Modernist Buildings Research Articles

NAKAGIN RESIDENTIAL TOWER IN TOKYO, JAPAN: A FUTURISTIC ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT OF THE MID-20TH CENTURY AND REALITY

The work is devoted to a retrospective analysis of the historical and social conditions of the construction, existence and dismantling of the futuristic Nakagin capsule tower. The Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1970-1972 in central Tokyo by architect Kisho Kurokawa and was similar to the modernist building of the Shizuoka Press Center by architect Kenzo Tange. Both buildings appeared as a practical illustration of the concept of architectural metabolism, that is, the possibility of giving architecture the ability of living organisms to grow and renew themselves, adapting to the external environment. Initially, the building was intended for a hotel, but finally it received a mixed function of temporary and permanent accommodation. The structure of the tower consisted of a stationary reinforced concrete vertical core, on which residential capsules were suspended with the possibility of replacement. However, in reality, the Nakagin tower was unable to adapt to changing external conditions. During 50 years of operation, the capsules were never replaced, as the owners could not replace them at once, and the individual replacement was technically difficult. This led to the complete deterioration of the Nakagin Tower and its dismantling in 2022. Attempts to reconstruct the object did not receive adequate attention and sufficient funding. During the dismantling of the building, the public association of Nakagin Capsule Tower Preservation and Restoration Project managed to remove 23 capsules for their further repair with the aim of turning them into separate art objects and exhibition pavilions. Thus, it can be stated that the futuristic idea of the Nakagin residential tower, which was far ahead of its time during construction, did not stand the test of reality. Despite this, this project in many ways laid the foundations of modern concepts of dynamic architecture.

Seismic Assessment of a Modernist Building in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Seismic Assessment of a Modernist Building in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS BUILT BEHIND THE STATE INDUSTRY BUILDING (DERZHPROM) IN THE LATE 1920S AND EARLY 1930S: BLOCKS EAST OF NAUKY AVENUE

The article is devoted to residential buildings built in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the metropolitan Kharkiv, in the area behind the State Industry Building (Derzhprom) east of Nauky Avenue. The design andconstruction of these residential neighbourhoods, which took place between 1926 and the late 1930s and had their peculiarities and diversity, are not sufficiently covered in scientific works and require a dedicated study. The preservation, documentation, and restoration of modernist buildings and complexes in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Kharkiv region, require the creation of a periodisation and systematisation of buildings belonging to this glorious period of architectural development. Residential districts created in the 1920s and 1930s in Soviet Ukraine, particularly in the metropolitan Kharkiv, are objects of cultural and historical value subject to documentation and analysis. The tendency to highlight the most outstanding examples leaves out the contextual buildings, which formed the basis of the development of the residential area behind Derzhprom and created a coherent architectural and temporal background of the urban landscape of the new administrative centre of the metropolitan Kharkiv. Meanwhile, the contextual buildings created an architectural setting for more famous examples, such as the Slovo House. When studying the scientific works of Kharkiv architecture researchers, one can pay attention to the coverage of residential blocks to the west of Nauky Avenue, an area with a radial-ring structure, and the almost complete absence of research on residential blocks in the part of the district to the east of the avenue. This fact is quite unfortunate, as the architectural landscape of the blocks in this part of the residential area is notable in its spatial, functional, and stylistic structure. In addition, these blocks are rich in ‘red’ residential buildings, raised in the second half of the 1920s in various cities of Soviet Ukraine, which became a kind of visiting card of life in the Soviet Union then. Keywords: Kharkiv, Derzhprom, residential buildings, Chervonyi Donets, Slovo, KofOk, Chervonyi brodylnyk.

White buildings, Red Dust: Brasilia in Ektachrome Colour

Brasília’s red dust is everywhere. Regularly tinting the white surfaces of Brasília’s modernist buildings red, a great effort of human labor is required every day to maintain their intended autonomy. Dust clouds first appeared in February 1957 due to massive earthworks and the clearing of the original landscape. While large tractors and caterpillars aggressively manipulated the ground following the forms of Lucio Costa’s Pilot Plan, a formless entropic dispersal of red soil microparticles filled the air. As the floating dust spread over Brasília’s construction site, it also filled the printed pages of newspapers and magazines. This article intends to discuss how dust tainted the representation of Brasília. As modernist architecture confronted the landscape, dust introduced a distortion in the pure image of Brasília, threatening not only the whiteness of the upcoming architectures but also contaminating drawings, cameras, lenses, printed photographs, clothes and lungs. While most of the architectural black and white photos of Brasília tended to produce clean images, the introduction of the newest color film Ektachrome by photojournalists made earthworks and dust visible. Associated with grainy reproduction in illustrated magazines and speckles of dust in the negatives themselves, the images enhanced the perception of Brasília’s total environmental design. If dust is, according to Richard Meyer, “an environment in miniature, a physical archive of our material surroundings,” this article analyzes how these fine particles of solid matter and their accidental reproduction, operated as visual dissonances that confuse the modern distinction between nature and culture. Cover image: Mário Fontenelle, Clearing, c.a. 1958, Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal

Ideological and Local Influences on the Urban Area in SSR Moldova (1944–1990)

This article analyzed the post-World War Two reconstruction of the public spaces that had been devastated during the conflict. Mostly focused on the Chisinau urban area, we examined the ways in which the communist ideology and the socialist-modernist school of thinking influenced the reconstruction process. It has often been postulated that the main trait of the new political regime was the discrimination against the old conservative society by means of secularization and dismantling of the sacred. In the aftermath of the war, this trend was relatively limited, whereas during the Khruschev’s ”thaw”, it significantly gained momentum. As an example, the statue of Stephen the Great, representative for the Moldavian national spirit, was brought back to Chisinau, but the central positions had been already reserved for two symbols of the communist regime: the statue of Lenin and the Victory Square. During the 1970s and 1980s, other monuments representative for the party ideology and discourse continued to be unveiled, one such example being the equestrian statue of Gr. Kotovski. Except for
 the statues of Lenin, Marx and Engels, most of the communist additions to the public space in Chisinau still stand to this day. It was there that the first celebration of the victory over Nazi Germany occurred, in 1965. Ten years later, a majestic memorial complex honoring the same event was to be inaugurated. In line with this, most of the non-metropolitan towns or villages, no matter how marginal, erected a statue of a soldier or at least a commemorative plaque in memory of those who lost their lives against their will. The urban plan itself was altered without any consideration to the street outlines that appeared in the plans of A. Șciusev. This practice was pursued in parallel with a demolition campaign in which the old town buildings and narrow alleyways, influenced by the Oriental style, were pulled down. The top position in the list of monuments that were lost at the time is occupied by the St. Ilie church. However, a section of the pre-war Chisinau, along the upper central boulevard, survived. It consisted of original or reconstructed imperial Russian and interwar Romanian buildings. A change in style occurred during the 1970s and 1980s, when the downtown area witnessed the addition of modernist buildings, tightly clustered and in obvious conflict with the spirit of the old town. In addition to that, their functionality was disproportionate to the role of the small republic. It was after the independence that the process of urban space degradation gained momentum, and some neglected buildings were lost. Meanwhile, some other buildings went through the validation process without any consideration to their contextual harmony. Planned with very little concern for artistic and architectural value, these new additions contribute to the already eclectic and highly inharmonious spirit of the city.

Understanding Heritage of Early Modernist Sanatorium Architecture: Salutogenic Design, Healing Effects of Nature, Memory, and Impact on the Spirit of Place

Patrimonialization of the 20th century modernist heritage has been gaining pace in recent decades. Modernist buildings of different typologies are being viewed and analyzed as heritage embodying the ideas and spirit of time of the modern movement. Healthcare facilities, including sanatorium buildings, are not an exception. However, understanding this recent heritage raises numerous complexities and contradictions, such as space vs/and particular place, international, universal vs/and local, personal memories vs/and collective memories, local place-related memories vs/and non-local memories. This article aims to contribute to the comprehensive understanding and interpretation of early modernist tuberculosis sanatoria buildings as cultural heritage by demonstrating valuable aspects of early modernist sanatoria architecture and their preservation and continuity pathways via memory and place and their interconnections.

Modernist heritage and memory politics in Spain: shifting values for the adaptive reuse of Seville’s former police headquarters

The political significance of modernist heritage architecture continues to be an unsolved question, particularly its identification and conservation. In Spain, the chronology of modernism stretches through the whole of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship. The passing of legislation on memory politics in Spain (i.e. the 2007 Law of Historical Memory and the 2022 Law of Democratic Memory) offers a unique opportunity to address this unsolved question by discussing two uncharted heritage debates: namely, the motivations for the heritagisation of modernist architecture in Spain and the challenges in the adaptive reuse of modernist buildings with controversial histories. The former police headquarters in Seville exemplifies the complexities of both debates and to what extent conflicting views about heritage architecture may determine debates about its reuse. Through a documentary review of the heritagisation of Seville’s former police headquarters, a discourse analysis of intervention proposals and press articles and interviews with relevant stakeholders, this study explored how the rise of memory politics in Spain has changed the interpretation of the former police headquarters’ significance in the last two decades and influenced the choices for its adaptive reuse.

Rukurato Hall, Banyoro, Uganda and the Great Hall, KNUST, Ghana

This article presents two modernist building case studies, one each from East and West Africa which explore approaches to modernist public building conservation. The Rukurato Hall in East Africa, formerly used as a regional assembly hall for the Bunyoro Kingdom in Uganda, is now used as the parliament building of the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom.The Great Hall in West Africa at the Kumasi University of Science and Technology (KNUST) serves as an institutional hall; it is a monument of academic and cultural significance in Kumasi. This article delves into the historical evolution of the Great Hall, which has hosted numerous essential events, ranging from local academic gatherings to distinguished international conferences since 1967. The Great Hall’s rich heritage and architectural prominence have been subject to various interventions aimed at conserving its essence. The examination of these interventions in maintaining the integrity of the building while adapting to the changing needs of the university underscores the delicate balance required between modernization and safeguarding cultural and architectural legacies.Both case studies present contrasting views on the challenges of conservation in the African context, resulting in different conservation efforts. In the case of the Rukurato Hall, arguable the loss of function for a significant period, before reinstatement in the late 1990s and challenges of funding have greatly influenced the ability to realize conservation ambitions. In the Great Hall, whilst conservation funds were secured, and the conservation effort was successful, the use of the Hall has been ‘controlled’ and various actions have arguably tested the authenticity of the conservation process transforming the building aesthetic in the process. This article employs methods of document analysis, archival research, and interviews with key stakeholders.

Reflective Façades: Revisiting a Neglected Trait of Modernism in Contemporary Architecture with New Implications and Significance

Reflection and transparency are two valuable properties associated with the use of glass as an architectural material. While proponents of modernism favored transparency over reflection, whether in its physical or conceptual implications, to justify the designs of façades of Modernist buildings and in architectural criticism, contemporary architects are revisiting the neglected trait of ‘reflection’. Taking advantage of the technological advances in glass and other materials that have taken reflection to new limits, they are able to design reflective façades, providing new implications and significance. This paper aims to fill the theoretical gap that arises from the different conceptual ideas of using reflective façades. It will also explore the implications intended by architects to be perceived by viewers, thereby facilitating the future use of these façades in a way that satisfies architects and attracts beholders. The research methodology employed thematic analysis of various experiences of the use of reflective façades in different buildings with diverse functions and locations. The vocabulary used by architects and their intended implications were analyzed, coded, and categorized under three main themes: ‘Aesthetics of Disappearance’, ‘Games of Optical Illusions’, and ‘Mystery and Arousing Curiosity’.

The coloniality of Italian fascist architecture

This article traces the modern history of the Piazza di Porta Capena in Rome. It begins with the design of a modernist building for the square by the architects Ridolfi and Cafiero in 1938 created to celebrate the empire of fascist Italy. The building was intended to host the Ministry of the Colonies and to be flanked by an ancient stele looted from Aksum in Ethiopia. With the shift to a new world order after 1945, the building was completed to serve as the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. As part of Italy's belated commitment to reparations for colonial crimes, the stele was dismantled and reinstalled in Aksum in 2008. The void thus created in the piazza was filled by a new monument, this time a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attack in New York in 2001. Through the lens of the ‘coloniality of architecture', this article explores the changing aesthetics of the square, uncovering a history of shared rationalities between Italian fascist colonialism and its afterlife, as forms of government of ‘others'. By investigating the pìazza’s architectural configurations, it assists the re-orientation of narratives around the history of Italian fascist architecture.

Concrete on Campus: Material Values of Late Modern Campus Buildings

Abstract: Late modern concrete buildings that were a cornerstone of post–World War II university expansion in Australia are reaching a point where they require conservation, adaptation or replacement. Material perspectives reveal the entanglement of cultural and environmental values in managing the legacy of this building stock. The University of Queensland St. Lucia campus is taken as a case study to examine this entanglement. At UQ, the cultural heritage values of its modernist buildings are not well understood or acknowledged through existing heritage legislation. At the same time, the decarbonization agenda presents compelling reasons to keep and maintain buildings, particularly concrete ones with high embodied energy, despite the challenges presented by carbonation to the longevity of reinforced concrete as a material. In this article we explore how a material view both advances and complicates understanding of the UQ campus environment, alongside the potential for new digital tools to integrate qualitative and quantitative data and give agency to the university as an ecological custodian of its environment. Through analysis of a selection of 1960s and 1970s exposed concrete buildings, we explore how material values change the imperatives of built environment custodianship, and how energetics is changing our understanding of architectural materials such as concrete.

“Reconstructionism”: A Strategy to Improve Outdated Attempts of Modernist Post-War Planning?

Recently, Germany has seen a series of inner-city projects that tend to reconstruct pre-war buildings or ensembles lost in the Second World War after demolishing earlier attempts to redefine the place in which they had been located with the means of modernist architecture. While those modernist buildings are often seen as “eyesores” by ordinary citizens advocating their demolition, the newer reconstructionist projects are criticized heavily by architects and planners not only because they often bring along revisionist political attitudes but also lack a profound examination of the achievements of their predecessors and do without the creative possibilities new designs may offer. The article discusses the trend in its historical context starting in the early 1980s and flourishing after the German reunification by presenting four major types of reconstructionism and related case studies, and debates that accompany them. This allows an interpretation of the current trend and places it in the wider German debates about post-modern planning and urban design. It shows that beyond the most prominent examples of reconstructionism such as the reconstructed Frauenkirche church in Dresden and the Palace in the center of Berlin, there are certain parameters that loosely determine the trend. The article ends with recommendations for the ongoing debates on future reconstructions of bombed cities.

Gio Ponti and Villa Namazee: (De)listed Modern Heritage

This article studies the architectural design and cultural significance of Villa Namazee, a modernist building designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti in Tehran. The study explores how the building, once a symbol of modernity and progress, has been neglected, delisted from the national heritage, and fallen into disrepair. Focusing primarily on the case of Villa Namazee in Tehran, Iran, as an example of Ponti’s projects in the Middle Eastern context, the second part of this paper aims to reconsider and re-narrate Gio Ponti’s project in Tehran. In this context, the article sheds light on the nationally and internationally prominent concepts, ideas, collaborations, and design elements of Gio Ponti’s project in Tehran. The paper argues for reevaluating our understanding of heritage and recognizing the importance of preserving modern architectural masterpieces such as Villa Namazee.

Form and function of archaeal genomes.

A key maxim in modernist architecture is that 'form follows function'. While modernist buildings are hopefully the product of intelligent design, the architectures of chromosomes have been sculpted by the forces of evolution over many thousands of generations. In the following, I will describe recent advances in our understanding of chromosome architecture in the archaeal domain of life. Although much remains to be learned about the mechanistic details of archaeal chromosome organization, some general principles have emerged. At the 10-100 kb level, archaeal chromosomes have a conserved local organization reminiscent of bacterial genomes. In contrast, lineage-specific innovations appear to have imposed distinct large-scale architectural features. The ultimate functions of genomes are to store and to express genetic information. Gene expression profiles have been shown to influence chromosome architecture, thus their form follows function. However, local changes to chromosome conformation can also influence gene expression and therefore, in these instances, function follows form.

The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985

The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985

TEKİRDAĞ’DA MODERNİZM İLE KARŞILAŞMALAR: MİMARLIK, BETON VE HARABE

Arapçada “eski yapı”, “yıkılmış, yıkılmaya yüz tutmuş yapı veya kent, yıkı”, Latincede ise “düşmek”
 anlamına gelen ve ruere’den türetilen harabe (ruin), Rönesans’tan günümüze dek süblim, estetik, nostalji ve
 yeni anlamlar üretme potansiyelleri bağlamında birçok düşünür tarafından ele alınmıştır. Modern harabe,
 Sotomayor’un deyimiyle malzemenin değişim ve yok oluşuna tanıklık eden aktif bir katılımcıyı da yapının
 yaşlanma ve ayrışmasına (material decomposition) dahil eden, zamanın askıya alındığı bir süreç yaratır.
 Bu makale ise modernite ve harabe arasındaki ilişkilere değinerek bu ilişkileri Tekirdağ-Marmara Ereğlisi
 karayolu üzerinde yer alan ve modernist dilleriyle ön plana çıkan, günümüzde ayakta kalabilmeyi başarmış
 dört adet betonarme yapı üzerinden irdeler: 1960 ve 1980’li yıllarda inşa edilen Başak Sigorta Eğitim ve
 Dinlenme Tesisleri, Şeker Sigorta Tesisleri, Güneş Sigorta Eğitim Tesisleri ve Bağkur Dinlenme Tesisleri.
 2000’li yıllardan itibaren sahipleri tarafından atıl durumda bırakılan, yok olmaya karşı direnen ya da işlev
 değiştirerek ayakta kalan bu yapılar, kıyı peyzajı içinde; yalın yerleşim planları, cephe düzenleri, piloti ve
 rölyefleri ile izleyiciyi sahille ilişki kurmaktan çok çevrelerinden belirgin bir biçimde ayrımlaşma yaratır
 ve “hem yapı olarak, hem de bir harabe olarak” var olmaya başlar. Böylelikle “her daim hayatta kaldıkları
 izlenimi” yaratan bu modernist yapılar, beton ve harabenin çelişkisini gündeme getirir.

THE ROLE OF UNIQUE STRUCTURES ABROAD IN MODERN URBAN PLANNING

This article examines the formation of the direction of modernism in foreign urban planning, the influence of this style on European and Asian urban planning that originated in Western countries. Also in this article, the relevance and unique style of unique modernist buildings in our days will be considered.

Lo efímero es arquitectura

The tinglado number 2 was built in 1911 as part of a set of 6 buildings, closed still lifes with a steel structure that were used to store the merchandise that arrived at the port; Modernist building with a patrimonial and strategic interest for the city, after years of neglect the firm RELLAM has carried out an ephemeral, elegant and consistent intervention that allows this work to be used by all as an articulating square of views and actions between the sea and the city awaiting the final restoration.

Spatial Chaos as a Result of War Damage and Post-War Transformations. Example of the Small Town of Węgorzewo

World War II’s military activities and the post-war devastation period destroyed many European cities and towns. One of the areas that was struck the most was former East Prussia, currently located in Poland and the Kaliningrad Region (the Russian Federation). In addition to the destruction of cities, which are strategically and economically important, small towns have also suffered. An example of such a town is Węgorzewo, where the scale of destruction of the pre-war urban tissue exceeded 80%, and the old town’s built-up area practically ceased to exist. This town magnifies most of the processes and spatial problems characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe’s towns of the “metamorphic” type. Post-war zoning during the Polish People’s Republic period, in the spirit of constructing a socialist town and bypassing the original spatial arrangement, brought about irreversible changes in the urban tissue. This was reflected in the break with the town’s original layout and the creation of modernist buildings. The changes were solidified or even deepened during the economic and political transition of the 1990s in Poland. Today, decades after the end of World War II, despite taking corrective measures, the town is still facing the problem of spatial chaos. Its morphological and physiognomic manifestations in the lack of a central public space, the loss of its historic character, the disharmonization of the urban landscape, and the dispersed development are the main subjects of this article’s analysis. This study uses a diverse methodological apparatus consisting of an analysis of the town’s morphological transformations, an analysis of the physiognomy of the urban landscape and architecture, in situ studies, and an analysis of municipal documents and expert interviews. In the discussion, the study results are embedded in the context of the cases of other European cities and towns. The conclusions indicate the risks to the formation of spatial order in Węgorzewo and possible paths of action.

Haunted houses

This exposition uncovers the thought process behind and around the artworks Haunted Houses and Cold Readings. I focus my research on the two modernist buildings of E1027 and Villa Müller and the architects behind them. Through the production of these works I have been concerned with how narratives about these houses have been constructed and re-told – and how these narratives have changed as they have been 'rehearsed'. I have applied the methodology of rehearsal to my process in order to outline how historical writings and archival research can be used with the aim of finding alternative outcomes to what has already been written and said.