Historiography Of Modern Architecture Research Articles

Documentary collection of José Vial: Contributions to the study of the School of Architecture of Valparaíso

This article presents the work on the personal documentary collection of the architect José Vial Armstrong (1926-1983), part of the founding group of the School of Architecture of Valparaíso. This was based on identifying, reviewing, organizing, and classifying almost a thousand unpublished theoretical documents, providing new insights into his individual work and role within the group. Considering the proposal to revisit the sources of modern architecture, according to Panayotis Tournikiotis (2014), this article aims to demonstrate how the study of Vial's documentary collection would make the author visible in the historiography of modern architecture in Chile, as well as to understand the role of the architect within the School to which he belonged, and, therefore, to review new information about this institution.

Inhabiting the Atmosphere: The Architecture of the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium

Abstract Drawing on both archival research and recent scholarship, this article examines how medical thinking and a scientific understanding of the atmosphere shaped the design of the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, designed by Pfleghard & Haefeli from 1905 onward. While the sanatorium is noteworthy in terms of both its construction and its reception in the historiography of modern architecture, this study reassesses the rationale behind the design. Proposing an environmental cure, the institution did away with the idea of architecture as a protective wrapper, and instead presented the atmosphere itself as the primary realm for human habitation. This study thus situates the sanatorium in the atmosphere rather than in the landscape, even though the building appeared to grow from the ground. Conceived with the atmosphere as its proxy envelope, the sanatorium was designed to expose its patients to the celebrated air of Davos, praised for its purity and perfect stillness.

The Contested Nature of Modernity: “Type and Individuality” in the Deutscher Werkbund

The purpose of this paper is to contribute an inclusive insight into the debate of type (Typisierung) and individuality in the Deutscher Werkbund. The debate is widely discussed on the dichotomy between art and industry in the historiography of modern architecture. This paper aims to show that both camps of the debate wanted to constitute the synthesis of art and industry, but the methods that they used were different. This paper considers the debate as a referent of the contested nature of modernity. Modernity oscillates between the desire to give the modern world new modes of structure, order, regulation and to accept modernity with all complexities. This article claims that while the notion of type represents the former one, the notion of individuality represents the later one in the realm of architecture. This article unveiled the control mechanisms in the discourses of defenders of Typisierung. It found the concepts norm, organization, system, standardization, which were the reflections of the Enlightenment. On the other hand, it pointed out the reactions of the individualists against these discourses.

Latinoamérica en la historia de la Arquitectura Moderna

El presente artículo se propone analizar el lugar de Latinoamérica en la historiografía de la arquitectura moderna y su evolución a través del tiempo. Los pioneros historiadores que abordaron esta temática construyeron la idea de un movimiento de características universales, que partió en realidad de la consideración de un limitado sector geográfico. Pero progresivamente se hizo más difícil darle la espalda a esta región del mundo cuya arquitectura moderna comenzaba a destacar tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente. De manera selectiva e inexacta comenzó a inmiscuirse esta región en una producción historiográfica cuyo origen era principalmente europeo y norteamericano.El lugar de América Latina en estas historias creció de manera relevante, después de evidenciada la crisis de la arquitectura moderna como la habían concebido los pioneros. Desde el propio ámbito latinoamericano comenzó a desarrollarse una historiografía que se propuso comprender su arquitectura a partir de la consideración de las particularidades locales y en el ámbito internacional se realizaron revisiones de las historias oficiales que progresivamente fueron mitigando la sesgada mirada centro- periferia bajo la que se había considerado hasta entonces la arquitectura de la región.

Latinoamérica en la historia de la Arquitectura Moderna

<p>El presente artículo se propone analizar el lugar de Latinoamérica en la historiografía de la arquitectura moderna y su evolución a través del tiempo. Los pioneros historiadores que abordaron esta temática construyeron la idea de un movimiento de características universales, que partió en realidad de la consideración de un limitado sector geográfico. Pero progresivamente se hizo más difícil darle la espalda a esta región del mundo cuya arquitectura moderna comenzaba a destacar tanto cualitativa como cuantitativamente. De manera selectiva e inexacta comenzó a inmiscuirse esta región en una producción historiográfica cuyo origen era principalmente europeo y norteamericano.</p><p>El lugar de América Latina en estas historias creció de manera relevante, después de evidenciada la crisis de la arquitectura moderna como la habían concebido los pioneros. Desde el propio ámbito latinoamericano comenzó a desarrollarse una historiografía que se propuso comprender su arquitectura a partir de la consideración de las particularidades locales y en el ámbito internacional se realizaron revisiones de las historias oficiales que progresivamente fueron mitigando la sesgada mirada centro- periferia bajo la que se había considerado hasta entonces la arquitectura de la región.</p>

A Tale of Inconsistency: The Absence and Presence of Australia in the Historiography of Modern Architecture

This essay addresses the following question: How has Australia been portrayed in the historiography of modern architecture? From the early twentieth to the twenty-first century, from Henry-Russell Hitchcock to Jean-Louis Cohen, the presence of Australia in histories of modern architecture is inconsistent, with intermittent periods of absence. The historians’ choices of modern buildings and architects in Australia are similarly inconsistent. This essay investigates the different editions and expansions of the histories of modern architecture with a focus on those published after 1957, the year of the competition for the Sydney Opera House designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. Just as the different buildings and architects are relevant for the argument of this essay, it is necessary to discuss the differences in the historians’ own first-hand experience in Australia, as well as their inconsistent use of limited sources. It is precisely this inconsistency in references, both built and written, that gives an idea of the lack of connection between the general historiography of modern architecture and the research that has been undertaken in Australia on the history of the country’s modern architecture since 1984.

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.

The Historiography of Modern Architecture: Twenty-Five Years Later

Why reopen Panayotis Tournikiotis’ The Historiography of Modern Architecture? What for? There are two basic reasons for which Tournikiotis’ study is still a useful research tool after 25 years: first, for the historians he covers, it provides the reader with interesting references for further study; and, second, for the study of history and how it is written. In his last chapter, Tournikiotis tries to point out the lessons offered by his discussion on the histories. He emphasizes repeatedly how each history presents modern architecture and how each one tries to design the architecture of the present or even the future. Does this hold true for historiography as well? Is this book, as a discussion on nine different histories, projecting what historiography should be in the future? What is Tournikiotis’ real proposal? The aim of this study is to present how several authors have revisited the history and historiography of modern architecture after Tournikiotis’ dissertation (defended in 1988), especially after its publication in English in 1999. This essay has two main objectives: first, to reconsider the impact of Tournikiotis’ Historiography on further studies of the matter; and, second, to provide a bibliography, as complete as possible. The Historiography of Modern Architecture is a perfect manual for initiating students in the study of the histories of modern architecture. To try to ‘complete’ it, discussing what has been written since, seems like a small addition to what should be considered as a compulsory starting point for every study of architectural historiography.

근대건축의 역사 서술에 대한 비판적 검토

This study is on historiography of Modern Architecture since its beginning to present. As a critical review of the history of the writing history of Modern Architecture, this study tends to be a meta-history and criticism of historical text. This study try to analyse historiographical project of Modern architecture at specific phase since the beginning of modern architecture. The historiography of Modern architecture shows that writing a history is making a discourse of Modern architecture as a imaginative representation to define and justify Modernism in architecture. The analysis of canonic text since early 20th century proves that the history of writing history of Modern architecture played a critical role not only to shape of our ideal but the practice of architecture with a ideology construction in retrospect. With a name of truth or morality they made myths about the modernity in architecture. So we can find deep `Hagelean Unconscious` in writing history of Modern architecture not even the first generation of historians but the second generation who were influenced by earlier writer in spite of their intention of revision and overcoming, which is in itself the key concept of Hegel`s philosophy of History. Under this kind of `operative` discourse our view point of Modern architecture were confined and the historiography of Modern architecture itself was narrowly defined as a kind of melodrama that a few architect and work of art matters. The rise of critical history fundamentally has changed the way of seeing and writing the history of Modern architecture. but it has also a new kind of dilemma as regard to writing history and involving practice. This review of historiography traces the texts of historians as like Pevsner, Giedion, Banham, Rowe, Tafuri, Frampton, and Curtis relating to different discours making. When we consider Benjamin`s famous concept of constellation, writing history necessarily is a kind of montage making in time and we always need to recognize the historicity of historiography.

Iron, Engineering and Architectural History in Crisis: Following the Case of the River Dee Bridge Disaster, 1847

This paper establishes relations—historical, material and evidential connections—between two responses to a ‘crisis’. The first features in the history of industrialised iron construction, specifically period reporting on the spectacular collapse of the River Dee bridge in Cheshire, England, in 1847. The second response highlights a blind spot in the historiography of modern architecture. Robert Stephenson became suspect when his cast- and wrought-iron railway bridge across the River Dee failed, resulting in death and injury and continuing uncertainty as to its cause. At the time the incident sparked national furore, setting off a coroner’s inquest followed by a Royal Commission into the perilous state of Britain’s bridges. The inquest jury concluded no one was to blame; rather, it was an accident brought about by use of iron, an uncertain and “treacherous” metal. This explanation has failed to satisfy contemporary materials specialists who have reopened the case, albeit under different terms of reference. The paper examines the initial verdict, firstly, in view of aspects of the social context of evidence and proof prevailing at the inquest and, secondly, given historical writing on iron construction whereby the inquest’s seemingly imprecise and arbitrary judgment is taken as sign of the subsequent progress of engineering as a practical and moral science. This paper adopts the leitmotif of ‘crisis’ to highlight a parallel history that challenges progressivist narratives of industrialised iron construction and modernist architecture. It invites reflection on the provenance and unstable forms of agency associated with engineering as a propositional and socially contingent enterprise.

Review: The Historiography of Modern Architecture by Panayotis Tournikiotis

Review: The Historiography of Modern Architecture by Panayotis Tournikiotis

Harry Mallgrave. Review of "The Historiography of Modern Architecture" by Panayotis Tournikiotis.

Harry Mallgrave. Review of "The Historiography of Modern Architecture" by Panayotis Tournikiotis.