols, the occult magical, communicates more general "esoteric" meanings (91). The author draws examples of symbols of this category from Lethaby's drawing A Beryl Shrine (1888). Here, Mann interprets the serpent, a principal symbol in the composition, to represent "man's lower, material nature," (101) as evidenced by direct influence from Dante Gabriel Rosetti's poem Rose Mary (1871–1881). The final part of the book, titled "The Occult and Lethaby's Legacy," uses William Lethaby's work to argue for occult ideas, themselves dating back to [End Page 473] at least Europe's medieval period, as fundamental to the history of modern architecture. Here, the author capitalizes on the breadth of examples to show that Lethaby, like other artists and architects of his time, did not develop occultist ideologies in a vacuum, but rather in direct connection to his sociocultural surround. Mann shows how Lethaby, as a predecessor to architects, artists, and designers of the mid-twentieth century, exerted influence...

Review: The Responsive Environment: Design, Aesthetics, and the Human in the 1970s

Review: <i>The Responsive Environment: Design, Aesthetics, and the Human in the 1970s</i>

Review: Air-Conditioning in Modern American Architecture, 1890–1970

Review: <i>Air-Conditioning in Modern American Architecture, 1890–1970</i>

Review: The Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture

Review: <i>The Routledge Companion to Women in Architecture</i>

Review: Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency

Review: <i>Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency</i>

The Modern Architecture of Arieh Sharon's Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile‐Ife, Nigeria

AbstractThe Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) campus in Nigeria is one of the identifiable modern heritage sites of Africa. It is significant to the history of tertiary education and the political history of Nigeria and especially to the global history of modern architecture as an exemplar of buildings shorn of ornamental colonial ostentation, emphasizing lightness and green vegetation and aspirational for the newly independent African states. Its manifestation is often labeled “tropical architecture”, interpreted as the adaptation of modern architecture to the tropical climate. This paper presents an argument for the importance of this work to Modern Heritage of Africa.

Writing in the Margins: Speaking of (Hi)stories in Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACT The use of oral history as a method to rewrite the history of modern architecture has intensified in recent years. This essay presents initial reflections of a research project on oral histories of architectural history, not architecture, through interviews with historians of architecture based in Australia and New Zealand, not architects. Acknowledging the contribution of users and clients in constructing new narratives of architecture, I argue that there is also value in recording the stories told by historians of architecture. Their firsthand experiences provide insight into the process of overcoming the geographical remoteness of the discipline in the region, with its intellectual uneasiness and institutional uncertainty. Globally, there are lessons to be learned by emerging scholars from the impact of migration and networks on their career progression. This essay aims to test the value and validity of the oral histories of historians of architecture, to not only better contextualise their own work, but also advance the discipline of the history of architecture through the telling of and listening to their stories. It aims to explore whether the principles and strengths, as well as the shortcomings, of oral history as a methodology in architectural research can be productive in its historiography.

Women in the Advancement of Avant-garde Culture: Galka E. Scheyer and the Promotion of Modern Architecture in California

The relocation of Galka Scheyer, the renowned art dealer and American representative of the Blue Four, to California in 1925 had a significant, yet unrecognized, impact on the development of the region’s early modern architecture. After multiple efforts to land commissions for Rudolph Schindler, her residence, designed by Richard Neutra and Gregory Ain, became a meeting place for artists and members of Hollywood’s collecting community. Around 1935, Scheyer’s unconventional house and gallery was both her trademark and a reflection of her own character as an art educator and facilitator. This paper explores the role Scheyer and some personalities of her closest art circles, particularly women, played in promoting modernist architecture. Influenced by Scheyer’s enthusiasm for the emancipatory nature of avant-garde culture, figures like Marjorie Eaton became intertwined in numerous episodes of architectural matronage. Although their stories are of paramount importance for achieving a more inclusive understanding of California modernism, these women’s contributions are frequently neglected in the canonical histories of modern architecture, in which Scheyer appears as an inopportune presence. Along with a critique of such inaccurate historiographical accounts, this essay focuses on Scheyer’s agency in linking artistic concepts and contexts as part of her project to advance Californian architecture.

Review: Modernity for the Masses: Antonio Bonet’s Dreams for Buenos Aires, by Ana María León

Review: <i>Modernity for the Masses: Antonio Bonet’s Dreams for Buenos Aires</i>, by Ana María León

Racialismo estructural en la teoría de la arquitectura moderna

Revisionist in the best possible way, this essay uncovers the racialist genealogies of modern architecture. Re-reading architectural history classics - including Quatremère de Quincy, Owen Jones, Viollet-le-Duc, Charles Garnier, Adolf Loos, or Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson - the author unravels a history of modern architecture intimately tied to the belief in the superiority of the Aryan or Germanic race. In their efforts to find a modern architecture - and in close contact with the rise of racial sciences of the nineteenth century - these authors laid the foundations of modernism on changing racial ideals, from the natural to the historical racialism and, ultimately, to its whitewashing through universalism.

Onsite/online: a case study approach pivots to virtual and back with new strategies learned

The course ‘Concepts in modern architecture’ is a hybrid between a lecture on the history of modern architecture and an interactive studio. Unlike traditional history courses that discuss many buildings per class, this one delves into a small, highly curated list of projects per session, allowing the students to develop a deep understanding of the architectural concepts used. As such, students form a critical eye to analyse buildings, and work on creative assignments that enforce and communicate these intentions. The course uses the author’s IDEA (interaction, define/draw/diagram, engage and assess) methodology as a case study approach. From this ‘learn by doing’ perspective, students emerge with knowledge that speaks to historical references while utilising their creativity and design skills to assess the works studied. The shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic forced this course to shift and evolve, as faculty educators in all disciplines had to rethink their teaching methods. Thus, the online and synchronous version of this course was reimagined in a different environment, using a combination of technological and pedagogical tools that resulted in a strong learning experience with new objectives that engaged the students. Following the adaptation of this course into the virtual sphere, and then back again to the physical classroom, the article reflects on and considers the lessons learned from the experience. There is now a strong virtual course that in the future can continue to reach a broader audience, while the in-person version, which meets regularly back in the studios, has incorporated new techniques that will continue long after the pandemic is over.