Architectural Theory Research Articles

Anti-assimilationist landscape: Becoming illegible as queer resistance to state power

Through a study of two queer contemporary photographers working with landscape imagery, the author proposes a theory of anti-assimilationist landscape: a politicized rejection of the conventions of landscape imagery and the repressive systems of land ownership, gender and nation-building it sustains. Collier Schorr and David Benjamin Sherry make landscape images in places with histories of gendered settler-colonial and white supremacist violence. The essay argues that their works function as both an interpretation of those sites and a queer reclamation of them, enacting a political ecology of difference that can allow for a politics outside of the liberal humanist notion of nationhood and the fascist notion of ‘blood and soil’. Arguing for its applicability to landscape architecture theory and practice, the author contrasts this anti-assimilationist mode with the turn-of-the-millennium concept of ‘eco-revelation’, proposing instead a queer aesthetics of obscuring and the potential of ‘becoming illegible’ as an environmentalist practice.

Alternate Architectural Subjects: An Apple Tree That Lived on Long Island

AbstractExploring how the human became a troublesome concept, Sylvia Lavin, Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University, takes us to Long Island, where a house was rearranged by an unlikely inhabitant – an apple tree. While trees have typically served to reflect and reinforce idealised definitions of the human, the architecture made for this tree shortly after the Second World War suggests instead how interspecies relations were already pointing towards architecture beyond humanity.

Храмовая архитектура в контексте теоэстетики: междисциплинарный подход

The article provides a critical analysis and systematization of approaches to the study of temple architecture within the framework of interdisciplinary research that comprehends classical philosophical and religious approaches, as well as research at the intersection of sociology, cultural studies, aesthetics, psychology and architectural theory. Theoaesthetics is used as a philosophical basis, i.e. the temple as an aesthetic object is interpreted as the source and the habitation of all created perfection, which allows the “thing of beauty” to coincide with the truth of art and the truth of creation, manifesting itself in various phenomena – everyday life, culture, psychology, politics. The authors conclude that the beauty of the temple resists narrowing down to a symbolic series. On the one hand, the correlative nature of art history and religious studies approaches based on hermeneutics are shown (Understanding Architectural Studies by Stepan Vaneyan, The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture by Lindsay Jones, Hierophany by Mircea Eliade, the approaches of Henri Cobin, Ivan Davydov, Sharif Shukurov), and, on the other hand, the limitations of these approaches are shown in terms of criticism of the scientific method. Interdisciplinary research is represented by the architectural ontology of Mark Savchenko, the concept of Andrei Zabiyako, the research done by modern anthropologists such as Oscar Verkaaik, Mattijs van de Port, Markha Valenta, evolutionary psychologists Yannik Joye, Jan Verpooten. In these studies, the function of religious architecture is designated as overcoming and restructuring the symbolic structures that subordinate religious behavior and thinking of people. Scientists distinguish three modes of Christian temple architecture: (1) the material mode, where the temple is presented as a monument (Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, Jan Assmann, Aleida Assmann, Alois Riegl developed tools for comparing memory and history); (2) the semiological mode, presenting architecture as communication (Umberto Eco, Yuri Lotman); (3) the functional mode (Henri Lefebvre, Bert Daelemans). Communication theories are presented by Oleg Davydov and John Zizioulas, who apply the image of the “communion of the Holy Trinity” to the interpretation of the image of the temple. Representatives of ecotheology believe that temple architecture is inseparable from the environment (Evgenii Arinin, Sigurd Bergmann, Roald E. Kristiansen). After combining the results of various social and human sciences, entering the field of interdisciplinary research transformed the “meanings of temple architecture” into the process of “human creation of sacred spaces”. Theoaesthetics made it possible to not detach the understanding of meanings from the theological content in which they were created, as well as to expand disciplinary boundaries, without losing the perception of the temple as a manifestation of “God’s glory”, as a complementarity of narratives and explanations telling about the infinite splendor of God.

A Posthuman Architectural Artificial Intelligence Speculum? Text and Images in Future Spaces

AbstractThe long‐term research project Posthuman AIchitectural Speculations is a collaboration between Alberto Fernández González and Mark Garcia, both of whom are lecturers at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and PhD candidates on the Architecture and Digital Theory programme there. Here they investigate how well artificial intelligence can help develop posthuman architectures and the symbiotic relationship between language and AI as a way of speculating about spatial futures.

On the Posthuman Charm of Slime and Mould

AbstractSlime moulds have no central nervous system and are single‐ cell organisms, yet they can build communities of themselves to create complex, food‐foraging cooperative networks. They are even known to solve mazes in search of something to eat. Mario Carpo, Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, explains the unique position of slime moulds in recent complexity and emergence studies.

Exploration of Ideological and Political Education Reform in Architectural Design Theory Courses: A Case Study of the Principles of Landscape Architecture Design Course

Exploration of Ideological and Political Education Reform in Architectural Design Theory Courses: A Case Study of the Principles of Landscape Architecture Design Course

The Importance of Monitoring Non-clonal Chromosome Aberrations (NCCAs) in Cancer Research.

Cytogenetic analysis has traditionally focused on the clonal chromosome aberrations, or CCAs, and considered the large number of diverse non-clonal chromosome aberrations, or NCCAs, as insignificant noise. Our decade-long karyotype evolutionary studies have unexpectedly demonstrated otherwise. Not only the baseline of NCCAs is associated with fuzzy inheritance, but the frequencies of NCCAs can also be used to reliably measure genome or chromosome instability (CIN). According to the Genome Architecture Theory, CIN is the common driver of cancer evolution that can unify diverse molecular mechanisms, and genome chaos, including chromothripsis, chromoanagenesis, and polypoidal giant nuclear and micronuclear clusters, and various sizes of chromosome fragmentations, including extrachromosomal DNA, represent some extreme forms of NCCAs that play a key role in the macroevolutionary transition. In this chapter, the rationale, definition, brief history, and current status of NCCA research in cancer are discussed in the context of two-phased cancer evolution and karyotype-coded system information. Finally, after briefly describing various types of NCCAs, we call for more research on NCCAs in future cytogenetics.

Mapping Urban Injustices in Public Space: Challenges and Opportunities

Over the past few decades, cities around the world radically and rapidly changed as regards scale, scope and complexity. This is mainly due to the increasing mobility of people, goods and information as a result of technological developments, liberalization of economic systems, economic fluctuations, wars, and climate change. These changes challenge the processes of production of built environment and create conflicts and contestations between different urban groups, who have contradicted claims on the decisions and processes influencing urban transformation.Such situation brought the discussions on just/unjust urban transformation processes in urban research, policy and public debates. It raised questions on privileging the interests of affluent urban groups, while disadvantaging vulnerable communities. We see public space as central in these debates, as possible facilitator of a more just process of urban transformation. Public space is able to embrace different political, economic and cultural manifestations of urban groups, which allow them to voice their rights on the city. Public space can also submit encounters and interactions between different urban actors and perform as a place of negotiation between them. Public space is potentially able to promote fair allocations of wealth, resources, benefits and opportunities. Also, public space pedagogy helps us to reframe methods of understanding (un)just urban morphologies in urban research, planning and architectural theory as well as praxis. This special issue will thus focus on the question how urban (in)justices can be mapped, and which challenges and opportunities may arise from different approaches to mapping. Intercontextuality as well as intersectional research which combines an analysis of different forms of injustices (such as racial, social, religious, national, ethnic, etc.) will be discussed, alongside more practical and case-study based mapping experiences.Different views on public space can provide us with ways of thinking to develop planning and design strategies, policy measures, civil initiatives, and social movements to oppose processes of unjust urban transformation. Yet, in the context of a rapid-shifting economic, political and social reality, it is more and more urgent for critical re-thinking of public space as facilitator of urban justice.

Non-Interiors

This text-based research essay, through the theory and practices of mapping, suggests a non-dichotomous conceptualisation of interiority. It offers to probe the potentials of ambiguities and multiple meanings of an interior rather than the traditional oppositions such as inside-outside, private-public, female-male invoked by the term interior. We argue that interiority is not a fixed entity but a continuously changing state through the relationships formed among the imagined, remembered, and lived spaces of a subject. Our research is centred around a study of filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Les Rendez-vous d'Anna, which traces filmmaker Anna's encounters with hotel rooms, stations, and trains as she travels through different cities to promote her film. Akerman’s film introduces interiors provoked by uncertain and unfamiliar modes of interiority by interrogating its habitation through the peculiar tactics of filmmaking and viewing. By mapping this filmic interiority, we argue for ‘non-interior’ as a critical and creative way of approaching an interior. Non-interior is not the opposite of interior, nor an in-between position of interior and exterior, yet is concerned with what is unknown, what is excluded, and what is unheeded. It aims to theorise and practise an uncertainty of the interior without assigning a single static definition. The research of a non-interior offers ambiguity, multiplicity, and uncertainty to an interior, allowing us to explore interiority within gradual shades of its materiality as a room, a threshold element, or a piece of furniture. Mapping came to the fore as a method of this research, which performs the filmic topography. It suggests an embodied practice of film viewing, including the authors’ analytical and emotional responses to the encountered representation of the interior. Mapping enables us to explore the potential of filmic representation to blur the presumed definitions and conventional boundaries of the concept of the interior. By mapping filmic interiors, we reveal ambiguous states of the interiors we encountered in the film and multiply their layers of uncertainty. These mapped uncertainties allow the interior to be questioned and the non-interior to be produced. In particular, non-interior draws on the non-dichotomous approaches in art and architecture such as Robert Smithson's ‘non-site’, Pascal Bonitzer’s ‘de-framing’ or ‘off-screen’, and Rosalind Krauss's ‘expanded field’ to explore ambiguity as a critical tool in order to understand the uncertainty of an interior. Mapping of non-interiors proposes architectural theory and representation that consists of fragmented, subjective, situated, and embodied knowledge of interiors.

ANALISIS PERANCANGAN ARSITEKTUR ENTERPRISE DINAS PETERNAKAN MENGGUNAKAN TOGAF ADM 9.2 (STUDI KASUS: FUNGSI VAKSINASI HEWAN PADA DINAS PETERNAKAN BANDUNG BARAT)

This study analyzes and plans an enterprise architecture for the animal vaccination function at the Department of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry of West Bandung Regency. Animal vaccination is a crucial step in maintaining health and protecting animal populations from diseases. The author employs the TOGAF ADM (The Open Group Architecture Framework - Architecture Development Method) approach to analyze the animal vaccination process and identify necessary improvements. The vaccination steps, workflow, and responsibilities of various stakeholders are evaluated using the TOGAF ADM. Stages such as defining business architecture, data, applications, and information technology are applied in this analysis. The current information technology infrastructure is also analyzed to identify the suitable needs of the enterprise architecture. The results are expected to provide recommendations for improving the animal vaccination process at the Department of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry of West Bandung Regency. With an enterprise architecture based on TOGAF ADM, it is anticipated that the efficiency of animal vaccination implementation can be enhanced. These recommendations can serve as a guide for similar institutions in optimizing the animal vaccination process. In other words, this research bridges the theory of enterprise architecture with practical applications in the context of animal vaccination, yielding potential solutions to enhance process efficiency and effectiveness.

Middle leaders' identity–practice framings: A site‐ontological view of identity in and as practice

AbstractThis paper presents an examination of identity in and as practice as it relates to a group of educational practitioners known as middle leaders. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures as a site‐ontological approach for conceptualising educational leading, the paper considers an individual's identity as being informed by, and accomplished amidst, the sayings, doings and relatings of practice. Although theorising the connections between identity and practice is not new, a central argument presented is that identity occurs at the nexus of the individual and social practices. Data are drawn from an empirical study of the practices of nine middle leaders responsible for facilitating a district‐wide initiative aiming to improve literacy pedagogy in their particular primary schools. Thematic analysis of semi‐structured interviews with the middle leaders revealed 11 identity–practice framings which evolve over time and space, negotiated in response to site‐based conditions. Findings contribute to understandings about the dynamic multifaceted nature of middle leaders' identities.

To the project of architectural theory

The existence of a general architectural theory is seriously doubted by most researchers. Based on the assumption that the modern stage of architecture development requires the construction of a workable theory, the article considers the process of creating a theory similar to the creation of an architectural project. It is shown that the axiomatic basis of the theory is similar to the foundation of a building. The complex of specific methods of analysis and synthesis in the theory is considered as an analogue of building materials and details in an architectural project. The connection of the building to infrastructure networks is analogous to the harmonisation of the approaches of the designed theory with modern general scientific concepts and paradigms. Shaping of the theory in the form of vivid visual images is similar to the design of facades with cladding and building cosmetics. It is shown that the foundation of architectural theory was laid in the late Middle Ages and retains its relevance and topicality. The other elements of the designed architectural theory need to be developed.

Architectural theory and practice

A practice is an activity that fulfils the tasks given by the administration or ordered for money. Such practice (design activity) does not need the theory of architecture. Architects-designers ignore it for a reason. The well-known paradox “there is nothing more practical than a good theory”, however, can be applied in the field of architecture. The idea of fundamental independence of theory and practice in architecture (and not only) is justified by the fact that it is impossible to know in advance how theoretical ideas will affect practice. The value of theoretical ideas is not diminished by the fact that they are not currently applied in practice and have no economic effect.

Form and content

About a hundred years ago, a period of unprecedented flourishing and multiplication of theoretical models, which treated architecture from a variety of positions, began. The poetic whims of modern and the laconic volumes of modernism, the irony of postmodernism, the paradoxical games of structuralists, the mathematical formulas of parametricism, and many other attempts to use theories adopted from other sciences show that one cannot do without theory. Does architecture have its own set of methods for analysing and synthesising meanings (which, in fact, forms a science separate from other sciences)? Or is architectural theory a disorderly mishmash of contradictory approaches, methods, individual insights and incomprehensible white spots? In this block, we have collected several examples of contemporary theoretical analysis and attempts to realise the state of architectural theory in general. As usual, we have more questions than answers.

Theories and practice

Does a theory of architecture exist? If so, what does it involve? Researching and analysing what has already been implemented? Refining methods and matrices based on practice? In other words, is the theory secondary?
 The debate about this has been going on for many years and even centuries. But today, in the age of robots and computers, the question of architectural theory takes on a new meaning. As the development of technology accelerates all practical processes – from design approval to the construction of objects in material, when million cities appear on an empty place in five years, and single buildings – in a fortnight, the practice of architecture more closely resembles a cross-country race. One can assume that the practitioner behind the wheel is increasingly in need of a theorist, a navigator who follows the road on a map and charts the course of the journey. Or do the theories in this race follow the findings and insights of the practitioners?
 In this issue of the journal, we have collected several contemporary views on architectural theory. These views are heterogeneous and often do not agree with each other. The map on which the route of architectural development is travelled is pieced together from scraps, sketches and fragments of accurate but outdated plans and outlines. But we have no other map, and we will have to improve the theory and its connection with the practice right on the move.
 It is noteworthy that the news section also touches upon the theme of the issue: it opens with the jubilee exhibitions of Maria Nashchokina, a well-known theoretician and historian of architecture, and Andrey Bokov, a prominent practitioner and theorist.

Architecture as a response to the challenges of modernity

Consideration of the evolution of architecture of the 20-21st centuries through the prism of the world global crises allows us to feel the influence of economic and political cataclysms on the formation of modern architectural theory and practice. Being a kind of mirror, architecture reflects all the current problems that worry and excite the society, so architects have always been deeply involved in crisis problems and have sought to find ways out of them by means of the architectural profession. Each global crisis of the past and present centuries became a turning point in the development of architecture and urban planning, forming new stylistic, conceptual and theoretical trends of modernism, postmodernism and panmodernism. The concept of “panmodernism” indicates the universal nature of modernism, covering all the diversity of architectural mainstreams that arise as a response of architects to the crisis problems of modernity.

Initiatives supporting student retention in early childhood teacher education qualifications

This paper describes a case study using quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate student engagement and retention within an online early childhood teacher education program at a regional Australian university. Two key interventions, the identification and support of disengaged students and the Embedded Tutors Program are described and examined. Initial findings on these retention initiatives, developed to support Early Childhood Education undergraduates studying in the online environment, are presented. Additionally, discussion of the findings through the theory of practice architectures highlights the practices and institutional arrangements that create the conditions to support student retention. This study is significant in planning for Early Childhood Education workforce quality and supply. It may offer guidance to institutions for their retention practices with early childhood teacher undergraduates studying in the online environment.

Új klasszicizálás vagy „másik modern”? Az átmenet narratívája Kotsis Iván városépítészetében és Balaton-parti munkásságában

The tendencies in 20th century architecture were determined by the relationship between the classical tradition of architecture and modernity. In the 1930s, modern architecture came to the fore more and more, but at the same time, both in international architecture and in Hungary, alternative efforts appeared that sought a dialogue between modern architecture, historical traditions and local specificities. This search for an alternative was present in modern architecture throughout the 20th century and is still effective today. The trends with different colors are characterized by the modern concept of the other in the written history of architectural theory. The purpose of this study is to present the interactions between the international and domestic tendencies of the “other modern” through the work of Iván Kotsis. Iván Kotsis was a significant figure in architecture between the two world wars, and in addition to his creative career, he was also a decisive character in the architectural education of the University of Applied Sciences. His views became guidelines for later generations. His work is illustrative to the transition between historicizing and modern architecture, while experimentation with local, regional character was also a decisive inspiration for him in this transition. He established close international relations with the dominant European architects of the era, including the Stuttgart School, classified as an alternative school, and the German architects Paul Schmitthenner and Paul Bonatz. In order to bring a contribution to the field of the history of architectural ideas, the study examines his creative concepts and the relationship between classical and modern architecture on the basis of his autobiography, archival publications and contemporary literature.

ON THE QUESTION OF DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF ‘ARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPE OF THE CITY’

The article highlights the problem of the absence of a holistic concept that could fully characterise the city. The idea of studying the city as a whole organism is not new. However, urban theories usually reveal one or several aspects, and the rest remain neglected. We used the historical-genetic and systematic methods of research and considered a few city-planning and urbanistic theories in development, showing which aspects of city life they illuminate and which remain undefined. So, we analysed the chronology of stages of the development of urban planning and drew a parallel with the sequence of the emergence of architecture, urban-planning, and urban theories. Theories demonstrating the evolution of theoretical thought from the twentieth century to the present are considered to determine the problems. Therefore, the research begins with the emergence of the concept of ‘garden city’ by E. Howard, includes the study of the formation of the concepts of districts and neighbourhoods, then the change in the concept of urban planning to urbanism, the invention of the concept of the urban environment by Glazychev, and ends with modern research on this issue. The analysis of the existing theories showed that all the proposed ones do not have a comprehensive overview and study one or several aspects without taking into account others. We identified seven core aspects of the architectural landscape of the city: geological-geographical, historical-cultural, semantic, functional, scenario, phenomenological, and social. The concept of architectural landscape combines all the listed above aspects of the study of the city. We are considering that the combination of the main aspects will avoid incompleteness and fragmentation of its understanding and will allow us to see and develop a comprehension of the life of the urban organism. Therefore, this article proposes to introduce a new concept of the architectural landscape of the city that, by forming a holistic view, would help to fill in the blank spots in modern urban theory. Keywords: theory of architecture, urbanism, theory of urban planning, architectural landscape, urban environment.

Jigsaw as a curriculum strategy to enhance pre-service teachers’ understanding of economics calculations

Background: Economics is a discipline that ought to explain the world and its complexities, a social science that studies human behaviour and decision-making. Both learners and aspiring pre-service teachers (PST) who want to teach economics education view economics as complex. Pre-service teachers lack the necessary mathematical skills and feel intimidated by the quantitative nature of economics. As a result, they struggle to understand and apply economic concepts and to teach effectively. Hence, there is a need to learn new actionable approaches and strategies in teaching and learning in the economics classroom.Aim: The study aims to explore the use of Jigsaw puzzle games as a curriculum strategy (CS) to augment PSTs’ understanding of teaching calculations in the economics classroom.Setting: The study looks at economics calculations through the lens of architecture theory. the study takes place on campus in the economics lecturer room where pre-service teachers attend economics classes.Methods: The study explored the discussions including the observations of six PSTs using a qualitative approach. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyse data.Results: Findings revealed that participants found the Jigsaw extremely insightful and interesting. They were further amazed by its ability to ignite critical and deep thinking to arrive at the right solution.Conclusion: The study concludes that introducing Jigsaw as a CS for PSTs can significantly improve their ability to teach calculations and concepts in economics effectively and actively.Contribution: The study has implications on how PSTs can engage in gamification while learning and demystifying the power of complexity in economic calculations.