Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2019-04-11"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 22
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- An action towards Humanization. Doorn manifesto in a transnational perspectivePublication . Charitonidou, MariannaIn 1957, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, in “Continuità o Crisi?”, published in Casabella Continuità, considered history as a process, highlighting that history can be understood as being either in a condition of continuity or in a condition of crisis “accordingly as one wishes to emphasize either permanence or emergency”. A year earlier, Le Corbusier in a diagram he sent to the tenth CIAM at Dubrovnik, he called attention to a turning point within the circle of the CIAM, maintaining that after 1956 its dominant approach had been characterised by a reorientation of the interest towards what he called “action towards humanisation”. The paper examines whether this humanising process is part of a crisis or an evolution, on the one hand, and compares the directions that were taken regarding architecture’s humanisation project within a transnational network, on the other hand. An important instance regarding this reorientation of architecture’s epistemology was the First International Conference on Proportion in the Arts at the IX Triennale di Milano in 1951, where Le Corbusier presented his Modulor and Sigfried Giedion, Matila Ghyka, Pier Luigi Nervi, Andreas Speiser and Bruno Zevi intervened among others. The debates that took place during this conference epitomise the attraction of architecture’s dominant discourse to humanisation ideals. In a different context, the Doorn manifesto (1954), signed by the architects Peter Smithson, John Voelcker, Jaap Bakema, Aldo van Eyck and Daniel van Ginkel and the economist Hans Hovens-Greve and embraced by the younger generation, is interpreted as a climax of this generalised tendency to “humanise” architectural discourse and to overcome the rejection of the rigidness of the modernist ideals. This paper presents how the debates regarding the Doorn manifesto evolved in the pages of the following journals: The Architectural Review, Architectural Design, Casabella Continuità, Arquitectura, L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui and Forum. An aspect that is closely investigated is that of which epistemological tools coming from other disciplines - philosophy, sociology, anthropology and so on - are more dominant in each of these architectural journals. The fact that each of these journals is closely connected to a specific national context - U.K., Italy, Portugal, France and Holland respectively - offers the opportunity to discern to what disciplines architecture was attracted within these different contexts during its effort to “humanise” its discourse and conceptual tools.
- The Italian debate after the ‘retreat’Publication . BONFANTE, FRANCESCA; PALLINI, CRISTINAThe ‘Italian retreat from modern architecture’ sanctioned by R. Banham (1959), led into the different lines of inquiry undertaken by Italian architects in the Sixties and Seventies, opening the way to mutual exchange between urban studies, planning and design. This articulated debate remains largely overlooked, perhaps because many statements circulated in Italian through handouts, pamphlets and transcripts. Nevertheless, the mutual influence between varied theoretical positions deserves due consideration, partly because this was a period of transition from the major problems of post-war reconstruction to the new demands brought about by the metropolitan dimension acquired by North-Italian cities, facing a new wave of industrialisation and related migratory movements. This paper discusses key factors, and figures, which fed the Italian architectural debate at this crucial stage, with a focus on the contribution made by the School of Architecture of Milano.
- REVISITING POST-CIAM GENERATION. Debates, proposals and intellectual frameworkPublication . Pedroso Correia, Nuno; MAIA, Maria Helena; Figueiredo, RuteProceedings of the International Conference REVISITING POST-CIAM GENERATION. Debates, proposals and intellectual framework. In August 1956, Jose Luis Sert opened the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Modeme (ClAM 10), held in Dubrovnik, by reading the well-known message of Le Corbusier in which he justified his absence by claiming the existence of a generational tension. Indeed, the doctrinarian values of modernism - such as functionalism, scientific progress, and rational social planning - that once drove the congress were challenged by a group of young architects and resulted in the emergence of new perspectives. Yet, this "generation" was far beyond from being a homogeneous group both in conceptual chronological and geographical terms. In Portugal, immediately after that moment, the magazine Arquitectura completely redefined its editorial structure, starting a new edition in early 1957. Gathering a young group of architects, art historians, and critics of art and cinema, this magazine furthered the questions launched at ClAM, thus debating the duties and role of the critic, and scrutinizing the "strong relation" (Vieira de Almeida, 2012) between theory, criticism, history and architectural design. Some of the actors and the narratives they shaped in this moment of change are widely known in architectural studies. However, the distinct manner of intellectual appropriation and critical reception of this debate in a transnational perspective is a matter that should be reexamined. How was the debate reabsorbed by architectural criticism in different geographical areas? What was its actual impact on the mechanisms of mediation as well as on the profile of the agents of criticism? This conference intended to address these questions. The aim was to examine, in a comparative view, the ways in which the same debate was received, discussed and disseminated in different regions, on one hand; and to understand how this moment contributed to a rethinking of the relation between architectural practice and critical production, on the other. We selected papers that offer new insights on the topic by exploring themes such as: the circulation of ideas and the contribution of different regions to the 1960s and 1970s architectural culture; the relation between architecture and political engagement; the interaction between theoretical-critical production and architectural design; the mechanisms and strategies of dissemination, journals, books, manifestos, movies, documentaries, etc.); the introduction of concepts from other fields of knowledge and the inclusion of social sciences in architecture writing; the critical analyses of the historiography produced on the period. Texts: BANDEIRINHA, José António – Three buttons on the sleeves. United States 1960 and Távora’s strangeness, p. 15-27; JANNIÈRE, Hélène –1964. French criticism and its discontents: à propos of a special issue of L’Architecture d’Aujourd'hui, p. 28; MORAVÁNSZKY, Ákos – “Pro and Contra CIAM”: Modernism and its Discontents, p. 29-38; TOSTÕES, Ana – Rebels with a cause. Aldo van Eyck and Pancho Guedes, how to find a meaning for the act of built, p. 39-52; BONFANTE, Francesca; PALLINI, Cristina – The Italian debate after the ‘retreat’, p. 55-67; CHARITONIDOU, Marianna – An action towards Humanization. Doorn manifesto in a transnational perspective, p. 68-86; DELGADO PÁEZ, Fernando – A variable in Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s single-storey houses, p. 87-102; ESTEBAN-MALUENDA, Ana; GIL DONOSO, Eva; TEJERO, Elena – ‘Sesiones de Crítica de Arquitectura’. The change in architectural debate in the Spain of the 1960s, p. 103-119; FERNANDES, Eduardo – The tectonic shift in Fernando Távora’s work in the Post-CIAM years, p. 120-134; FLORES, Joaquim Moura – The Barredo’s urban renewal study – The third way in Portuguese historic cities urban conservation, p. 135-148; GALJER, Jasna – Radical or not at all? Architectural criticism as a vehicle of CIAM and Team 10 networking in socialist Yugoslavia, p. 149-166; GRIECO, Lorenzo – Breaking Barriers. Giancarlo De Carlo from CIAM to ILAUD, p. 167-180; KOROLIJA, Aleksa – Back to Monumentality. Modernisation and Memorialisation in Post-war Yugoslavia, p. 181-195; KOURNIATI, Marilena – Team 10 The ‘Youngers’ or the construction of ‘another’ avant-garde, p. 196; LOPES DIAS, Tiago– Debating Modern Architecture. A brief account of the Iberian Peninsula circa 1967, p. 197-212; MERINO DEL RÍO, Rebeca – Forum’ Architectural journal as an educational and spreading media in the Netherlands. Influences on Herman Hertzberger, p. 213-231; MINCIACCHI, Lavinia Ann – From ‘Casabella’ to ‘Arquitectura’ – The Italian influence on Portuguese Post-CIAM debate, p. 232-250; NUNES, Jorge – Early years. Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas´s first reflections on the Metropolis, p. 251-268; ORTIZ DOS SANTOS, Daniela – Displacement and the Making of Modern Architecture – A South-South Perspective, p. 269-270; SAKKA, Anastasia – Ekistics, or the Science of human settlements, through the paradigm of the Master Plan of Islamabad, p. 271-286; SIEFERT, Rebecca – An American Think Tank with ‘Something too European About it’. Theory, Politics, and Feminism at the IAUS in New York, p. 287-299; SIGGE, Erik – Hereditary structures of influence. Generational succession and international exchange of the Swedish CIAM Group and beyond, p. 300-301; SILVA, João Almeida e – Learning from EVA - A history of homes that were advertising gifts, p. 302-303; SUNG, Yuchen Sharon – The typology of apartments in the new “Radiant City” in Taichung, Taiwan, p. 304; VELA CASTILLO, Jose – Y el Madrid, Qué, ¿Otra Vez Campeón de Europa? ¿No? /And Real Madrid Once Again European Champion, Right? Spanish architecture and CIAM debates from 1953 to 1959, p. 305-355
- Debating Modern Architecture. A brief account of the Iberian Peninsula circa 1967Publication . Lopes Dias, TiagoIn the 1960s, a group of Portuguese and Spanish architects began to meet on a regular basis. An informal structure based on a network of close contacts, not unlike the Team 10, this group met to discuss architectural theory and practice, to visit buildings, and also – or above all – to socialize and share ideas and experiences. Despite the casual nature of most of these meetings, they had considerable impact in the evolution of Portuguese architecture, leading to a series of encounters with prominent European architects and the publication of several articles in international journals, as the result of a strategy of editorial exchange promoted by some of the meetings’ participants. Concurrently, a number of architects and critics were invested in finding new tools and methods for thinking about architecture, and especially for debating and critiquing architecture. The present text provides an introduction to this context and explores the reciprocal influence that Spanish and Portuguese architects exerted on each other’s work, by focusing on the moment when two important milestones concur: the Iberian meeting taking place in Portugal, promoted by Nuno Portas, and the publication of a critical analysis of Álvaro Siza’s early works, written by Pedro Vieira de Almeida
- Back to Monumentality. Modernisation and Memorialisation in Post-war YugoslaviaPublication . KOROLIJA, ALEKSAOnly a few Yugoslav architects attended Post-War CIAMs, whose reception in Yugoslavia was rather lukewarm. This may perhaps suffice to question the role of Yugoslavia in the European and international architectural debate. However, to understand the importance acquired by memorials and monumental architecture in Yugoslavia, contrary to the Modernist orthodoxy, a series of historical events should come into focus. In Yugoslavia, architects internalized monuments as a specific design field, and monumentality as a quality to achieve. Along this line of thoughts, this paper ends by exploring the 1957 architectural design competition for the Jajinci Memorial in Belgrade, arguing that the architectural representation of state socialism, all but univocal, was actually defying stereotypes, and that the generation emerging in the decade 1950-1960 marked a true political, social and cultural watershed.
- An American Think Tank with ‘Something too European About it’. Theory, Politics, and Feminism at the IAUS in New YorkPublication . SIEFERT, RebeccaThis paper assesses the influence of the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) on Peter Eisenman’s Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS) in New York City. Founded in 1967, the Institute was a ‘think tank,’ a school, and a site for public discourse, criticized by Italian architectural historian Manfredo Tafuri for having ‘something too European about it.’ Tafuri’s statement serves as a foundation to analyze the IAUS’s complicated relationship to European modernism, by assessing some of the varied projects and groups associated with the Institute. Eisenman’s Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment (CASE), for example, began in the mid-1960s as a series of meetings on contemporary architectural concerns – in some ways an American counterpart to the earlier CIAM (although Eisenman had actually envisioned CASE as more of a ‘Team 10-like group’). Members of the IAUS were splintered in their positions on architecture’s responsibility to political, social, and aesthetic issues, which prompted the founding of ReVisions, a group formed within the auspices of the IAUS in 1981 that focused on architecture’s thorny relationship to political ideology. This paper addresses the neglected role of ReVisions and women members, topics which have been long neglected in the historiography of the IAUS. A study of the IAUS illustrates the complex influence of CIAM on the direction of architectural intellectualism in New York in the wake of 1968, which is instructive for engaged architects and intellectuals working in the United States today.
- From ‘Casabella’ to ‘Arquitectura’ – The Italian influence on Portuguese Post-CIAM debatePublication . MINCIACCHI, Lavinia AnnWith the number 57-58 of 1957, the magazine “Arquitectura” declares the beginning of a new phase. In a country at the edge of Europe, far from the debate on modern architecture and marked by a dictatorship that has limited its contact with the outside world, this magazine (founded in 1927 and led by the ICAT group until 1957) represented the main diffusion medium of ideas and international contributions to the debate on modern architecture in Portugal. At the same time, the magazine represented a selection and filter of what was spread from the outside within the country. On this basis, the proposal for the "REVISITING THE POST-CIAM GENERATION" symposium intends to investigate the influence that the Italian modern architecture, conveyed by the italian magazines (for ex. “Casabella”) through “Arquitectura”, has had on the Portuguese post CIAM debate. “Casabella”, which together with the contemporary “Domus” represented the main Italian magazine leading international debate of these years, was well known by the editorial group of the magazine “Arquitectura” and offered an interesting source for the development of articles concerning Italian architecture. Indeed, the diffusion of the Italian projects and critical articles dates back already from the 40s with the publications of the articles by Ernesto Nathan Rogers and the projects of Giuseppe Terragni. On the other hand, it will be necessary to wait until 1972 for Vittorio Gregotti to publish the works of Álvaro Siza Vieira for the first time, beginning a season of renewed interest in Portuguese architecture coinciding with the end of the dictatorship (see V. Gregotti, Architetture recenti di Álvaro Siza, in "Controspazio", 9, Sept. 1972, 22-39).
- Radical or not at all? Architectural criticism as a vehicle of CIAM and Team 10 networking in socialist YugoslaviaPublication . Galjer, JasnaThe paper focuses on multi-layered roles of criticism in mapping architectural discourse, particularly its main actors and modes. It will present the context of CIAM X held in Dubrovnik simultaneously as 8th General Assembly of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) took place there. The starting point is the political and ideological context in Yugoslavia during the 1950s and 1960s which provides an insight into the positioning the Croatian architecture and urban planning and/within/or Yugoslavian history as a key sign of the relationship between modernity and socialism. The proposed paper aims to clarify how political and cultural position of Yugoslavia “in-between” East and West determined connections of CIAM’s new generation around Team X with Yugoslav architects. The paper examines these ties through international institutional framework during the 1950s and 1960s, particular attention will be paid to critical reception and appropriation of new approaches. Special attention will be paid to the cultural transfer exemplified by the connections between architect Radovan Nikšić from Zagreb and the circle around Bakema and Van den Broek that resulted with appropriation of new structuralist approaches in local milieu. By close reading of characteristic examples, debates and networks the aim is to examine the changes which occurred in the political, economic and cultural structure of societal modernisation and to examine the shifts of meaning(s) and cultural values.
- Forum’ Architectural journal as an educational and spreading media in the Netherlands. Influences on Herman HertzbergerPublication . Merino Del Rio, RebecaIn the sixties, the journal Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden Kunsten becomes the media employed by the Dutch wing of Team 10 to lecture on and spread the new architectural theories developed after the dissolution of C.I.A.M. Aldo van Eyck and Jaap Bakema head the editorial board in between 1959 and 1967. The editorial approach gravitates towards the themes defended by these young architects in the last meetings of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture, accompanied by the analysis of works of architecture that, in the editorial board’s opinion, give a correct response to the epoch’s needs. Moreover, the permeability and cross-sectional nature of the content, bring the editors’ board closer to the European architectural, cultural and artistic avant-garde. Thus, it is appreciated that similar theoretical assumptions than the ones that gave support to the different revolts that happened in Paris, London and Amsterdam between 1966 and 1968 underlie in great part of the journal’s writings. Its content is aligned parallel to the revolutionary phenomenon, contributing to some degree to it. Herman Hertzberger, a young architect who worked for years as a part of the editorial board, was highly influenced by the contents of the journal. His later dedication to education as professor at Delft University of Technology, and his association with Dutch Structuralism as well, turn him a key figure to study, because of the determining role of Forum’s acquired knowledge in his future professional activity. The proposed study pretends, first, to accentuate the content of Forum voor Architectuur en Daarmee Verbonden journal where the approach to the avant-gardes is produced, reflecting on the impact it had on the imagery of Herman Hertzberger based on his diverse contributions to the journal. Furthermore, it is aimed to stress the role of the cross-sectional nature architectural magazines in the transmission and contribution to the cultural and artistic avant-garde in the Sixties.
- ‘Sesiones de Crítica de Arquitectura’. The change in architectural debate in the Spain of the 1960sPublication . ESTEBAN-MALUENDA, Ana; GIL DONOSO, Eva; TEJERO, ElenaThe journal Arquitectura was reissued in January 1959 as a mouthpiece of the Madrid Institute of Architects (COAM). This brought to an end the period of the Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, the journal which replaced it after the Civil War under the control of the Franco regime. Curiously, moving from one journal to another did not involve many changes in how it was managed, and it would remain for over a decade in the hands of Carlos de Miguel, its director since the late forties. Despite this ‘apparent’ continuity, the independence achieved from government bodies brought about important changes in focus, mechanisms and strategies of dissemination and architectural criticism. This paper aims to consider this shift in thinking, topics and agents by reviewing the ‘Sesiones de Crítica de Arquitectura’ (SCAs, Architecture Critic Sessions). These were regular meetings organized by Carlos de Miguel in which there were interactive debates about an issue, previously introduced by a speaker. The sessions started in 1951 and were held regularly all through the fifties. However, they were interrupted in the early sixties and later reorganized, but this time with significant differences with regard to the former period. The SCAs in the sixties were less frequent and included guest speakers with special expertise in the fields of design and social sciences. Urban conditions began to attract greater attention and, overall, disagreements and differences of approach and interests between the two generations who attended the meetings became evident: the older architects, who started the sessions as a discussion forum about tradition and modernity, and the younger ones, who called into question rational values of modernism defended by their masters and went for pursuing new perspectives in the development of architectural culture.
- «
- 1 (current)
- 2
- 3
- »