Dissertations / Theses on the topic '20th Century Architectural Heritage'

This thesis analyses the roles played by international, national, regional and local organisations and discourses in the heritage valorisation and conservation of modernist architecture – a process that has so far spanned some three decades. A leading role in this narrative has been played by international conservation organisations, which have acted as a unifying front for conservation advocacy and defined a conservation ideology that integrates the principles of both the modern movement and the conservation movement. Partly, this international emphasis has stemmed from the characteristics of the 20th century Modern Movement itself, including its strong strain of cosmopolitanism, as well as its still controversial reputation today at a local level. This initially gave the proselytising of modernist conservation a somewhat elite, trans-national character, exemplified by pioneering organisations such as DOCOMOMO. Yet the ‘internationalism’ of modernist conservation is only part of the story – for to establish this innovative new strand of heritage on a more entrenched basis, the familiar, more locally specific organisations and discourses that had supported previous phases of conservation growth were also increasingly applied to ‘MoMo’ heritage. This ‘on the ground’ involvement represented a convergence with more ‘traditional’ conservation practices, both in advocacy and campaigning, and in the research-led documentation required to document buildings’ significance and continued fitness for purpose. These geographically-specific forces operate at both a national level and also a regional or even local scale, as the thesis illustrates by the two national case studies of Great Britain and the United States of America. Although both countries shared numerous cultural similarities, especially the 19th century veneration of private property, the far more emphatic 20th century turn towards state interventionism in Britain led to a strong divergence regarding modernist heritage, both in the overall character of the modernist architecture built in the two countries (far more ‘capitalistic’ in the US) and in the approach to heritage conservation (more state-dominated in GB). In Great Britain, following on from the comprehensive post-WWII government ‘listing’ programme, the statutory heritage bodies – ‘regionally’ differentiated between England and Scotland - have maintained their leading role in the conservation of modern movement heritage through initiatives to identify buildings of significance, and powerful city planning authorities have provided co-ordinated enforcement. In the US, on the other hand, heritage protection has stayed faithful to its philanthropic roots and the onus of modern movement conservation is left to voluntary advocacy groups who then must campaign to have buildings protected piecemeal by local city or state preservation bodies.

The focus of this case study is the renewal of Vällingby Centre which took place between 2004 and 2008. With its scale, ambition and content, Vällingby represented something completely new in Swedish urban development when the town district came into being in the early 1950s. The community centre also had an important role to play, it not only had a commercial function it also had a social and cultural function. Despite the fact that community centres appeared in great numbers, few of them remain as they once were. Many have undergone major changes including alterations and, quite often rather careless intervention, both with regard to their interior and exterior. New shop types, consumption patterns and increasingly fierce competition are just some of the factors that have led to the original values contained within this area being on the verge of disappearing. The entire town of Vällingby was nominated in 1987 by the National Heritage Board as a clear and well preserved example of an ABC city with regard to it structure and the planning ideals of the 1950s. An expression of such conservation ambitions signifies, however, a potential conflict situation with other interested parties and areas of interest, not least when it comes to buildings and environments that are for commercial use. The main purpose of this study is to deal with the renewal of Vällingby centre from a cultural heritage perspective. The first chapter will provide a background as to why Vällingby came about and present a picture of post-war town planning and the emergence of Vällingby Centre; while the second chapter will examine the decision-making process behind the renewal, where Välingby's town centre regeneration offers an interesting example of how areas which are classed as being of national interest are dealt with during the planning process. Vällingby Centre is an example of one of our modern national interests and of the maintenance and conservation problems post-war developments are associated with. The central parts of the town are also associated with a largely unexplored field of study, despite the increased diversity conservation intentions have received over the past few decades.
QC 20120502

This thesis identifies the causes and the process of the change of the historic city center of Samsun since the beginning of the 20th century by the role of the development and conservation activities. Because of rapid urban growth and the lack of conservation principles in city plans, most of the city centers have been subjected to growth-conservation contradiction. As a result of this, the historic city centers lose their unique characteristics and cultural heritage while they change rapidly. The city of Samsun became an important trade and transport center since the middle of the 19th century and significantly improved in economic, physical and cultural aspects. As the tobacco production has developed, tobacco factory has been founded and the port of Samsun has become the most important port of the Black Sea by the middle of the 19th century, the Non-Muslim traders began to settle in Samsun. Hence, Samsun became an important center of the Black Sea region with its commercial activities and multicultural social structure. However, after the middle of the 20th century, as a result of the rapid urban growth, Samsun started to lose its unique urban tissue and cultural heritage increasingly. Today the urban fabric of the city does not reflect its historical importance. The remaining cultural heritage of the city belonging to early 20th century is not legible within today´
s urban tissue. By identifying the change in urban tissue, the thesis aims to present the current situation of the cultural properties within today´
s urban fabric and prepare a basis for conservation.

An investigation of architecturally significant buildings constructed within the last fifty years, in the Midwest and the application of preservation theories to these significant buildings, to aid in evaluation strategies and preservation implementation.Recognition of recent past construction as candidates for architecturally significant cultural resources and the application of preservation theories to these buildings make for good design and preservation practice. Part of our responsibility, as preservation professionals is to promote the preservation of significant structures, regardless of the date of construction. Since there is no established process to aid in preserving recently constructed buildings of architectural significance, it is necessary to develop strategies to assist in the evaluation process.
Department of Architecture

This thesis investigates how and why Sichuan courtyard dwellings evolved to adapt to changing social and cultural conditions from the 18th to the 20th century. Located in south-western China, Sichuan courtyard dwelling share some similarities with those in other regions of China but have its unique characteristics. While much of the existing scholarship studies Sichuan vernacular architecture from a static perspective, this research examines the development of Sichuan vernacular architecture as a dynamic process of immigration, localization, and acculturation. The research is based on three in-depth case studies and fifteen auxiliary cases. Using research methods including archival research, interviewing, site observation, and spatial analysis, the thesis adopts a holistic research framework to examine architectural space, social relationships, everyday life and cultural meaning of selected examples. The thesis shows that Sichuan courtyard dwellings in the 18th century were not developed from local architectural forms, but imported from inland China along with the wave of immigration. With the process of localisation in the 19th century, the characteristics of Sichuan vernacular dwelling such as grey space, flexible layout, extended eave, and small sky-well came into being to adapt to the new natural and cultural environment. The study also found that the social relationships and everyday life of the Sichuan residents were driving forces for the creation of the interesting spaces. The study also shows that many Sichuan courtyard dwellings in the 20th century were the results of compromise and eclecticism: their domestic spaces were organized within the traditional spatial framework as a cultural inheritance, while their westernized facade revealed the process of acculturation. Through these findings, the thesis contributes an original perspective to the understanding of Sichuan vernacular architecture as an evolving process over time.

Thesis argument: There is a Culture of Violent Reductivism in Representing Warsaw, which means that: Warsaw is reduced to a symbol of heroism in the hands of God/History or the Expert; imagining is reduced to historic imaginary and by the same token futuristic imaginary; both based on a positivist-romanticist system of thought; the reductivism deploys philosemiotic violence (acts of offering with expectations attached); the reductivism/violence is a symptom of a ‘neurosis’ of the social national/imaginary; the reductivism stops Warsaw/Poland from imagining present and future more openly. An alternative is to represent Warsaw as a series of post-historical objects that: are discrete texts, singular images, drawings, physical objects; are paradigmatic and analogical; they move from specificity to specificity; offer different forms, where ‘form’ is non-objective and means relationship; are a series of critiques, reflections, descriptions that work as architectural hypotheses; represent three exemplar imaginaries of Warsaw (the Birth, the Rebirth, the Second Rebirth); together form a ‘distracted’ architectural archive of Warsaw’s imaginaries. In this way, the thesis posits an example of a methodology of representing Warsaw that opens the possibility for Warsaw/Poland to imagine itself differently. Key themes: Culture of violent reductivism in representing Warsaw, reduction of Warsaw to a symbol of heroism, domination of the historic futuristic imaginary, philosemi(o)tic violence, neurosis of the social imaginary (guilt), positivist romanticism, post-historical object, paradigmatic knowledge, non-objective form, seriality of representation, architectural hypothesis, three imaginaries of Warsaw, ‘distracted’ archive of imaginaries.

Among the most representative materials of XX Century architectural heritage, this dissertation focuses on the cement-based ones, investigating some different fields where they were exploited. Primarily, concerning the surface preservation of cement-based materials used with aesthetic intent, new self-cleaning treatments based on titania nanoparticles embedded in inorganic matrices were tested. In order to consider the role of porosity, the treatments were applied to different kinds of materials (cement-based mortar, marble and concrete) and several analyses were conducted to investigate the morphology of the coatings, their photocatalytic effectiveness, their durability and the interaction between the coating and the substrate material. The outcomes showed that several parameters influence the treatment’s performances, in particular, the presence and nature of the matrix, the concentration and dispersion of nanoparticles and, in some cases, the amount of substrate material which interacts with the coatings. Secondly, this dissertation deals with the historic “Terranova” render, a colored dry-mix mortar largely widespread in Europe in the first half of XX Century, whose formulation is still basically unknown. Some original samples of supposedly Terranova renders were subjected to several characterization analyses and the results were compared to those of the original “Terranova” render of the Engineering Faculty in Bologna. Despite the recurrence of some features, defining a common formulation seemed to be challenging. Finally, the repair and conservation of structural reinforced concrete in heritage buildings were investigated, adopting the former “Casa del Fascio” in Predappio (FC, Italy) as case study. Three different materials and solutions were tested on a slab of the building, making its repair only from the intrados. Then several analyses were conducted both on site and in laboratory. Aside from the specific features characterizing every product, the results highlighted that the application method played a fundamental role in the effectiveness of the retrofit strategies.

This thesis examines the twentieth century architecture from the perspective of conservation. The criteria of conservation have changed as the idea of conserving a single monument has progressed into the acceptance of the need to conserve different cultural properties and the field has been enriched with new notions, such as the twentieth century architectural heritage. The main concern in this thesis is to present these current debates about and developments in the conservation of the twentieth century architecture in the world and in Turkey. Such a study initially entails to deal with the basic issues of conservation, the twentieth century architecture in the world and in Turkey and its conservation, and to form a detailed documentation of registered twentieth century buildings. With reference to the information gathered from this study and by examining the registration decisions of buildings the aim is to analyse the practice of the conservation of the twentieth century architecture in Ankara as an exemplary case of the current situation of the field in these terms in Turkey.

The Transmittance Device was an architectural installation, constructed as an imposition upon a public evergreen hedge row. The premise behind this exploration was to exploit architecture as a sequence of dynamic human experiences, creating an event or incident. The intention was to initiate a human transfer or violation from one side of a presumed boundary or barrier, to the opposite side. The boundary or barrier metaphorically represented the inherent characteristics human's possess, concerning abidement and conformity, within their normalities of regulated habit.The evolution process included theoretical conception, analysis of past installations, development of objectives, and four proposed projects. The final proposed Device was constructed in September, 1992, adjacent to the Fine Arts Building, on the campus of Ball State University. The Transmittance Device stood for over three weeks, instigating human engagement. The thesis document presents my collection of information gained, questions posed, and aspirations evoked, throughout the process of this exploration.This workbook documents the evolution process of the Transmittance Device. The Transmittance Device is an installation which exploits architecture as an event or incident, occurring as a human participates. Also, it is a construction which attempts to fuse the separation between architecture and sculpture. The document is not to be read as a conclusive narrative, but rather, a working text. The information is compiled in three general sections: architecture, installations, and the Transmittance Device, respectively chronological. The majority of the information presented was collected as scribbled notes, sketches, and study models produced throughout the nine month process (February to November, 1992.) The presentation of the constructed Device IV is presented with process sketches, scaled drawings, and photographs of the built construction. My aspirations are to continue this exploration, building upon the workbook, to never reach an end.
Department of Architecture

Through a combination of stringent and deceptive corporate control of sources, as well as an academic blind spot on certain low-brow subcultures, there has been a lack of serious study of the various regional professional wrestling traditions that crossed the United States until the end of the 1980s. An in-depth examination of a wide range of books, newsletters, and interviews shows a rich history with a deep economic, social, and creative diversity that has been largely ignored as the industry has moved towards monopolization under Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The various regions are divided into three groups: those that closed on their own, those that fell in competition with McMahon, and those that survived into the era of national corporate pro wrestling. This organization challenges the narrative that regional pro wrestling came to an end solely due to the business power of McMahon. The first group looks at Northern California, Southern California, Georgia, and North Texas. The second group examines the independent wrestling companies Mid-South Wrestling and the American Wrestling Association, and their attempts to compete with McMahon on a national level. The group also explores how the intense local fan bases in Portland and Memphis buoyed the local pro wrestling promotions for a time from outside competition from McMahon. The third group contains Jim Crockett Productions and the World Wide Wrestling Federation. These two organizations eventually became the two major corporate wrestling entities World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation, respectively. A glossary of terms is included.

Gegenstand der Habilitationsschrift sind die wesentlichen Strömungen der städtebaulichen Entwicklung Dresdens in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Der Zeitraum umfasst Planungen und Realisierungen zwischen der Zerstörung Dresdens am 13./14. Februar 1945 und der Vereinigung mit der Bundesrepublik Deutschland am 3. Oktober 1990. Wichtige Etappen bilden dabei die Konzeptionssuche nach der Zerstörung, der Städtebau der „nationalen Tradition“, die Rückbesinnung auf die Konzepte der Moderne, die Generalbebauungs- und Generalverkehrsplanung, das Wohnungsbauprogramm und die Wiederentdeckung des innerstädtischen Bauens. Aspekte der städtebaulichen Entwicklung Dresdens vor 1945 mit dem Schwerpunkt der 30er und frühen 40er Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts sowie im wiedervereinigten Deutschland nach 1990 wurden ergänzend einbezogen. Die Schrift besteht aus einem Einführungstext, der die Dresdner Entwicklung in die städtebaulichen Leitbilder einordnet, und dem Hauptteil mit Auszügen aus 33 wissenschaftlichen Veröffentlichungen des Autoren über den gesamten Betrachtungszeitraum hinweg. Neben der städtebaulichen Entwicklung insgesamt wird auch auf Teilaspekte wie Wohnungsbau, Verkehrsentwicklung oder die Leitbilddiskussion eingegangen. Der breite Katalog der städtebaulichen Lösungen, in mehreren Jahrzehnten und über Paradigmenwechsel hinweg entstanden, bildet einen wertvollen Erfahrungsschatz. Vor allem der Aspekt der Besonderheit der städtebaulichen Entwicklung Dresdens, der Radikalität, aber auch Beschränktheit der vielfach gewählten Lösungen, stellt im Sinne einer Bestandsaufnahme einen wesentlichen Ausgangspunkt für jegliche gegenwärtige und zukünftige Auseinandersetzung mit dem physischen Körper der Stadt dar. Einerseits wird es erleichtert, schutzwürdige Qualitäten der städtebaulichen Entwicklung des behandelten Zeitraumes zu erkennen, andererseits werden aber auch Ansatzpunkte für eine zukunftsfähige künftige Stadtentwicklung geboten
The subject of this study (Habilitation) is Dresden’s city planning in the second half of the twentieth century and the main strands of its development. The time frame comprises planning and realizations of building projects between the destruction of Dresden on 13/14 February 1945 and German reunification on 3 October 1990. Important stages are the search for planning concepts after destruction, projects of the “national tradition”, rediscovery of Modernist concepts, general city and transport plans, the programme for housing and the further development of inner-city planning. Additionally included are aspects of planning development before 1945 – with an emphasis in the 1930s and early 40s – as well as the situation in reunified Germany after 1990. The study consists of an introduction, which places Dresden’s development within planning paradigms. The middle section is a compilation of extracts from the author’s 33 scholarly publications spanning the entire time frame of this study. Apart from planning history in general, the study also considers housing, transport and theoretical discussions. The rich catalogue of planning solutions, acquired over decades and across changes in paradigms, builds a valuable store of experience. Especially through the uniqueness of Dresden‘s planning history, the radicalism, but also often the narrowness of chosen solutions, compiled here as a first inventory, a vital starting point for any current and future engagement with the body of this city is formed. On the one hand, the study facilitates the identification of the qualities that are worth preserving; on the other, suggestions for future-oriented city planning are offered

This paper considers the appropriation of Indigenous heritage in northwest Georgia during the mid-20th century. Through this case study of the first state-funded historic preservation project in the state at Etowah Indian Mounds, I apply a recent theorizing on the nature of whiteness, settler colonialism, and the role of heritage in cementing racialized structures of colonial rule. I outline the long history of Indigenous dispossession and settler appropriation in the American South to show how the origins of Indigenous heritage tourism built on an established settler colonial apparatus that deployed race to service commercial and economic development schemes. in this vein, my study highlights state-funded infrastructural development, newspaper reports, commercial interests, and community practice as key nodes in an integrated system facilitating appropriation and solidifying white control over space and place. to tackle this complex interdependence, I formulate a conception of heritage practice drawn from Hargrove's (2009) model of whiteness as habituated cultural practice, and tie this discussion into heritage studies emphasizing the transformation of historic landscapes into white public space. I then contextualize heritage building at Etowah within an evolving tourism economy and New South ideology that positioned white supremacy in relation to modernity, and demonstrate how GHC practitioners utilized archaeology and architecture to reinforce this ideological framework at Etowah Mounds. Tracking trends in the press coverage of ongoing preservation activities at Etowah Mounds, my study charts the gradual production of heritage values tied not to commercial interests but to the site's perceived historical and archaeological significance as Georgia's flagship preservation project. I argue that the repositioning of this site as national patrimony served to legitimate the appropriation and continued possession of Indigenous land, resources, and material culture by establishing ancestral connections between white communities and the region's pre-contact inhabitants.

This study tries to tackle the notion of “urban aesthetics” as it was articulated throughout the first three decades of the 20th century in Portuguese writing on the city, and practised in different forms of spatial production. A diffuse vocabulary – estética urbana, estética citadina, estética da cidade, das edificações, da rua… – signals a persistent understanding of the city as a work of art, both in the way it was experienced – an “urban aesthetic” – and contrived – an “urban aesthetics.” The general ambition of this study is to give visibility to and to reconstruct the conditions of legibility of this set of writings and practices which responded to the once alluring call of the aesthetic. The territory elected to trace the conceptual and practical unravelling of these ideas – so intricately linked to the particularities of place – is Lisbon. In this city, the topic becomes almost unavoidable in writings on urban presents and futures after 1900. Aesthetic arguments were consistently and insistently employed to critically describe urban beauty or, more frequently, urban ugliness, to advocate aesthetic improvement and to justify or criticize concrete ideas and projects. This phenomenon is studied against a background of intense international exchange during this formative phase of the modern planning disciplines, from Town and City Planning to Städtebau and Urbanisme. Aesthetic considerations were manifestly present, and it is argued that aesthetic discourse in Lisbon signals the reception of internationally circulating ideas, words, images and people. More precisely, this study proceeds to a kind of archaeology of the gaze and discourse of “urban aesthetics,” studying the functions it performed within different social, cultural and political contexts and the relations and tensions with relevant urban realities which pervaded it. One conclusion is that the notion of an “urban aesthetics” remained ill-defined, a common place relying on shared adversity to the modern urban landscape rather than any explicit program or solution. Subsequently, the assimilation by municipal regulation and institutions of public demands of “aesthetic supervision” is reconstructed. The four years of municipal council activity of the architect Miguel Ventura Terra, from 1908 to 1913, were crucial in this tentative articulation of actual practices of aesthetic control and urban design, even if along the subsequent decades they were never given the desired legal and institutional breath. Finally, during the 1930s the vocabulary of “urban aesthetics” was appropriated by a new generation of architects, urban planners and politicians and put at the service of the urban ideals of a dictatorial New State, signalling the persistence of aesthetic considerations in the local institution of the discipline of planning. An epilogue proposes that the viewpoint of urban aesthetics can contribute to new perspectives over the production and experience of Lisbon during the first decades of the 20th century.
La presente investigación enfoca la noción de “estética urbana” tal como la fueron articulando las escritos sobre la ciudad y los diferentes modos de hacer cuidad durante las primeras tres décadas del siglo XX. Un copioso vocabulario – estética urbana, estética citadina, estética da cidade, das edificações, da rua… – señala un entendimiento persistente de la ciudad experimentada y deseada como obra de arte. La aspiración global de la investigación es dar visibilidad y reconstruir las condiciones de legibilidad a este conjunto de escritos y prácticas que respondían a la llamada antes atractiva del estético. Lisboa es el territorio elegido para rastrear su enredo conceptual y material. Sobre todo a partir de 1900 el tema se vuelve una parada casi obligatoria en escritos sobre el presente y futuro de la ciudad. El uso de argumentos de carácter estético para describir críticamente la belleza o, más comúnmente, la fealdad urbana, para promover mejoras estéticas o para justificar o criticar ideas y proyectos concretos era consistente e insistente. En el trasfondo se apunta el cerrado intercambio internacional durante la formación de las modernas disciplinas urbanísticas, de la Town and City Planning a la Städtebau y el Urbanisme. Dentro del horizonte disciplinar, las consideraciones estéticas tenían lugar relevante, y el desarrollo de la “estética urbana” en Lisboa es interpretado como manifestación de la recepción de ideas, palabras, imágenes y personas que circulaban internacionalmente. Asimismo, se propone una especie de arqueología de la mirada y del discurso de la “estética urbana,” estudiando las funciones que la noción ejercía en distintos contextos sociales, culturales y políticos y las relaciones y tensiones que nacían del embate con realidades urbanas relevantes. Una de las conclusiones es que la noción de “estética urbana” apenas se definía; era un lugar común que se alimentaba más de la hostilidad compartida ante el moderno paisaje urbano que de un programa o solución explícito. Por otro lado, se indaga como las exigencias de la opinión pública de “supervisión estética” eran asimiladas o no en ordenanzas e instituciones municipales o nacionales. Los cuatro años en los que el arquitecto Miguel Ventura Terra integró el ayuntamiento de la ciudad, de 1908 a 1913, resultan decisivos en el pretendido despliegue de prácticas eficaces de controlo estético y diseño urbano, incluso cuando no recibieron la deseada amplitud legal e institucional durante las dos décadas siguientes. Después de 1926 el vocabulario de la “estética urbana” fue, por ende, apropiado por una nueva generación de arquitectos, urbanistas y políticos y puesta al servicio de los ideales urbanos de la dictadura del Estado Novo, sugiriendo que motivos estéticos persistan en la constitución de la moderna disciplina urbanística. Un epílogo propone que la mirada hacia y desde la estética urbana puede contribuir a esbozar nuevas perspectivas sobre la producción y experiencia de la ciudad de Lisboa durante las primeras décadas del siglo XX.
Este estudo aborda a noção de “estética urbana” ou “da cidade,” tal como foi formulada durante as primeiras três décadas do século XX em escritos sobre a cidade, e praticada em diferentes formas de produção de espaço. Um profuso vocabulário – estética urbana, estética citadina, estética da cidade, das edificações, da rua… – assinala um entendimento persistente da cidade experimentada e desejada como obra de arte. A ambição global deste estudo é a de dar visibilidade a e reconstruir as condições de legibilidade deste conjunto de escritos e práticas que respondiam ao apelo outrora tentador do estético. O território elegido para rastrear a trama conceptual e prática destas ideias – tão intrincadamente ligadas às especificidades do lugar – é Lisboa. Sobretudo a partir de 1900 o tema torna-se passagem quase obrigatória em escritos sobre o presente e o futuro da cidade. Argumentos de carácter estético eram mobilizados de forma consistente e insistente para descrever criticamente a beleza e, mais comummente, a fealdade urbanas, para promover “embelezamentos” e para justificar ou criticar ideias e projectos concretos. Este fenómeno é visto contra o fundo de um denso intercâmbio internacional durante a formação das modernas disciplinas urbanísticas, da Town and City Planning à Städtebau e ao Urbanisme. Neste panorama, considerações estéticas marcavam presença, e o florescimento da “estética urbana” em Lisboa é entendida como sintoma da recepção desta circulação internacional de ideias, palavras, imagens e pessoas. Mais especificamente, este estudo propõe uma espécie de arqueologia do olhar e do discurso da “estética urbana,” estudando as funções desempenhadas por este termo em diferentes contextos sociais, culturais e políticos e as relações e tensões que nasciam do seu confronto com realidades urbanas relevantes. Uma conclusão é que a noção de “estética urbana” ficou por definir; era um lugar comum que dependia mais de uma animosidade partilhada perante a moderna paisagem urbana do que um programa ou solução explícita. De seguida, a assimilação (e não-assimilação) das exigências públicas de “supervisão estética” em regulamentos e instituições municipais ou nacionais é rastreada. Os quatro anos em que o arquitecto Miguel Ventura Terra foi vereador da cidade, entre 1908 e 1913, revelam-se cruciais nesta tentativa de articular práticas efectivas de controlo estético e desenho urbano, mesmo se durante as duas décadas subsequentes estas nunca receberam a desejada abrangência legal e institucional. A partir de 1926 o vocabulário da “estética urbana” foi apropriado por uma nova geração de arquitectos, urbanistas e políticos, e posto ao serviço dos ideais urbanos da ditadura do Estado Novo, sinalizando a persistência de motivos estéticos na constituição da moderna disciplina urbanística. Um epílogo propõe que o olhar para e desde a estética urbana pode contribuir a trazer novas perspectivas sobre a produção e experiência da cidade de Lisboa durante as primeiras décadas do século XX.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture and Planning, 1997.
Includes bibliographical references (v. 3, leaves 470-517).
This dissertation is an historical inquiry into the role played by new building materials in the formation of architectural modernism in France. It proceeds on the theoretical assumption that a "material" is not a technical given -- a securely defined entity in the physical and linguistic senses -- but an architectural construct whose "inherent properties" are a matter of interpretation. It suggests that within a specific architectural culture, the conceptions and uses of a material are defined by concerns that are not only constructional but involve architectural doctrines, building practices, aesthetic projects, and cultural strategies. Since the publication of Sigfried Giedion's Bauen in Frankreich. Bauen in Eisen. Bauen in Eisenbeton (1928), reinforced concrete has been commonly accepted as the common denominator of French modernism. The dissertation questions this interpretive assumption, focusing on the changing conceptions of the material as an index of transformations in French architecture and architectural culture. It covers a period that spans from the Universal Exhibition of 1889 to the early 1930s, a period which saw the development of reinforced concrete in French architecture, from its emergence within architectural discourses to its inscription within early modernist historiography. Through a close examination of contemporary books and periodicals, unpublished sources, and graphic documents, the dissertation explores the theories and works that framed the critical relationship of new material to French modernism. Inaugurated with the late nineteenth-century demise of metal as the leading material in architectural theory, the preeminence of reinforced concrete in French architecture was marked by the dispersion of rationalist tenets into competing architectural programs. The First World War was a pivotal event in this process. Of principal importance were the positions of Auguste Perret and Le Corbusier. While Perret insisted on continuity with prewar practices, emphasizing the role of craft production, Le Corbusier embraced the rupture brought about by the societe machinique, shifting towards the idea of industrialized construction. These positions were key to the technical and aesthetic definition of the modem house, from the function of the concrete frame to the nature of external revetments. They also led the way to the cultural and ideological debates that ensued on the nationality of the material and the sources of modem architecture. In the late 1920s the return of metal merely underscored the "rhetoric of materials" in the definition of French modernism.
by Réjean Legault.
Ph.D.

Perceptions regarding the uptake of photography in the Middle East during the medium’s ascendancy in the second half of the nineteenth century have transformed profoundly since the publication of Nissan Perez’s pioneering 1988 publication Focus East. Scholars working in art history, anthropology, cultural, gender and post-colonial studies have come to acknowledge that the Middle East was a pivotal site and subject for the development of photography’s aesthetics and disciplinary regimes. However, the legacy of the Armenian photographers who played a dominant role in this context, remains one of the more contested and ambivalent aspects of nineteenth-century photographic studies. Focusing on the photography of historical architecture and material heritage by the Abdullah Frères, Ohannes Kurkdjian, Mateos Papazyants and Gabriel Nahapetian, this thesis is the first attempt to view these indigenous photographers within the framework of the Armenian cultural revival of the 1860s-1900s. My research in archives and libraries in Yerevan and Paris has uncovered a wealth of new primary material that demonstrates the significant involvement of these photographer-scholars in the construction of modern idioms of collective selfhood. Based on these findings, this dissertation points to the ideological function of historiographical photography in Armenian scholarly networks as representational tools that negotiated the conflicting demands of the nineteenth-century international photographic market and the agenda of nation-building. Made as documentary evidence of architectural and archaeological patrimony, the photographs in question operate as testing grounds for an iconography of visual self-representation for a dispersed and fragmented ethno-cultural group. As such, the case studies I present here can be considered a novel mode of visual historiography that traverses geo-political, linguistic and cultural divides in order to establish a critically constituted, shared framework for the collective imaginary. Though lacking a centralised rhetoric, this discursive project metabolised through consistent and prominent efforts, which have been left out of analyses pertaining to early Middle-Eastern photography. Following the philological discovery of historical architecture by the local intelligentsia in the early-nineteenth century, Armenian historiographical photography eventually become a device for an empowering restaging of Armenian identity and culture. Drawing on psychoanalytical theory of melancholia, I examine how this process led to the reconstitution of the ‘Armenian’ image as a simultaneously historicised and modern phenomenon. The study of Armenian ‘heritage’ photography provides an understanding of the transcultural aspect of nineteenth-century indigenous photography, which operated outside of the binaries of colonial resistance and self-orientalisation. Amalgamating the aesthetic modalities of European visual culture with traditional iconography drawn from local, medieval traditions, this photographic output enabled a dialectical view of the ‘national’ past as a product of historical and cultural developments. The syncretic, critical nature of such photography ultimately offered its Armenian makers and consumers more fluid and emancipatory avenues of self-representation in the context of emergent, nineteenth-century discourses on national belonging.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Architecture and Environmental Studies)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993.
Vita.
Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 371-395).
This dissertation examines the dominant conventions of architectural practice in the United States between 1919 and 1933. It proceeds from two assumptions: first, that by the 1900s, both the American Institute of Architects (AlA) and the numerous professional journals available to architects across the country solidified the profession nationally and yielded a coherent field within which practitioners could debate the content of their professional service; second, that within the context of its national discourse, the architecture profession drew inspiration for its effort to identify a social function for itself from the White City Movement which forged a link between the architect and a national political, industrial and cultural leadership drawn together by American Progressivism. The study focuses on the period following the demise of the White City Movement during which American architects cast off their allegiance to its traditional aesthetic formulae but retained the aspiration to associate themselves and their work with prevailing trends in a national political and social milieu. It demonstrates that in their efforts to redefine the terms of their professional service, American architects invoked the popular terminology of Scientific Management, Technocracy, Fordism, and the nostrums of the 'New Era' and promised 'efficiency' in their work and in the industries they presumed to manage. It reveals that within these efforts of professional redefinition, the professional ideology supporting the architect's aspirations for work converged with a modernist idealism espousing the value of technical expertise as a medium of social emancipation and progress. By giving evidence of a widespread and indigenous modernism that perceived a social benefit in the architect's capacity to utilize industrial technology, this project amends the dominant historical view which attributes the re-emergence of an American Modem Movement in the 1930s to the 'diaspora' of European artists and intellectuals before to WW II. This study has two parts. In Part One, it examines first the canons of Beaux-Arts Classicism and their gradual dissolution after World War I under the pressure of criticism from writers such as Ralph Adams Cram, Louis Sullivan and Lewis Mumford and through the work of the AlA's PostWar Committee; and second, the institutional structure of the AlA and its organizational ideologies in the 1920s. In Part Two, it looks more closely at the evolving conventions of professional service, demonstrating that American architects reached a consensus about the necessity of a 'new' architecture which identified itself in three areas: first, in its rejection of the Beaux-Arts method of interpreting a building program through a stylistic rendition of its social 'character' in favor of design strategies that maximized usable space; second, in its abandonment of the visual paradigm of the White City in favor of the expansionist rhetoric of Regional Planning; and third, in its disavowal of stylistic conventions based on historical precedent in favor of styles that both demonstrated a discontinuity with the past and celebrated an evolving consumerist 'utopia' populated by industrial commodities.
by Paul Louis Bentel.
Ph.D.

Recent research on multiple modernities and hybridity has brought under fruitful criticism earlier Eurocentric accounts that constructed non-Western countries as passive receivers of European modernism. It has revealed the complexity of interactions across geographies and brought into focus processes of cross-pollination and interpretation, and the dimension of power and agency. However the majority of studies examine the relationship between a ‘Western’ and a ‘non-Western’ context, hence missing issues of influence and antagonism among the neighbouring ‘peripheral’ actors themselves. Building on this stream of scholarship and in response to this vacuum, my research examines the multi-directional flow of ideas and people between Western Europe, Turkey and Greece in the early 20th century, within the framework of modernisation and nation-building. Through this ‘triangulation’, it aims to contribute to the critique of constructed categories such as East-West bipolarities, to uncover unexplored interactions, and to address the complexity of drawing geographical and temporal borders. The window through which this exploration takes place is the transition of two cities, Thessaloniki and Izmir, from the Ottoman context to two separate nation-states. Having lost their minority communities and having been devastated by fire in 1917 and 1922 respectively, they were redesigned by French and English architects. Drawing from reader theory and critical studies on nation-building and modernisation, and based on extensive archival research in Greece, Turkey and France, I explore the urbanist and architectural activity in these two cities during a period when identities were debated and (trans)formed as the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. The relevance of this research lies in its offering a new approach to the modern architectural history of Izmir and Thessaloniki, with wider implications in terms of historical analysis, in its uncovering of unvoiced aspects of the region’s encounters with its past and with the deemed West, and in its contribution to a critical re-reading of our past and present today.

Includes 2 previously published journal articles by the author: Women in architecture: a personal reflection ; and, "Half the sky, but no room of her own", as appendices. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-251) An examination of some texts influential in the discourse of Australian architecture in the twentieth century. Explores from a feminist standpoint the gendered nature of discourse in contemporary Western architecture from an Australian perspective. The starting point for the thesis was an examination of Australian architectual discourse in search of some explanation for the continuing low numbers of women practitioners in Australia. Hypothesizes that contemporary Western architecture is imbued with a pervasive and dominant masculinity and that this is deeply imbedded in its discursive constructions: the body housed by architecture is assume to be male, the mind which produces architecture is assumed to be masculine. Given the cultural location of Australian architecture as a marginal participant in the wider arena of contemporary Western / international discourses, focuses on writing about two iconic figues in Western architecture; Le Corbusier, of international reknown; and, Glenn Murcutt, of predominantly local significance.

De 1914 à 1964, la conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace est progressivement soumise à la législation et à la pratique administrative françaises. Cependant, les institutions introduites dans le Reichsland d'Alsace-Lorraine avant 1914 sont maintenues en vigueur après 1918 et certaines d'entre-elles sont même étendues aux départements " de l'Intérieur ". Après la centralisation des services d'Alsace et Lorraine en 1925, les monuments historique d'Alsace sont soumis à la même pénurie budgétaire que ceux des autres départements français. Le maintien en Alsace du régime des cultes concordataires permet toutefois aux édifices cultuels protégés au titre des monuments historiques de bénéficier de l'apport du budget des Cultes. En outre, les départements du Bas-Rhin et du Haut-Rhin prennent le relai de l'ancien Land d'Alsace-Lorraine pour subvenir à l'entretien des monuments historiques. La conservation des monuments historiques d'Alsace constitue un véritable enjeu national : le nombre d'édifices protégés ne cesse d'augmenter, les souvenirs et vestiges des deux guerres mondiales et les monuments d'architecture française sont particulièrement mis en valeur, alors que les monuments qui avaient été restaurés par des architectes allemands avant 1914 sont souvent " dérestaurés ". Le champ des protections s'élargit progressivement aux sites pittoresques, aux abords des monuments et aux centres anciens. Enfin, la connaissance du patrimoine alsacien progresse grâce à la réalisation de nouveaux inventaires.

With the rising influence of digitalization and its immense penetration intoeven everyday life, the last decade of the 20th Century addressed to a critical threshold in the successive transformation process of the spatiality in its long-term run. The advanced digital technologies of ubiquitous computing and generative design, as well as the invention of smart materials in late 90’s (particularly the nano-technological materials that emerged as the programmable matters with their ability to evolve continously) have all provoked the fluid characteristics of spatiality, and strengthen the transformative capacities of the architectural space through the emergence of computer-augmented territories. Additionally, while they are becoming as the body extensions, the advent of novel apparatuses and gadgets further enhanced the inte- gration of the corporal and incorporal bodies with the spatio-temporal multiplicities, where the hyperdimensionality of the space has been triggered to its outmost range, in relation to the “soft and smart technologically augmented immanent millieu”, in Spuybroek terms. Thus, like Spuybroek points out as the “haptonomist” presence of the body merges itself with these diverse bodily extensions on one hand; and on the other hand, as the rising influence of nomadic view of the world further stimulates the unboundedness and endless fluidity of space, so that the spatiality becomes a landscape of successive transformations, a topology of emergence or a plane of becoming, which is merely defined by lines of forces, and occures as an alive territory rather than a limited space of predefined boarders. Therefore, this evolvable territory which is affectable and being affected by the lines of forces –inner and outer forces–, emerges as an animated existence, an interactive organism. So, by interacting with the Deleuzian Philosophy and their notions like lines of forces, folding, becoming, smooth space, territory, spatium, this article aims to reveal the relevance of these notions in architectural discourse, as well as the emergence of the smooth space in the contemporary architectural practice, by magnifiying one of the very initial examples of its kind; in terms of unfolding the Fresh Water Pavilion of NOX Architecture by Lars Spuybroek into question to reveal the essences of thecontemporary transformable-evolvable architectural spatiality.

Le sujet de la thèse —la clarification du concept de plan libre dans l’œuvre architectural de Le Corbusier— s’inscrit dans un cadre général de recherches portant sur les modes de conception architecturale en contexte de modernité. Cette préoccupation prend comme horizon la compréhension des processus qui servent l’architecture comme construction d’idées et qui permettent d’en articuler les différentes phases, depuis l’amont des intentions exprimées par le concepteur, jusqu’à l’aval des expressions prises par la solution, en passant par les moyens qui, précisément, permettent d’articuler une pensée abstraite à un objet concret. C’est un champ d’interrogation qui s’appuie sur le constat d’un double déficit disciplinaire :l’intérêt général porté aux formes de l’architecture plutôt qu’aux processus qui les ont fait naître ;l’absence de vocabulaire réellement partagé des concepts utilisés par la discipline, ce qui forme, dans l’un et l’autre cas, “obstacles” à la connaissance de l’architecture et à son enseignement.

A cet égard, le concept de plan libre occupe une position de choix. Célèbre « mot-force » du manifeste corbuséen de 1927 —« Les Cinq points d’une nouvelle architecture »—, devenu un concept central —mais aussi “nomade”— de l’historiographie de l’architecture moderne, il se trouve donc à l’articulation des questions relatives à la modernité et à la conception. De plus, une simple confrontation de sa définition originale, tant à l’œuvre de Le Corbusier qu’à l’historiographie du Mouvement Moderne, révèle la polysémie du concept et, en particulier, les ambiguïtés et paradoxes que suscitent sa double interprétation :comme “modèle d’organisation spatiale” d’une part et comme “intention libératoire” de l’autre, au point qu’elle laisse le chercheur perplexe à l’égard de ce qu’en l’état, un tel concept peut bien apporter à la connaissance de l’architecture.

Pour surmonter ces difficultés d’interprétations, deux hypothèses sont proposées.

La première envisage le plan libre comme mode opératoire de “libre” conception propre à Le Corbusier. La seconde renvoie à la construction discursive du plan libre comme oxymore, c’est-à-dire comme figure de rhétorique qui, en associant deux termes de sens contraires, construit un ou plusieurs sens nouveaux.

En conclusion, leur vérification conduit à interpréter le plan libre comme mode spécifique de conception —qui assure tout autant l’autonomie du créateur que la fertilité du processus de création—, lui-même basé sur un processus récurrent de “mises en tension” et de recherches de nouveaux “équilibres” :du regard dialogique que Le Corbusier porte sur le monde —en particulier sur le processus de modernisation— à l’expression duale qu’il donne à ses compositions. Au final, cette double optique fonde notre interprétation du plan libre comme syncrétisme de la modernité corbuséenne. Elle se valide également comme clés de lecture particulièrement riches pour la compréhension de l’oeuvre corbuséenne et des processus de conception qui l’animent.

x x x

Développement

Tout au long des chapitres de l’étude, nous nous sommes attaché à interroger le concept de plan libre au-delà des compréhensions conventionnelles et “familières” qu’on pouvait en avoir de prime abord, à savoir :d’une part, le plan libre comme “modèle d’organisation spatiale” —défini par opposition au “plan paralysé”—et, d’autre part, le plan libre comme “intention libératoire”, lequel marque un large désir d’émancipation, en particulier —sans y être restreint— à l’égard des pratiques académiques. Dès le premier chapitre en effet, nous avions montré que ces premières définitions “communes” du plan libre —clairement identifiables tant dans l’œuvre corbuséenne que dans les instrumentalisations dont il fut l’objet par la critique spécialisée— formaient “obstacles”, dans ces deux champs, à une claire compréhension de ce qu’il pouvait signifier.

Bien que l’on ne puisse douter de la validité des définitions proposées par Le Corbusier lui-même, nous avons dû relever à leur égard un certain nombre d’ambiguïtés ou de contresens qui nous obligeaient à questionner ces termes au-delà de ce qu’on y voit habituellement. De la sorte, nous mettions aussi en évidence qu’il n’y avait pas, dans le concept de plan libre, un, mais bien deux “niveaux de libération” à identifier :d’une part, un mouvement d’émancipation de la nouvelle architecture à l’égard de tout ce qui pouvait, de manière hétéronome, “préformer” sa conception ;d’autre part, une liberté interne au système mis en place, assurant à l’auteur de projet la mise à disposition de moyens innovants et permettant la « permanente mise à l’épreuve » (A. Rivkin) de l’architecture face aux conditions changeantes du projet.

Ces différentes observations nous invitaient à approfondir la réflexion et, surtout, à la déplacer vers ce processus qui, justement, permettait de lier la “virtualité” de l’intention à la “matérialité” d’une solution, soit le propre de la conception architecturale. En effet, entre ces premières définitions du plan libre qui, déjà, le situaient aux “extrêmes” de la conception architecturale — intention versus expression— il semblait opportun d’en revenir là aussi à l’investigation de cette problématique “intermédiaire” :par quels moyens Le Corbusier passait-il du plan libre comme intention au plan libre comme expression ?

L’hypothèse fut alors posée de considérer le plan libre corbuséen comme “méta-opérateur” d’une libre conception du projet, le terme désignant selon Robert Prost « l’ensemble des modes opératoires que réclame toute formulation de solution ». Dans ce sens, on pouvait aisément présumer que ce mode de conception était lui-même animé par le regard doctrinal porté par Le Corbusier sur cette même modernité au service de laquelle il avait précisément défini la « nouvelle architecture » et les « Cinq points » qui en étaient « les moyens ».

L’objectif de nos développements ultérieurs fut dès lors, tout à la fois, de montrer ce “statut” opératoire du plan libre comme libre conception; de déterminer les moyens —procéduraux et substantiels— qui l’organisaient ;de montrer ce qu’ils construisaient dans l’œuvre en termes d’innovation ;de relever, en parallèle, en quoi et comment ils étaient révélateurs du point de vue de Le Corbusier sur la modernité.

Les hypothèses et l’intérêt des questions soulevées furent définitivement fondés après l’exposé des cadres généraux à l’intérieur desquels elles devaient être discutées :les champs de la conception d’une part et de la modernité de l’autre. C’est l’objet du chapitre 2.

L’étude s’est alors développée en quatre parties, basées sur des temporalités et/ou des corpus spécifiques et orientées vers des questions particulières.

Dans un premier temps —chapitre 3—, nous avons pris comme cadre d’interrogation l’exposition du Weissenhof à Stuttgart en 1927, moment de la publication du célèbre manifeste corbuséen des « Cinq points d’une nouvelle architecture » et lieu de la construction de ces maisons par lesquelles Le Corbusier exposa concrètement ses points de vue théoriques.

Le concept de plan libre y a été évalué à l’aune :des Cinq points dans le cadre desquels il a été énoncé; de l’ossature Dom-Ino qui en fonde l’émergence et la nature particulière; des maisons du Weissenhof qui en concrétisent la portée et les ambitions. Bien que cette matière ait déjà été abondamment retournée par les labours de la critique architecturale, un exposé exhaustif se devait d’être fait pour fonder notre propre compréhension des événements, construire nos propres observations et conclusions, eu égard à nos hypothèses. Par ailleurs, ce chapitre a permis d’éclaircir le mode de fonctionnement des Cinq points et de l’ossature Dom-Ino quant à leurs rôles et objectifs dans le processus de conception corbuséen.

Dans le 4e chapitre, nous nous sommes plus particulièrement interrogé sur ce qui fondait le choix et la définition de ces moyens particuliers. Il fut donc consacré à l’étude du plan libre comme édification d’une “théorie” du projet. Jamais Le Corbusier n’a produit un discours coordonné sur sa pratique —à la manière du traité d’Alberti— et les nombreux textes par lesquels il commente son œuvre et justifie les Cinq points comme « Eléments objectifs de discussion sur le phénomène architectural » présentent ces questions selon des points de vue fragmentaires :seul l’enchaînement des sources a permis d’extraire des thèmes dont la récurrence, voire la redondance, fait sens. La variation des énoncés des Cinq points que nous avons pu relever invitait par ailleurs à voir là une pensée en “construction” plutôt qu’une doctrine “arrêtée”, le manifeste étant dès lors compris comme un “arrêt sur images” ponctuant le parcours d’une pensée elle-même en permanente évolution.

Le corpus de cette analyse fut constitué de conférences, articles et livres rédigés par Le Corbusier, pour l’essentiel entre 1918 et la fin des années 20. Sur base de ce matériel, un certain nombre de thèmes récurrents ont été identifiés qui étayent la compréhension de ce que peuvent être les éléments de doctrine qui sous-tendent la conception du projet corbuséen et la manière dont il construit la validation de son propos. L’intérêt de cet examen fut aussi de permettre l’identification de quelques-unes de ces références procédurales qui font partie du fond culturel du concepteur et par lesquelles Le Corbusier organise ses processus de conception à l’égard de ce qui constitue l’architecture comme « problème en soi ». Dans un second temps, la comparaison de ces observations avec ce qui fait, selon Françoise Choay, théorie chez Alberti, a conforté l’idée de ce que cette construction doctrinale était propre à sous-tendre et qualifier un mode de conception et d’en confirmer, pour une part, les moyens de son ambition “émancipatrice”.

Dans le chapitre 5, nous avons procédé à l’examen de quatre références procédurales de conception que nous avions précédemment identifiées :la re-programmation, la dissociation, l’inversion et la réconciliation des contraires. L’intérêt était double. Il s’agissait, d’une part, de comprendre —et de vérifier— en quoi et comment ces procédures permettaient de rencontrer les objectifs d’une libre conception du projet —ce que nous avons traduit là par leur capacité à innover sur le plan formel et spatial et à assurer une relative autonomie du concepteur— et, d’autre part, de saisir —et montrer— en quoi et comment ils servaient le point de vue de Le Corbusier sur la modernité. Le corpus considéré ici était constitué d’une sélection de réalisations architecturales des années 20. Leur examen permit de saisir concrètement ce vers quoi les procédures conduisaient en examinant ce qu’elles construisaient dans l’œuvre. Bien que non exemptes d’observations personnelles, ces analyses se sont appuyées sur divers travaux antérieurs menés par les exégètes de l’œuvre corbuséenne dont, en particulier, Alan Colquhoun, Colin Rowe, Jacques Lucan, etc, auprès desquels nous avons trouvé matière à étayer nos hypothèses par l’articulation de leurs points de vue au nôtre, réduisant également quelques-unes des fractures de compréhension énoncées dès l’introduction.

Le chapitre 6 a, quant à lui, été plus particulièrement réservé à l’observation des références substantielles présentes dans le système de conception corbuséen au moment des Cinq points, que ce soit sur un plan concret ou à un horizon théorique. Dès l’exposé introductif de nos hypothèses, nous avions en effet relevé la relative incompatibilité que l’on pouvait discerner dans la mise au point d’un système de conception dont on attendait, d’un côté, qu’il puisse en permanence apporter des réponses innovantes en l’appuyant, de l’autre, sur des références de formes —celles des Cinq points— qui ne pouvaient qu’en restreindre l’ordre des possibilités. Deux discussions nous ont permis, sur le plan théorique au moins, de saisir les raisons de cette incompatibilité :celle de l’autoréférentialité du système d’une part et celle du miroir de l’inversion d’autre part, toutes deux conduisant nécessairement à restreindre le champ de la création à l’ordre d’une forme d’imitation.

Le chapitre 7, de conclusion, est revenu plus spécifiquement sur la discussion de l’objectif —et des conditions— dans lesquelles Le Corbusier poursuit cette volonté d’autonomie propre à la posture de l’artiste moderne, et l’objective. Si l’on s’accorde à reconnaître que le processus de modernisation à conduit à l’effritement des traditions stabilisatrices sur lesquelles se fondait ce qui faisait “sens commun”, la question est posée, entre autres, de savoir comment créer et objectiver ce “sens commun” à partir d’une vision subjective du “moi” créateur. La démonstration porte là sur la mise en exergue des invariants sur lesquels Le Corbusier fonde ses discours de validation :les principes pérennes qu’il “reconnaît” dans l’histoire, tout autant que les invariants de “l’homme”, qu’ils soient de nature socio-anthropologique, anthropomorphique ou psycho-physiologique. De la sorte, la posture émancipatrice de Le Corbusier se révèle fondée sur le respect d’un cadre normatif, intemporel, par lequel il tente d’objectiver sa propre subjectivité.

Cette approche duale nous est finalement apparue récurrente à tous niveaux de son processus de conception, et donc comme forgeant l’une de ses spécificités. Quel que soit le niveau auquel on l’envisage, Le Corbusier fonde son approche sur la mise en tension de termes, d’idées ou de figures qu’il oppose et entre lesquels il semble tout à la fois réfléchir, résoudre et exprimer les questions particulières de la conception, visant au final un nouvel équilibre entre les pôles identifiés, ce qu’énonce de manière métaphorique l’oxymore “plan libre”.

Doctorat en Art de bâtir et urbanisme
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The architectural practice of Michael and Louis Beezer, identical twin brothers, lasted from 1892 until 1932. They practiced in Altoona, Pennsylvania, from 1892 until 1899; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1900 until 1906; and in Seattle, Washington, from 1907 until 1932. During their practice, they produced a wide variety of designs including homes, banks, churches, rectories, schools, and hospitals. Today, seventy-two confirmed designs still exist around the country in Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, and Alaska. This creative project documents the Beezer Brothers' surviving buildings through current and historic photographs and a short amount of text with information on the history, style, and features of each building. A history of the firm, supplemented with biographical information, is also included.
Department of Architecture

La thèse porte sur le renouveau de la culture architecturale, intervenu grâce à l'action d'un milieu de jeunes architectes français dans les années 1960 et 1970 qui sont devenus les acteurs principaux des Unités Pédagogiques d'Architecture et en ont fait le lieu de la refondation de l'enseignement de l'architecture et de la naissance de la recherche architecturale. La recherche prend pour support principal d'analyse la revue Architecture Mouvement Continuité publiée entre 1969 et 1981 par la SADG. Si la période traitée correspond d'abord à la vie de la revue, elle se réfère aussi à une histoire plus générale de la société française et de l'architecture contemporaine en France dans une période de changements profonds. En effet, l'intérêt principal de la revue vient du fait que son histoire se soit nouée avec les réalités extérieures complexes. Au coeur de ce renouveau culture, il y a un regard sur l'objet architectural, voire une redéfinition de celui-ci étroitement liée à la construction de l'identité de ces jeunes architectes. Les épisodes constituant l'histoire d'AMC illustrent le projet de ses acteurs d'él argir la discipline architecturale, en donnant une autre légitimité au travail de l'architecte. Ce projet a été élaboré principalement par le biais de la recherche historique, et ce dans le rapport étroit de deux pôles qui paraissent a priori opposés : "connaissance" et "projet" dont le rapport mutuel et productif est fondamental dans ce renouveau culturel
The research aims to understand the renewal of architectural culture, which occurred through the action of a circle of young French architects of the 1960s and 1970s. They have become the key players in the foundation of the Unités Pédagogiques d'Architecture and made the place of remaking architectural education and the birth of architectural research. Our research takes, as the main support of study, the architectural review Architecture Mouvement Continuité published by the SADG between 1967 and 1981. If this period corresponds to the life of the magazine, it also refers to the broad history of society and the contemporary architecture in France in the period of profound changes. Indeed, the main interest of the magazine is that his story is tied with external realities complex. In the middle of this cultural renewal, there is a reconsideration of the architectural object, even a redefinition of it closely related to the construction of the identity of those young architects. The episodes constituting the history of AMC illustrate the project of his actors to broaden the architectural discipline, giving a new legitimacy to the work of architect. This redefinition was done through historical researches – a review of the “Modern movement”, the history of social housing and early-urbanism in France - , in the close relationship of two poles that seem a priori opposed : "knowledge" and "project", whose productive mutual relationship is fundamental to the understanding this cultural renewal

Orientador: Iara Lis Franco Schiavinatto
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: Esta dissertação de mestrado trata da compreensão de uma das mais importantes obras publicadas quanto a uma arquitetura moderna brasileira. Publicação realizada pelo MoMA/NY, em 1943, intitulada Brazil Builds e que, ainda, instaura uma matriz historiográfica para a arquitetura brasileira, vinculando a arquitetura tradicional com as realizações dos arquitetos modernos. Trata-se do dimensionamento da cultura nacional, na primeira metade do século XX, especificamente em relação à política cultural levada a cabo pelo ministro Gustavo Capanema, durante a República Nova e sua decorrência no campo da arquitetura. Finalmente, discute-se a construção de uma cultura visual da arquitetura a partir da uma série de documentos visuais realizados por diversos fotógrafos, dentre os quais se destaca G. E. Kidder Smith. Cultura visual que se pretendia como ordem da cultura nacional, neste caso, ordem de uma cultura arquitetônica moderna brasileira
Abstract: This Master's dissertation aims to understand one of the most important works published about a Brazilian modern architecture. Publication accomplished by the MoMA/NY, in 1943, entitled Brazil Builds it was responsible for the foundation of a historiographic matrix for the Brazilian architecture, vinculating the traditional architecture with the modern architects. It is also about the dimensioning of the national culture in the first half of the 20th century, specifically related to the national cultural politics taken by the minister Gustavo Capanema, during the New Republic and its influence to the architecture. Finally, it talks about the construction of a visual culture to the architecture by a series of visual documents done by photographers, amongst who G. E. Kidder Smith stands out. Visual culture that was intended as an order of the national culture, in this case, order of a Brazilian modern architectural culture
Mestrado
Politica, Memoria e Cidade
Mestre em História

Carrefours où convergent les flux maritimes et terrestres ; lieux où s’échange, se distribue et parfois se transforme. Au fil des siècles, les ports ont subi des modifications et des extensions qui ont réinterprété ou étendu leur rôle de lien entre la terre et la mer. Au lendemain du XXe siècle, le développement des technologies navales et les progrès de la navigation ont conduit à une plus grande capacité de chargement et à une vitesse plus élevée des navires, tandis que dans le même temps, la localisation des industries devenait un sujet fondamental de la géographie économique. Le port a ainsi assumé de nouvelles fonctions complexes et de grandes installations industrielles ont été implantées sur ses quais. Porto Marghera et Fos-sur-Mer sont deux exemples de ports industriels en Méditerranée. Ils ont été créés respectivement au début et à la fin de la période de cette recherche. L’enquête concerne l’évolution du complexe portuaire du point de vue technique et de l’infrastructure et l’impact que cela a eu sur la relation ville-port. Dans les deux cas, nous observons un processus de territorialisation du complexe portuaire et, en même temps, une dissociation progressive du centre urbain d’origine. La réflexion qui en résulte concerne la valeur testimoniale de ces énormes organismes, protagonistes de l’histoire contemporaine de la Méditerranée – et plus particulièrement de Venise et de Marseille au XXe siècle; ABSTRACT: Two industrial ports of the Mediterranean in the 20th century: Porto Marghera and Fos-sur-Mer 1917-1968 - Hubs where maritime and land flows converge; where exchange, distribution and sometimes transformation take place. Over the centuries, ports have undergone modifications and extensions that have reinterpreted or extended their role as a link between land and sea. In the aftermath of the 20th century, the development of naval technologies and the progress of navigation led to a greater loading capacity and higher speed of ships, while at the same time the location of industries became a fundamental subject of economic geography. The port thus took on new complex functions and large industrial plants were established on its quays. Porto Marghera and Fos-sur-Mer are two examples of industrial ports in the Mediterranean. They were established at the beginning and at the end of the research period respectively. The investigation concerns the evolution of the port complex from a technical and infrastructural point of view and the impact this had on the city-port relationship. In both cases, we observe a process of territorialization of the port complex and, at the same time, a progressive dissociation from the original urban centre. The resulting reflection concerns the testimonial value of these enormous organisms, protagonists in contemporary history of the Mediterranean – and especially in the history of Venice and Marseille in the 20th century. Mots clès : Histoire des techniques, Patrimoine industriel, Ports industriels, Méditerranée, Villes portuaires, XXe siècle Keywords: History of techniques, Industrial heritage, Industrial ports, Mediterranean, Port cities, 20th Century.

This thesis explores the contribution to the cultural life of post-war Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. It researches the lives and work not only of displaced artists arriving in the mass exodus from Europe after the Second World War, but also second and third generation artists descended from original migrant families, and much later émigré artists. Art histories written to date about the post-war period provide little coverage of the contributionto the art and culture of Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. The coverage in the literature written about the visual art produced by established Australian artists is far greater than that given to the migrant artists also exhibiting at the same time. Insofar as the ‘gap’ in the literature is concerned, this research reveals a number of factors which appear to have influenced the non-recognition of migrant art—such as, poor reception of abstract art in Australia post-war and the protection of established Australian artists. The impact of European abstract expressionism that migrants introduced in the 1950s had a lasting effect on Australian modern art, together with the innovation of their contemporary sculpture, which changed the urban landscape of Australian cities. This research questions the possible long term repercussions emanating from colonial Anglocentric Australian government policies, which in turn leads to questions about the importance and location of cultural heritage, sense of identity, third space and cultural hybridity. With a focus on migrant artists from north-eastern Europe—the Baltic States and Poland—the research investigates how second and third generation artists locate their visual art in relation to their cultural environment and how they navigate between their cultural heritage and the cultural mosaic of an Australian context. The impact of war on artists from migrant families through the subjugated experience of those families is also addressed to ascertain any effect on the visual art currently being produced. Interviews were conducted with ten artists of north-east European ancestry, using an ethnographic qualitative research methodology incorporating in-depth interviews together with close analysis of artwork during interview or subsequent contact in the artists’ studios and at exhibitions of their work. Research revealed that, regarding a sense of belonging and identity, nine of the ten artists still retain a perception of living between cultures, which appears congruous with the importance of the retention of language and ‘home’ culture. Making art appears to strengthen their sense of living between cultures, and their creative praxis combines experiences passed down through the generations fused into their own Australian life-world, modified and shaped within a third space of meaning. The thesis argues that second and third generation Australian artists, whilst engaging with contemporary issues, make reference to cultural traditions interspersed with comment on contemporary conditions, resulting in a syncretic articulation which forms a third space of cultural transformation and unity. The investigation into the impact of war, particularly World War II, revealed that only five participating artists directly manifest war themes in their visual art. However, the repercussions of that war and the Cold War, which lasted for many years after the Second World War, appear to have been subconsciously imprinted on the artwork of all three categories of artist, i.e. second and third generation and émigré artists. The cultural aesthetics migrants introduced has had a long-lasting effect on Australian tastes generally and on art education in particular. This research underlines the particular contribution of migrant artists from north-east Europe, revealing the aesthetic value such cultural integration has produced. This research seeks to initiate dialogue and a growing understanding of the rich and complex history of art and culture which migration has stimulated in Australia since the 1950s.

There is a great determination towards an increased accessibility in today’s society.  This creates some problems, when the building in question is a historic building of cultural significance, due to legislations and protective regulations. This thesis is executed as research for The National Property Board Sweden (SFV), who deals with these kinds of difficulties daily. The objective of this theses was to explore the influence of accessibility adaptation on cultural values in historic buildings from the 19th century, with a focus on doorways. The aim is also to identify possible faults and weaknesses that could cause a loss in cultural values. The study is based on a literature review and observations of eight doorways in the historical buildings Gamla Riksarkivet, Kungliga Operan, Linneanum and Uppsala Universitetshus. For each doorway actions and procedures have been identified and categorized based on the affected cultural values using two different evaluation models. The visual changes are, according to the result, the most frequent reason behind the affected cultural values that has been studied. The increase in social reforms and legislation about accessibility are the result of a changing society that has altered its preceptions of disabilities. This could be traced back as one of the major reasons that might be behind the loss of cultural values. Accessible environments are important, we should however consider that the cultural heritage is poorly accessible for a reason. It has been discovered that the studied archive files and documents have a lack of information, what actions and procedures the building had endured are vague. The amount of details explaining the procedures and justification of the actions are also limited, especially in the permit applications from SFV and its resolve from RAÄ. In order to facilitate the issue of how the legislation for accessibility and cultural values should ​​be interpreted, policy documents of how the laws should relate to each other are required.
I dagens samhälle finns en stark drivkraft för att göra samhället så tillgängligt som möjligt för människor med olika funktionsnedsättningar. Det skapar en problematik när det kommer till Sveriges kulturarv, som skyddas av olika lagar, förordningar och skyddsföreskrifter. Arbetet utfördes åt statens fastighetsverk, som är en av Sveriges största myndigheter, vad gäller förvaltning av kulturfastigheter och dagligen brottas med denna problematik. Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka hur kulturvärden i dörrmiljöer hos statliga byggnadsminnen från 1800-talet påverkas i samband med åtgärder för att förbättra tillgängligheten. Målet var även att identifiera eventuella brister eller oväntade anledningar till att kulturvärden kan gå förlorade. Studien grundas på dokument- och fallstudier, som genomförts på totalt åtta dörrmiljöer i byggnaderna Gamla Riksarkivet, Kungliga Operan, Linneanum och Uppsala Universitetshus. För varje dörrmiljö har åtgärder och ingrepp som utförts identifierats. Därefter har en värdering och tolkning genomförts, utifrån två olika värderingsmodeller, av vilka kulturvärden som påverkats. Resultatet visar, att det är de visuella förändringarna, som påverkat kulturvärdena hos dörrmiljöerna i de flesta fall. Förändringarna i samhället och vår uppfattning av funktionsnedsättningar har drivit igenom de sociala reformer, som ursprungligen lett till förlusterna av kulturvärden. Samtidigt som tillgänglighet är en viktig fråga, bör vi ta hänsyn till faktumet att kulturarvet är dåligt anpassat för funktionshindrade av en anledning. I dokumentation och arkivhandlingar, som studerats, finns en tydlig brist kring vilka ingrepp som genomförts på byggnaderna sedan dess uppförande. Det är även en mycket låg detaljeringsnivå på de förklaringar och motiveringar, som finns i de tillståndsansökningar och beslut, som studerats från SFV och RAÄ. För att underlätta problematiken kring hur lagstiftningen för tillgänglighet och kulturvärden tolkas, bör bestämmelser och styrdokument för hur de olika lagstiftningarna ska förhålla sig till varandra tas fram.

Esta dissertação pretende contribuir para um melhor conhecimento da complexidade das redes de transferência de conhecimentos e técnicas, no domínio da engenharia civil e mais concretamente através dos caminhos-de-ferro, nos séculos XIX e XX. Em Portugal, os caminhos-de-ferro estiveram no cerne de um vasto debate, sobretudo político, concomitante com uma instabilidade crescente no cenário político e uma fase de fragilidade económica. É neste contexto que a Linha do Sul e Sueste vai ser construída (seguida pela sua extensão até Vila Real de Santo António e pela construção do ramal de Portimão, que chegará a Lagos). Este empreendimento é uma clara ilustração da realidade portuguesa de então, no que concerne ao desenvolvimento desta rede de transportes, que nos permite, igualmente, conhecer e compreender quem interveio no processo de construção da linha (os engenheiros, as empresas, entre outros aspectos) e assim determinar quais as influências e transferências técnicas que tiveram lugar; RESUMEE: Cette mémoire attire à la contribution pour une meilleure connaissance de la complexité des réseaux de transfert de techniques et connaissances qui ont eu lieu dans le domaine de l’ingénierie civile, surtout dans les chemins de fer, au XIXème et XXème siècles. Au Portugal, les chemins de fer sont été le cerne d’un très vaste débat, coïncidant avec une croissante instabilité dans le scenario politique et aussi une phase économique fragile. C’est dans ce contexte que la Ligne du Sud et Sud-est va être bâti (suivi par l’extension jusqu’à Vila Real de Santo António et la construction de l’embranchement ferroviaire Portimão). Cette entreprise c’est une illustration claire de la réalité portugaise, en concernant l’implémentation de cette réseau de transport, que nous permettre de comprendre et également bien connaitre qui a intervenu dans le processus de construction de la ligne (les ingénieurs, entreprises, etcetera), ainsi que déterminer les influences et les transferts techniques qui ont eu lieu; ABSTRACT: With this master’s thesis, the aim is to be able to contribute to a better understanding of the complex network of technique’s and knowledge transfers, that took place within the field of civil engineering, in the 19th and 20th centuries, namely on the railways. In Portugal, railways take-up was a wide and ample debate, coinciding with an uprising turmoil on the Portuguese political outskirt and a phase of economic frailty. It’s in this context that the construction of the South and Southeast Line took place (followed, later on, by its extension until Vila Real de Santo António and by the construction of the Portimão’s branch). This enterprise is, as we pretend to prove in this master’s thesis, a clear example of the Portuguese reality, enabling us to understand and to get to know those who intervened in the construction’s process (the engineers and the companies) as well as determining influences and technique transfers that have taken place.

The starting point of the thesis consists of a number of statements by prominent representatives of the cultural elite characterising architecture with references to classicism as the modern architecture. In the following years Swedish architecture was dominated by references to classical historical architecture focussing on the ideal of simplicity, which in turn formed a wider conceptual framework of ideas and ideals for architectural creation. The simple reason why the classical historical architecture became something of a role model was that it represented all these new ideals. The main purpose of the thesis is to study how architects made use of the more prominent ideals in the new conceptual framework. A secondary purpose is to describe and analyse the three chosen buildings in detail. A third purpose is to situate these buildings into the broader national context. The buildings under study are Liljevalchs konsthall (Liljevalchs Art Gallery), Kanslihuset (The Government Offices) and Kungstornen (The Towers). They were built at different times between 1910 and 1930. Each building has an obvious connection between the building program and the social changes of the time. In the first chapter the contemporary conceptual framework is presented based on examples from the architectural debate. The most important parts were the opposition to the traditional ideals in combination with the formulating of new ones like simplicity, unity and clarity as well as an orientation towards the historical national architecture and an open attitude towards new techniques. Central to the usage of the basic of elements of the historical architecture was transformation rather than imitation. The common view meant that role models and basic creational elements of the past were regarded as opportunities for new developments. The three following chapters examine the buildings under study. The buildings and their planning processes are described and the application of the historical references and their relations to historical buildings in the environment are analysed in detail. The buildings are further discussed in relation to the broader social trends of the time. The Art Gallery is discussed in view of its connections to the contemporary industrial architecture due to the industrialisation. The analysis of the Government Offices situates the practical and symbolic aspects of the building in the contemporary struggle between the monarchy and the old civil service and the newly established parliamentary democracy. The Towers are discussed in relation to the contemporary discussion of skyscrapers in Europe and in relation to the beginning of commercialism and popular culture.

QC 20120424

Brisbane architect-designed houses of the 1960s embodied a final manifestation of the Modern Movement in the twentieth century. The Modern architectural language of these houses was tempered by geographical and social factors,including the sub-tropical climate, Queensland's traditional architecture and the particular decade in which they were designed. Characteristics of the sixties era which influenced the architecture included the economic climate, materials and technology, and the lifestyle of the people for whom the houses were designed. Eleven architects who designed sixties houses were interviewed for this study. These interviews provided a first-hand account of each architect's design motivation and of the character of the period. Four houses were examined for the Case Study and this chapter includes drawings, photographs and a statement by the architect about each house. The legacy of the era is discussed, in relation to the surviving houses from the Case Study, and in general about the body of work that is left. The houses from the sixties make up a significant body of work that is important in the development of the distinctively Queensland house and in the history of architecture in this state.

The overall aim of the thesis is to discuss cultural significations and notions of colour in Swedish post-war architecture. More specifically, the purpose is to analyse the question of colour in architecture linked to the polychrome walls of Årsta Community Centre, including background, intentions, cultural context and debate. Årsta Community Centre, situated just south of Stockholm, was built in 1947-53. The buildings as well as the colourful paintings covering the walls facing the square were designed by architects and brothers Erik and Tore Ahlsén. Newspapers and journals showed a clear indignation concerning the colourful exterior walls. Why did the polychrome walls at Årsta raise so much attention and cause such criticism? And how are these reactions related to contemporary ideas of colour in architecture in general? The thesis is divided into six chapters. The introductory chapter is followed by a historical retrospect with examples of use and notions of colour in architecture, in order to present a prelude to post-war thoughts and design. This text leads up to two central concepts developed for this thesis: Structural and independent colour effect. The third chapter presents Årsta Community Centre with focus on the polychrome walls at Årsta square, analysing the role of the architects and the cultural and social environment in which they were interacting. Special attention is paid to the important inspiration provided by the thoughts of the Danish artist and writer Asger Jorn. The forth chapter deals with the critique of Årsta square as well as arguments in contemporary debates concerning colour in architecture (as for example in the Apollo and Dionysus-debate). Chapter five discusses the role of independent colour effect in art and architecture of the 1940´s and 50´s related to examples of contemporary ideas and use of history. The conclusions of the study are presented in the sixth chapter. It contains an interpretation of the polychrome space, mainly focusing on two themes: The first is the understanding of the square as a theatre, based on historical social and urban patterns. The second is the suggestion of a modernistic language of colour and architecture for common man that is universal and time-less, challenging established social and material hierarchies. The thesis finishes with an analysis and a summary point by point of the critique directed at the colours of Årsta Community Centre with main emphasis on the underlaying political motives.

QC 20101112

La réflexion engagée dans la thèse propose une archéologie des représentations collectives se rapportant à l’espace domestique de l’écrivain et à son œuvre au moyen d’une socio-critique des textes où elles prennent corps. À partir de la notion de « maison-musée », la maison-musée de l’écrivain est considérée comme un lieu réel et comme une structure mentale et matérielle où s’inventent, s’organisent, s’exposent et sont conservées des « images d’écrivain » qui, quoique variées, voire hétérogènes, définissent un imaginaire et une imagerie cohérents de la figure de l’écrivain. Dans la thèse, la dimension discursive de la « paratopie » du lieu d’écriture est mise en perspective avec les approches posturales et scénographiques centrées sur la figure de l’écrivain. Pour ce faire, l’étude postule que l’agencement des objets dans les maisons-musées s’appuie sur ces « scéno-mythographies ». Des dispositifs d’exposition divers les transposeraient par la suite dans l’espace muséal. Partant, la thèse montre que les mises en scène de l’écrivain à demeure constituent un levier essentiel des appropriations mémorielles collectives des écrivains et de leurs œuvres parce qu’elles cristallisent des représentations mythiques à succès qui s’actualisent dans l’esprit du temps. Plus largement, elles participent à l’écriture de l’histoire littéraire qui s’institutionnalise au XIXe siècle : elles mettent l’accent sur certains écrivains, sur une mythologie de la création littéraire et sur des œuvres qui ont vu le jour dans de « hauts-lieux littéraires ». Enfin, il s’agit de comprendre les enjeux de poétique et de réception qui lient les maisons des écrivains à leur œuvre littéraire
The reflection undertaken in the thesis offers an archaeology of the collective representations relating to the writer’s domestic space and work, by means of a socio-criticism of the texts in which they materialise. From the notion of “house-museum”, the writer’s house-museum is considered a real place, as well as a mental and material structure where « images of the writer » are invented, organised and displayed. Albeit varied, even heterogonous, these images define a coherent imagination and imagery of the writer’s figure. In the thesis, the discursive dimension of the writing place′s “paratopia” is put into perspective with scenographic and postural approaches that are centred on the figure of the writer. To that end, the study predicates that the arrangement of objects in house-museums is based on these ‘‘sceno-mythographies,’’ which are then transposed into the museum space thanks to various display devices. Right from the start, the thesis shows that the writer’s stagings perpetually constitute an essential lever of the writers’ collective memorial appropriations and their works because they crystallise successful mythical representations, which are actualized in the spirit of the age. More broadly, they take part in writing the literary history that is institutionalised in the 19th century: they put the emphasis on certain writers, on a mythology of the literary creation, and on works that came to life in “high literary places.” Finally, the thesis tackles the issues of poetics and reception that link the writers’ houses to their literary work

Le XXe siècle est un siècle de mutations, à la fois dans la conception des espaces et dans la novation technique. Les matériaux et les procédés de mise en œuvre se développent, issus de recherches scientifiques et d’applications industrielles. Il se joue alors une transformation matérielle et culturelle de la société par l’architecture, où la novation technique cohabite avec les méthodes de construction traditionnelle, où les nouvelles constructions dialoguent avec les édifices du passé. Comment un matériau ancestral, donné par le site, appartenant à l’histoire du lieu, est-il réinvesti dans la conception architecturale nouvelle, dans un contexte culturel, économique et industriel spécifique ? Appliqué au Midi toulousain, comment la brique de terre cuite a-t-elle perduré et a-t-elle été réinvestie dans des projets contemporains durant le XXe siècle ? La thèse de doctorat en architecture se propose de répondre à cette problématique au travers de la novation de la brique de terre cuite en Midi toulousain, dans l’entre-deux-guerres élargi, 1910-1947. Cette période présente des contextes ambivalents voire duels : une production entre industrielle, semi-industrielle et artisanale, un contexte culturel entre aspirations modernes, et nouvelles, et régionalisme, et repli sur soi, et un contexte architectural qui oscille aussi entre nouveaux matériaux, avec l’usage croissant du ciment armé, et matériaux rustiques et bruts hérités de la tradition. La question de recherche que la thèse entend développer est la suivante : dans le Midi toulousain, où la brique est couramment employée depuis l’Antiquité, comment s’exprime, dans l’entre-deux-guerres, les valeurs de modernité et de nouveauté dans les projets des architectes ?
The 20th century was a century of change, both in terms of spatial design and in terms of technical innovation. Materials and their utilization processes for evolved through scientific research and industrial application. Overall, a material and cultural transformation was taking place, with technical innovation coexisting with traditional construction methods, and with new constructions in constant dialogue with buildings from the past. Following these observations, a number of questions emerges: How is an ancestral material, given by the site and belonging to the history of the place, reinvested in the new architectural design; more so, in a particular cultural, economic and industrial context? Looking at the context of the Midi Toulousain, how did the terracotta brick persist and get reinvested in contemporary projects during the 20th century? This doctoral thesis in Architecture attempts to respond to these questions through an exploration of the innovation around the terracotta brick in the Midi Toulousain, in the enlarged interwar period between 1910 and1947 – r a period of several contradictions: : a production situated between industrial, semi-industrial and craftsmanship; a cultural context situated between modern aspirations, , and regional, inwards with drawl; , an architectural context that oscillates between new materials, with the increasing use of reinforced cement, and rustic,raw materials inherited from tradition. The research question of the thesis is as follows: in the Midi Toulousain, where the terracotta brick has been widely used since the Antiquity, how is modernity and novelty expressed in architectural projects of the architects in the interwar period?

In the framework of the conservation of early reinforced concrete structures from the last third of the 19th century up to 1914, this research deals with superstructures (excluding foundations, roads, pipes, etc.) in reinforced concrete (in the modern sense of the term – i.e. concrete made with artificial cement and rebars supplying tensile strength; thus, the combination of a metal profile embedded in concrete is excluded). The development of reinforced concrete as a building material started around 1880 and became widespread around the time of the First World War. Some of the structures concerned are listed as heritage properties today. Therefore they deserve specific and careful study to ensure long-term preservation of their historic, architectural, technical and socio-economic value. They bear witness to a period in construction history when reinforced concrete was a new material. The outbreak of the First World War marked the end of the initial period of innovation, exploration and experimentation. By then, reinforced concrete had become widely accepted and adopted as a suitable and effective building material. However, present-day attempts at restoration often prove inadequate, due to incomplete understanding of this period of construction and the characteristics of the first generation of reinforced concrete. If the causes of degradation are incorrectly diagnosed, the repairs are likely to be inappropriate. Moreover, the number of reinforced concrete structures requiring repair work is currently increasing with the natural ageing of the material. This phenomenon will continue to grow in the coming years.

With this in mind, the present research aims at identifying the specific structural characteristics of reinforced concrete structures erected before the First World War. Several axes of investigation were pursued in this PhD research and have resulted in the main observations detailed below.

- Based on a case study of the region of Brussels (Belgium), a database of structures built in reinforced concrete prior to 1914 was drawn up in order to place the material in its historical and geographical context. The inventory currently contains 507 examples and provides a panorama of the uses of reinforced concrete, ranging from numerous foundations and slabs to a complete structure from the end of the 1890s. This list is supplemented by a survey of a total of 605 patents filed for reinforced concrete in Belgium before the First World War. The early development of reinforced concrete was strongly related to national patenting, with a considerable number of systems being patented by private inventors for commercial purposes. Reinforced concrete profoundly transformed the building industry. All the professions working with the composite material had to change their approach, from the planning stage through to execution on the site. From the viewpoint of construction history, all these modifications make the time of the advent of reinforced concrete a particularly fruitful period to study.

- From the survey of early reinforced concrete structures in Brussels and the database of Belgian patents, the supremacy of the Frenchman François Hennebique and his system on the Brussels market for reinforced concrete (and, by extension, on the Belgian market) before 1914 is incontestable. This commercial achievement resulted from a combination of factors: an efficient structural system, meticulous attention to the quality of on-site reinforced concrete execution, and the commercial acumen to develop the business through advertising and other media. The well-known Hennebique system represents a monolithic structure including slabs, beams and columns. In fact, this system changed over the decades of operation of Hennebique’s company, not so much in relation to the design methods (his original semi-empirical method continued to be used) but particularly in practical terms (the type and location of the rebars among others). The evolution of the system is analysed by means of technical drawings from about 30 Belgian projects designed by Hennebique between 1900 and 1930.

- After the building contractors, who had been the first to believe in the structural and economic potential of reinforced concrete, engineers invented the calculation models and architects started developing new shapes. The Belgian engineer Paul Christophe was among the first theorists of reinforced concrete. The publication of his book Le béton armé et ses applications in 1899 is internationally recognised as a milestone in the rational modelling of structural reinforced concrete elements. Prior to the present study, details of his life and work remained largely uninvestigated, but the discovery of large parts of his personal archives has allowed clarification of his role in the popularisation of reinforced concrete, especially at the theoretical level.

- Reinforced concrete structures around the beginning of the 20th century were initially governed by empirical models of calculation (and execution) developed by the individual constructors. Gradually, reinforced concrete standards, published between 1904 and 1923 and based on working stress analysis and elastic modular ratio theory, replaced the utility of the patented systems. The different theoretical approaches are briefly described in this research. Mastering the theoretical assumptions and calculation methods used at the time represents the first step towards an appreciation of the structural behaviour and the possible weaknesses that can be expected.

- A review, based on literature published at that time, of the properties of the components of reinforced concrete allows identification of the characteristic materials used in the concrete matrix and the metal reinforcements. The execution process and the available technological tools for erecting a reinforced concrete structure are also addressed, as these would have had a direct influence on the quality of construction. Non-destructive and destructive experimental laboratory tests were performed on original samples, mainly removed from the Colo-Hugues viaduct (1904, Braine-l’Alleud, Hennebique system) in order to assess the mechanical properties, chemical features and durability issues for concrete and ferrous reinforcements. Comparing the results obtained using different techniques also makes it possible to determine the extent to which these techniques are reliable for the appraisal of early reinforced concrete structures.

- The structural efficiency of the Hennebique system is assessed based on an understanding of the principles of Hennebique’s semi-empirical method of calculation, but also – and primarily – by means of observations from experimental tests carried out on full-sized beams removed from the Colo-Hugues viaduct. Analysing and understanding the behaviour of the new composite material was a critical issue for promoting the use of reinforced concrete at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, what is required is a re-assessment of its structural behaviour. Three bending tests up to failure in simply supported conditions were performed at the BATir Department of the Université libre de Bruxelles on T-beams from the Colo-Hugues viaduct. This case study is representative of the majority of Hennebique structures, because the typical continuous straight T-beam is the main structural element of any Hennebique structure (bridge, building, etc.). The first test is a four-point bending test on a complete span (6 m) of the viaduct to obtain the response of the central part under positive bending moment. The flexural failure was ductile and occurred through yielding of the reinforcements followed by crushing of the concrete at mid-span. The second and third tests are three-point bending tests on 4 m long specimens centred on the column, representing the behaviour of the beam around the supports. These showed a sudden slipping failure due to loss of the adhesive bond between rebars. The results of these three experiments combined reproduce the actual behaviour of the viaduct in service. The bearing capacity of the Hennebique system in service and at ultimate has been demonstrated, at least for one loading case. These experimental tests provide essential data for a better understanding of the mechanisms of failure and reveal the main weaknesses of the Hennebique T-beam. Two strengthening solutions are suggested as supplementary information.

- The pathologies observed in early reinforced concrete structures (honeycombs, corrosion of the rebars, and so on) are mainly attributable to the tools and techniques that the builders had at their disposal (handmade compaction, high water-to-cement ratio, etc.) and by the limited contemporary knowledge of the physical and chemical phenomena, especially with regard to long-term effects. In fact, the concrete quality of the viaduct is surprisingly satisfactory despite its great age, due to the fact that the whole structure was covered with plaster, like the majority of reinforced concrete structures designed at that time.

This research establishes that reinforced concrete structures from 1880 to 1914 differ from later reinforced concrete structures. Taking into consideration the features of early reinforced concrete structures will contribute to ensuring sustainable conservation with limited intervention, thus preserving as much as possible of the original structure when restoration work is undertaken. Working on existing buildings often requires a multidisciplinary and holistic approach. The present study could thus be extended in various areas. For example, other structural aspects could be studied more in depth, such as demonstration of the shear strength of the Hennebique system or detailed consideration of the reinforcements (low adherence, particular anchorage devices, etc.)/

C'est dans le cadre de la conservation, au sens large du terme, que s'inscrit cette recherche sur les constructions en béton armé de première génération, c'est-à-dire de la fin du 19ème siècle au début du 20ème siècle. Cette recherche traite uniquement des superstructures, à l'exclusion des fondations, routes, tuyaux, etc. et en béton armé au sens moderne du terme, c'est-à-dire un béton réalisé à base de ciment artificiel et dont les armatures interviennent surtout pour reprendre les efforts de traction, ce qui exclut par exemple les utilisations de poutrelles métalliques enrobées de béton. Certains de ces ouvrages, réalisés entre 1880 et 1914, font aujourd'hui partie intégrante du patrimoine bâti, pour leurs valeurs architecturale, historique, technique ou aussi socio-économique. Ils jalonnent désormais l'histoire de la construction comme témoins d'une époque où le béton armé était un matériau nouveau. La Première Guerre mondiale marque la fin de cette période de premières innovations, d'explorations et d'expérimentations. Elle entérine l'acceptation et la diffusion du béton armé comme matériau de construction à part entière. Cependant, ainsi que le montrent certains projets de restauration actuels aux interventions inadéquates, il y a encore une méconnaissance des spécificités du béton armé de cette époque. Les causes de leurs dégradations mal diagnostiquées sont traitées de façon inappropriée. Or, dans les prochaines années, nombre de structures en béton armé construites dans la première moitié du 20ème siècle seront amenées à subir une rénovation suite au vieillissement naturel du matériau. C'est pourquoi pour conserver au mieux ces structures, il est indispensable d'étudier en détails leurs caractéristiques techniques pour ensuite intervenir, si nécessaire, de façon précise et adaptée.

Ce doctorat s'attèle donc à identifier les particularités des constructions en béton armé construites avant l'avènement de la Première Guerre mondiale, et plus spécifiquement à étudier leurs aspects structuraux. Plusieurs axes de recherche ont été développés et ont abouti aux principaux résultats suivants.

- Basé sur le cas de la région de Bruxelles-Capitale (Belgique), un inventaire des interventions en béton armé, construites avant 1914, a été dressé pour replacer le matériau dans son contexte historique et géographique. Cette base de données, comprenant 507 biens jusqu'à présent, illustre les types d'utilisation du béton armé dans la construction au début du 20ème siècle, d'abord des fondations ou simples planchers, jusqu'à une structure monolithique complète dès la fin des années 1890. Cet inventaire est complété par le relevé détaillé des brevets, au nombre de 605, déposés à ce sujet en Belgique avant la Première Guerre mondiale. Les brevets ont joué un rôle fondamental dans le développement du béton armé. Celui-ci était, en effet, régi par un foisonnement de systèmes commerciaux, majoritairement brevetés. L'introduction du béton armé a transformé en profondeur le secteur de la construction et notamment les professions liées tant à la phase de conception qu'au chantier lui-même. Du point de vue de l'histoire de la construction, toutes ces mutations font de l'avènement du béton armé une période historique riche.

- A la lecture du panorama offert par les inventaires des constructions et des brevets, la prééminence de la compagnie du Français François Hennebique, et donc de son système, sur le marché bruxellois (et par extrapolation sur le marché belge) du béton armé avant 1914 est indéniable. La réussite commerciale de Hennebique résulte d'une combinaison de facteurs: un système efficace sur le plan structural, une qualité d'exécution de béton coulé en place fiable et méticuleuse ainsi qu'un sens développé des affaires, en maîtrisant l'art de la promotion et de la publicité notamment. Le système bien connu de Hennebique comprend un ensemble monolithique formé par des dalles (hourdis), poutres et colonnes. Ce système a, en réalité, évolué dans le temps, pas tant d'un point de vue théorique (les calculs de dimensionnement sont les mêmes) mais plutôt pratique (positionnement, type d'armatures, etc.). Cette évolution a été observée par l'étude d'une trentaine de cas pratiques exécutés par Hennebique entre 1900 et 1930 en Belgique.

- Après les entrepreneurs, qui ont été les premiers à croire aux nouvelles possibilités constructives qu'offre le béton armé ainsi qu'à son succès commercial, les ingénieurs en inventent les principes de calcul et les architectes en révolutionnent les formes. L'ingénieur belge Paul Christophe fut parmi les premiers théoriciens du béton armé. La publication de son ouvrage Le béton armé et ses applications en 1899 constitue une étape importante, et internationalement reconnue, pour le dimensionnement rationnel d'éléments structuraux en béton armé. Jusqu'à la présente recherche, sa vie et son œuvre étaient restées assez confidentielles mais la découverte d'une partie de ses archives personnelles a permis de clarifier son rôle dans la diffusion, surtout théorique, du béton armé.

- Les structures en béton armé d'avant la Première Guerre mondiale furent d'abord gouvernées par des méthodes empiriques de dimensionnement (et d'exécution) développées par chaque constructeur. L'apparition des premières règlementations entre 1904 et 1923, basées sur une analyse en contraintes admissibles et la théorie du coefficient d'équivalence, remplace ensuite peu-à-peu l'utilité des systèmes brevetés. Les différentes approches théoriques sont brièvement décrites dans cette recherche. Maitriser les hypothèses et les méthodes de calculs employées à l'époque est, en effet, une première étape pour comprendre le fonctionnement structural prévu et les potentielles défaillances de dimensionnement.

- A travers une lecture attentive de la littérature publiée à cette période, les matériaux intervenants dans la fabrication du béton armé (c'est-à-dire le béton et les armatures) et utilisés couramment au début du 20ème siècle ont été identifiés ainsi que les moyens disponibles à cette époque pour produire des structures en béton armé. Des méthodes d'essais non-destructives et destructives ont été appliquées principalement, sur le viaduc Colo-Hugues (1904, Braine-l'Alleud, système Hennebique) afin d'évaluer les caractéristiques mécaniques, les propriétés chimiques et la durabilité tant du béton que des renforcements métalliques. Comparer les résultats de ces différentes méthodes permet d'aborder les limites d'utilisation de ces techniques, lorsqu'il s'agit d'évaluer structuralement des bétons armés de première génération.

- Grâce à la compréhension des principes, semi-empiriques, de dimensionnement appliqués par le bureau Hennebique en son temps mais surtout grâce aux observations déduites des essais expérimentaux réalisés sur des poutres de grandeur réelle, prélevées sur le viaduc Colo-Hugues, le fonctionnement structural réel du système Hennebique est évalué. Comprendre et modéliser le comportement du nouveau matériau composite fut une problématique fondamentale pour accroître l'usage du béton armé au début du 20ème siècle. Actuellement, il s'agit de réévaluer le comportement de ces structures. Trois essais jusqu'à rupture ont été menés, au département BATir de l'Université libre de Bruxelles, sur des poutres à gousset en T provenant du viaduc Colo-Hugues en conditions isostatiques et soumises à flexion. Ce viaduc des chemins de fer vicinaux est un cas d'étude représentatif de la majorité des constructions Hennebique, car la poutre de section en T est la structure typique du système Hennebique, utilisée tant dans les ouvrages d'art que dans les bâtiments. Le premier essai est une flexion 4 points sur une travée complète du viaduc (6 m de portée) pour obtenir la réponse en zone de moment maximum positif. La rupture ductile a eu lieu par plastification des armatures suivie d'un écrasement du béton en zone centrale, c'est-à-dire dans la zone la plus sollicitée. Deux éléments identiques de longueur de 4 m ont été essayés en flexion 3 points pour représenter le comportement sur appuis. La rupture de ces deux dernières expériences s'est produite suite à un glissement des armatures sur appuis (goussets à côté de la colonne). Il s'agit donc d'une rupture à caractère fragile. Les trois essais combinés représentent correctement la structure hyperstatique du viaduc dans son fonctionnement en service. La capacité portante réelle du système Hennebique en service et à l'état limite ultime, du moins dans un cas de chargement, a pu être expliquée. Ces essais fournissent les données essentielles pour estimer l'efficacité structurale du système Hennebique et identifier ses faiblesses. Deux solutions de renforcement sont proposées en complément d'information.

- Les pathologies observées dans les bétons armés datant du début du 20ème siècle (nids de graviers, corrosion des armatures, etc.) sont, la plupart du temps, causées par les outils sommaires à la disposition des constructeurs (vibration à la main, rapport eau/ciment plus élevé qu'aujourd'hui, etc.) et par une connaissance limitée des phénomènes physiques et chimiques, surtout à long terme. En fait, la qualité du béton du viaduc Colo-Hugues est particulièrement satisfaisante malgré l'âge avancé du béton, grâce notamment à l'enduit recouvrant l'ensemble du viaduc, ce qui est le cas pour la majorité des structures de la période étudiée.

Cette recherche démontre que les constructions en béton armé datant de 1880 à 1914 diffèrent des ouvrages postérieurs en béton armé et qu'il serait utile pour leur restauration de tenir compte de ces spécificités. La connaissance approfondie des particularités des constructions en béton armé de première génération permettra, espérons-le, de contribuer à leur longévité en intervenant le moins possible sur les structures d'origine. Etant donné que l'étude des structures existantes nécessite le plus souvent une approche pluridisciplinaire, ce travail pourrait être poursuivi dans plusieurs domaines variés. Il resterait notamment à approfondir d'autres aspects de stabilité, comme par exemple la démonstration de l'efficacité à l'effort tranchant du système Hennebique ou encore la prise en considération plus détaillée des armatures (adhérence limitée, forme d'ancrage particulier, etc.).
Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Defence date: 14 May 2004
Examining board: Prof. Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool ; Prof. Cris Shore, University of Auckland ; Prof. Alan Milward, European University Institute ; Prof. Bo Stråth, European University Institute (Supervisor)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

The aim of this thesis is to conduct a survey of the preservation of architectural cultural heritage at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. This will be demonstrated using as an example the historical centre of Prague. The thesis is divided into two similar parts. The first one focuses on the system, workings and legislation of heritage preservation in the 1980s. Partially it describes broader social and political aspects of the 1980s as well. The second part addresses the same topics, but during the beginning of the 1990s. In each case, three heritage preservation examples have been selected and these provide a closer examination of the system of cultural heritage preservation described earlier. The research work conducted demonstrates that whilst during the 1970s and 1980s a preservation system of the centre of Prague was gradually established, the 1990s saw the system being slowly disrupted and weakened, whether intentionally or unintentionally. However, heritage preservation never achieved a fully satisfactory standard in either studied period. Keywords: heritage preservation - historic preservation - architecture - urbanism - Prague - 20th century

This study identifies and analyzes architectural inscriptions found on university and public libraries from the period of 1890 to 1930 in the United States. An architectural inscription refers to carved text, most often found adorning the walls of the interior or exterior of the building. The period of 1890 to 1930 saw the increased use of the inscription on a range of civic and institutional architecture. The era was particularly prone to moralizing and didactic sayings, which stemmed from a number of social and political factors. University libraries were drawn to the inscription as an ornamental type, for it became an expression of the ideals of the school and reflected a desire for legitimacy and sophistication. This study analyzes the decisions behind the inscriptional program, which often uncovers the latent agenda of the librarian, university president, or building committee. At the same time, the Beaux Arts and Neo-Gothic styles that were widely adopted for library buildings carried their own conventions for the aesthetic and associative use of the inscription. This study analyzes the historical and aesthetic factors that influenced university library inscriptions, and provides insight into the particular inscriptional themes found on number of American universities.
Architectural inscriptions and morality, 1890-1930 -- Trends in library building -- Inscriptions of Beaux Arts university libraries -- Inscriptions of Neo-Gothic university libraries -- Influence of the Modern movement and the resurgence of contemporary library inscriptions.
Department of Architecture

This study is an initial attempt to assemble a dual history of the topics of informal settlements and sustainability within architectural discourse over the past fifty years. During the 1960s and 1970s, architecture adopted a renewed sense of social immediacy, which increased the study into informal and slum settlements, as well as a burgeoning concern of its own ecological impact, which encouraged investigation into sustainable design. While these interests all but disappeared amidst the artistic and political climate of the 1980s, they have again become relevant to architectural discourse, albeit as separate entities. The aim of this study is to unite these two discussions within architecture so that they may together become more potent.
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