bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Intangible Heritage in Use. Portuguese Institute of Oncology
Authors: Arnaut Daniela
Published: April 2021

The Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO) built in modern Lisbon, between 1927 and 1948, and added to until 1996, is the result of the Francisco Gentil effort to study and treat cancer. It is part of the Portuguese modern healthcare network and a reference concerning social, urban and architecture innovations, where the architects Cristino da Silva (1896–1936), Carlos Ramos (1897–1969), Raul Lino (1879–1974), Ernest Koop (1890–1962), Walter Diestel (1904–) and Raul Rodrigues de Lima (1909–1980) took part. By highlighting its cultural value this essay aims to stress the importance of achieving public and institutional awareness, in dealing with its everyday intensive use and transformation, towards a sustainable future.
Revisiting Chelas. In Search of the Promised Urbanness
Authors: Heitor Teresa V.
Published: April 2021

Chelas is situated in the east of Lisbon and corresponds to the third and final phase of a large-scale planning operation that began in the late 1950s, covering an area of roughly 737 hectares, equivalent to 1/10 of the city’s total area. The Master Plan for Chelas, approved in 1964, was marked by the revision of the principles of modern planning and represents a landmark in town planning in Portugal. The protracted nature of the plan’s implementation and the failure to complete all of its programs seriously compromised the success of the presented proposal. This article proposes a reading of the ideological context that influenced its conception and design, as well as of the factors that conditioned its urbanization process.
João Luís Carrilho da Graça interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

On July 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed João Luís Carrilho da Graça, one of the main Portuguese contemporary architects, in order to discuss the riverside projects that he has been developing for the future of Lisbon.
João Luís Carrilho da Graça was born in 1952, Portalegre, and studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1977). He was assistant lecturer at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1977-1992), full professor at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (2001-2010) and the University of Évora (2005-2013). He coordinated the departments of Architecture in both institutions until 2010, and was responsible for the creation of the PhD in Architecture at the latter institution, which he also directed (2011-2013). He was professor at the University of Navarra (2005, 2007, 2010, 2014) and at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning of Cornell University, New York (2015). Since 2014, he has been full professor at the School of Architecture, University of Lisbon. He is the principle of the architectural office João Luís Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos with an extensive work built. He was nominated and selected for the Mies van der Rohe European Prize in Architecture (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015) and received several awards, such as the AICA (1992), the Secil (1994), the FAD (1999), the Valmor (1998), the Pessoa (2008), the Order of Merit of the Portuguese Republic (1999), the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Republic (2010) and the Medal of the Académie d’Architecture of France (2012). In 2013, he received an Honorary Doctorate degree from the School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon and in 2015 the Royal Institute of British Architects International Fellowship.
Manuel Salgado interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

On August 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed the architect Manuel Salgado, councilor of the Municipality of Lisbon since 2007, in order to discuss the main policies undertaken and his ideas on urban planning in its connection to mobility infrastructures, public space and the continuous reconstruction of park and green areas, in Lisbon.
Manuel Salgado was born in 1944, Lisbon, and studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1968). From 1971 to 1982, he was the technical responsible for the architectural office CIPRO and in 1984 he became manager of the architectural office Risco. From 2002 to 2008, he was architecture professor, at Instituto Superior Técnico. He has participated in conferences worldwide and widely published, on urban planning, and has designed major urban projects and buildings in Portugal: the Belém Cultural Centre (with Vittorio Gregotti), the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, the Expo’98 public areas, the FC Porto Dragão Stadium, the Lisbon Luz Hospital, etc. His architectural and public space projects received several awards: the Valmor Award (1980, 1998), the International Award Architecture in Stone (1993), the AICA Award (1998); the Portuguese National Design Award (1999) and the Brick in Architecture Award (2003). Within the Municipality of Lisbon, he took the position of councilor of the Urbanism and Strategic Planning Department in 2007, which accumulates, from 2009 to 2013, with the Municipality Vice-Presidency. Currently, as councilor, heads the Department of Planning, Urbanism, Urban Rehabilitation, Public Space and Construction of the Municipality of Lisbon.
Parallel Modernities: Architectural Narratives on Southeast Asia
Authors: Tostões Ana , Ferreira Zara
Published: April 2021

Coming from a common goal of preserving and promoting a sustainable future, a platform has been created to discuss documentation, conservation and reuse of modern architecture based on three main concepts: regeneration, equality and openness. Regeneration by, through training and education, involving the younger generations in the process of recognition and conservation. Equality, based on the respect for difference with no imposition of ideas or methodologies. Openness by promoting exchange through thoughtful cooperation. Although ASEAN is coming to be united in terms of politics, economy and culture, the background of its member countries is varied, having experienced diverse European colonization. In an increasingly global world, these nations are facing changes in the significance of their colonial past in relation to the postcolonial present. Between identity and nationalist demand, local knowledge and universal education, modern materials and tropical climate, different architectural discourses have been produced showing that the most interesting way to approach the postcolonial issue is through the idea of exchange.
Fumihiko Maki
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Contributing to the debate on the development of modern architecture in the Asian countries, in March 2017, Ana Tostões interviewed Fumihiko Maki, one of the greatest Asian architects engaged with the modern project, and member of the Metabolism group. Maki is currently developing a number of projects in Asia, including the Taipei Main Station Redevelopment in Taiwan, Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Center in China, and the New City Hall of Yokohama, Japan.
Modern Architecture in Southeast Asia, an Introduction. Asia, North-South-West-East
Authors: Sopandi Setiadi , Yamana Yoshiyuki , Widodo Johannes , Muramatsu Shin
Published: April 2021

The Asian economy began to rebound in the early 2000s. Cities were, once again, expanding along with the population and industrialization. Architectural projects, after having halted for a few years, were coming back providing new opportunities for Asian practices. Sharing optimism as well as anxieties, Asian architects and scholars were looking forward to the future as well as once again taking a glimpse back at their recent architectural past, roughly from the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century. With this opportunity, they decided to take a moment to reflect on how Asian cities, landscapes, and their architectural heritage were shaped, altered, grown in the process of Asian societies embracing modernity.
Modern Indonesian Architecture: a Cultural Discourse
Authors: Sopandi Setiadi
Published: April 2021

The paper highlights the course of Indonesian architectural development through the narrative of national and cultural identity which prevailed almost consistently from the early years of the 20th century. Despite the various contexts and the involvement of participants from different eras, the question of identity recurs among architectural practitioners, political figures, as well as the general public in Indonesia. In this light, architects are perceived as active agents continually contributing models of national identity through architectural forms, expressions, materials, and narratives.
Modern Architecture in Thailand
Authors: Lassus Pongkwan
Published: April 2021

The influence of modern architecture became more visible in Thailand after the country shifted from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 1932 and also as a result of economic circumstances and world trends. The first generation of Thai Modernist architects (or the pioneers of modern architecture in Thailand) had their education in Europe because of the necessity to modernize Thailand. The second generation were Thai architects who received their architectural education in Thailand as well as some continuing their studies in the USA. Their works reflect the International Style with a concern for a tropical architecture vocabulary and local material utilization based on economics. As the architectural profession was declared a protected profession in 1965 for Thai architects only, there was very little modern architecture in Thailand designed by foreign architects.
New Khmer Architecture: Modern Architecture Movement in Cambodia between 1953 and 1970
Authors: Sereypagna Pen
Published: April 2021

This essay will exam the Modern Movement in Cambodia through architecture, known as New Khmer Architecture, from 1953 to 1970, that has distinct continuum characteristics from vernacular architecture, like other Modern Movement architecture in Southeast Asia, because of socio-political movements and cultural engagement.
In memoriam Ruy Jervis d’Athouguia (1919-2006)
Authors: VV.AA. VV.AA.
Published: April 2021

To pay tribute to Ruy Jervis d’Athouguia, the modern innovative architect born in Macau 100 years ago, the researchers and professionals engaged with his work were called upon to write about the importance of his
legacy on the contemporary theory and practice.
Preservation, Restoration and Upgrade of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India
Authors: Somaya Brinda
Published: April 2021

Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIMA), is under an ongoing conservation project to preserve, restore and upgrade the built fabric of the iconic and modern heritage structures designed by Louis I. Kahn, in India. These include eighteen dormitory buildings and the main complex (the school) housing four faculty blocks, the classroom complex and the Vikram Sarabhai library building. The project entails carrying out a detailed study of the cultural significance of the buildings, conducting surveys for preparation of as-built drawings, building condition mapping and assessment, preparation and execution of a detailed conservation plan and strategies for restoration, retrofitting and upgrading the built fabric along with its spatial expression, with due consideration to both its status as a significant work of 20th century monumental architecture and as a premier management institute of the country.
The Trenton Bath House Restoration: Challenges in Sustainability
Authors: Mills Michael , Weber Anne
Published: April 2021

The Trenton Bath House complex holds an important place in Louis I. Kahn’s oeuvre. As he stated: “The world discovered me after I designed the Richards Laboratories building, but I discovered myself after designing that little concrete bath house in Trenton”1. Given its significance, a thoughtful restoration that allowed the buildings to remain in active use was imperative. Because the complex embodies in miniature many of the theoretical and practical considerations that accompany the work of Kahn and other modern-era architects, the process, outcome, and projected future of the restoration effort are instructive.
Kahn's Modernism and its Renewal
Authors: Fixler David N.
Published: April 2021

The late architect and historian Stanford Anderson once remarked that authenticity is the third rail of architectural debate — a place to venture at one’s peril. Notwithstanding, any architectural intervention demands that we engage and understand what is essential — authentic — in the original to its creator, those for whom it was created and all those all who experience it — to ensure fidelity to the character and integrity of the original work. Louis I. Kahn was one of a handful of truly significant architects of the last 75 years, and arguably the one who (with Le Corbusier) will have the most lasting effect upon architecture over time. As we now assess his legacy and develop interventions for renewal, it is instructive to contemplate how our understanding of Kahn’s aesthetic of authenticity — buildings as “instrument[s] that exaggerate, and so heighten one’s awareness of nature’s infinite variations” — should affect our approach to their conservation, adaptation and renewal.
The Yale Center for British Art: a Building Conservation
Authors: Knight George
Published: April 2021

The Yale Center for British Art was designed by acclaimed American architect Louis I. Kahn to house a collection of British art on the campus of Yale University. The Center, Kahn’s third and final museum building, was designed between 1970 and 1974 and opened its doors to the public in 1977. By 2002 it was evident that the building was fast approaching a crossroads: finishes had reached the end of their lives, program space was in desperate demand, patron amenities and life safety measures no longer met contemporary standards and, worst of all, infrastructural systems strained to sustain the environments demanded to protect the collections. The integrity of Kahn’s architecture was in jeopardy. What follows is the story of what came next: how the building was painstakingly researched and analyzed, and how a series of projects ensued to re-equip the Center to present and protect its collection for decades to come.
William Whitaker interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

In February 2018, Ana Tostões interviewed William Whitaker, curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where the Louis I. Kahn Collection is hosted, in order to debate the importance of documentation for the preservation of Kahn’s legacy. William Whitaker was curatorial consultant of the exhibition Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture (Vitra Design Museum, 2012) and is the co-author of The Houses of Louis I. Kahn (with George Marcus, 2013), the first comprehensive publication on the architect’s house designs. The management of the Louis I. Kahn Collection has been having a fundamental role, not only in the documentation and interpretation of Kahn’s life and work, but also in the success of the contemporary rehabilitation projects undertaken in his buildings.
Lawn Road Flats (The Isokon) – A New Vision of Urban Living
Authors: Allan John
Published: April 2021

So much of modern architecture’s early history depended on a handful of courageous pioneers. One of the first Modern Movement buildings in England was the achievement of an unlikely trio — a plywood salesman and his psychotherapist wife, and a Canadian part-time journalist turned architect. This article and the accompanying text by Magnus Englund tell the extraordinary story of the Lawn Road Flats in Hampstead, London – their origins and heyday, the linked program of furniture design, their declining postwar fortunes and ruination, and then their recent and remarkable rescue and restoration to become a beacon of modern heritage and the epitome of progressive 21st century urban living.
Friedrich Weinwurm: Slovakia’s nearly forgotten contribution to the European architectural avant-garde
Authors: Moravčíková Henrieta
Published: April 2021

Work of the architect Friedrich Weinwurm represents the most consistent contribution from within Slovakia to the activities of the international architectural avant-garde. Friedrich Weinwurm fully matched the idea of a socialist-minded architect, organizer of public life and visionary of a new social order. The new way that Friedrich Weinwurm followed in his architectural work ran parallel to the paths of the leading representatives of the European left-wing avant-garde. In Slovakia, these works represented the most coherent allegiance to the program of the New Objectivity, and the vision of a Marxist-inspired architecture. As such, Friedrich Weinwurm held a key role in ensuring that inter-war Bratislava formed one of Europe’s important focal points for modern architecture.
The New Synagogue in Žilina, Slovakia: participation as a method of heritage renewal
Authors: Haberlandová Katarína
Published: April 2021

The Neolog [New] Synagogue in Žilina is an exceptional work, and not only through its having been designed in 1928 by the renowned architect Peter Behrens. The present contribution discusses this work by Peter Behrens – an important landmark constructed well outside the major urban centers for 20th century architecture in a provincial Slovak town. Its most recent restoration, completed in May 2017, lasted a full five years. During this time, many discussions took place among heritage experts, theorists and architects, which eventually formulated the architectonic idea of the reconstruction into its final form. In addition, the realization was greatly assisted not only by the team of architects but many volunteers. The project for the New Synagogue won many awards and is viewed positively as a source of inspiration, perhaps even more so since it overcame several problematic moments regarding its financing, but also in the search for the best restoration methods and met them successfully
Edvard Ravnikar and The Heart of the City. The genesis of cultural centers in Slovenia and in ex-Yugoslavia
Authors: Koselj Nataša
Published: April 2021

This article discussess Cankarjev Dom and Republic Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by Edvard Ravnikar with the focus on three stage of the genesis of cultural centers in Slovenia, starting with the pre-war Slovenian cultural centers by Max Fabiani, Danilo Fürst and Gustav Trenz. The second phase is represented by the cultural centers of the architects Oton Gaspari, Marko Župančič and Emil Navinšek from the 1950s built in the Slovenian industrial towns of Trbovlje, Velenje, and Zagorje, and the third phase by Edvard Ravnikar and his students such as Biro71 and Marko Mušič from the late 1970s and early 1980s built in Ljubljana, Skopje (Macedonia) and Kolašin (Montenegro).
Historiography of post-war modern architecture in Hungary – evaluation – research – preservation
Authors: Simon Mariann
Published: April 2021

Reviewing the research on post-war modern Hungarian architecture we find a serious backwardness. This paper presents an overview of the situation and an explanation focusing on three factors. The first is the underestimation of the socialist modern architecture by the lay public, but also by some professionals. The second field of investigation is the research background: institutes, researchers, funds and the accessibility of archival material, and the results achieved despite the difficulties. The paper also surveys the preservation of this heritage, and finally presents a recent rehabilitation project, one of the few positive examples.
Communicating “space and form?”: The history and impact of the journal Tér és Forma as the Hungarian pipeline of Modernism
Authors: Ritoók Pál , Sebestyén Ágnes Anna
Published: April 2021

In the interwar era, architectural journals were at the forefront of professional attention and had the power to disseminate the Modern Movement in architecture globally. The Hungarian journal Tér és Forma (1928-1948) took the lead to introduce international modern architecture to the Hungarian public, while continually reporting on the newest building projects in interwar Hungary. Virgil Bierbauer, the periodical’s long-time editor (1928-1942), presented the broad panorama of contemporary architecture and his followers from 1943 intended to continue his legacy even in wartime. The impact of the periodical did not halt at its cessation in 1948 but, directly as well as indirectly, continued to define 20th century architectural historiography in Hungary.
E.1027: Maison en bord de mer a prototypical vacation residence
Authors: Wang Wilfried
Published: April 2021

The house by the sea — Maison en Bord de Mer — formed the basis of Eileen Gray’s spatial research, in this case applied to a vacation residence. The subsequent sequences of programmatic and typological researches into summer vacation facilities exemplifies Eileen Gray’s interest in generalizing the comprehension and acceptance of compact places of abode during vacations. Her ability to thoroughly project a comprehensive and mutually supportive program for a large organization such as a vacation center was the ultimate result of these paths of research. Even though the project was never realized, its timing and documentation proves Eileen Gray’s pioneering spirit.
Eileen Gray and the influence of Cubism
Authors: Diamond Rosamund
Published: April 2021

Eileen Gray’s design approach, resulting in the production of her two houses E.1027 and Tempe à Pailla as complete works, could have been influenced by the revolutionary effects of Cubism, in particular Marcel Duchamp’s version “Elementary Parallelism” and some of his later art practices. There are parallels between Gray’s use of purpose-made and standard fittings and Duchamp’s adaptations of mechanisms and his “readymades”. This is discussed in the multiple design fields in which Eileen Gray worked. There is a similarity in her approach to transformable fixed and loose furniture and architecture in the means by which she transforms space.
Building High Tatras: dilemma of form Architecture of 1960s and 1970s in the most famous Slovak mountain resort
Authors: Moravčíková Henrieta
Published: April 2021

The High Tatra Mountains are the most prominent alpine center of recreation and sport in Slovakia. The development of this site dates back to the end of the 19th century. From the architectural point of view, the beginning of the 20th century, the 1920s, the 1930s and the post-war period of the 1960s and the 1970s should be considered the most interesting periods. At that time, the most important architectural works were created in the High Tatras, which in different ways dealt with the fundamental question: how to build in the mountains? Through the built results achieved in the region, it is now possible to study the success of this discussion.
From the Ciutat de Repòs to the Ciudades Sindicales de Vacaciones: seaside Vacation City for Workers in Marbella. The present of modern leisure heritage
Authors: Loren-Méndez Mar , Pinzón-Ayala Daniel , Alonso-Jiménez Roberto F.
Published: April 2021

The Ciudad Sindical de Vacaciones [Vacation City for Workers] (VCW) constitutes a reference of leisure architecture in Spain during the Franco regime. Starting with a literature review and the process of its cataloguing and protection, the focus lies on the last of these structures ever to be implemented, built in Marbella and the only one still in use. It, then, traces the evolution in Spanish spatial formalization of workers rest, from the urban modern vocation of the GATEPAC (Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for Contemporary Architecture, 1930–1936) proposals during the Second Republic, to the Vacation Cities for Workers of the dictatorship, idealised as islands in privileged enclaves. Finally, reflections on transformations underwent in the VCW of Marbella, in the context of its heritage value, will be made.
The right to holidays or the emergence of an era of optimism
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

In 1937, CIAM 5 specifically linked the housing question to leisure, considering it an absolute necessity to acknowledge that the most privileged places will be chosen for the location of these leisure areas. Taking possession of these places by large masses will allow for rest and outdoor exercise, the indispensable recuperation of the forces lost in the city. As Charlotte Périand (1903–1999) asserted, the need to create machines à recréer, the goal was definitively to assure “the happiness of men”. From the first optimistic architectural swimming-pool complexes to discovering the enjoyment of beaches or of winter sports in the mountains, these “architectures of the Sun” began to link the power of landscapes with the relaxation and pleasure of the human body. Associated with healthy living and claimed for all, for the first time, the beaches, mountains, lakes and forests became identified as places for vacations.
E.1027: murder and mystery of the camera Gems on the history of the house E.1027 created by Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici
Authors: Müller Christian
Published: April 2021

The bouquet of stories related to E.1027, the house built 1926–1929 by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray with the support of Jean Badovici, is colorful and intriguing. In “E.1027: Murder and Mystery of the Camera”, gems on the history of the house, new research material and previously unpublished facts related to E.1027 are revealed. Above all, the search for an answer to the question “Which photo camera was used to take the original pictures of E.1027”.
Weaving the Xenia network in post-war Greece: The ethical structure of hospitality
Authors: Athanassiou Emilia
Published: April 2021

Tourism is examined as a vehicle for modernizing society and educating the people about mobility and the emerging cultures of leisure in postwar Greece. The focus lies on the historical, social and political milieu in which the re-launched Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) conceived and carried out the state-run Xenia program for a network of accommodation facilities and infrastructure, in the 1950s and 1960s. The Xenia network upgraded Greece’s hotel hospitality and consolidated its tourism industry as a strong pillar of its economy. More importantly, it rewove the country’s war-torn social fabric by infusing Greek society with visions of individual prosperity, collective progress and democratic participation.
From paid holidays to mass tourism: a typological evolution
Authors: Lobo Susana
Published: April 2021

The 1919 ratification of the 48-hour working week by the Organization Internationale du Travail [International Labor Organization], created by the signatory countries of the Treaty of Versailles, raises a new challenge to industrialized society: the organization of workers’ free time. Divided the day into “three eights” — eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of sleep — the social framework of leisure is understood as a moral duty of the state. This issue takes on a never before considered dimension with the attention given to the instrumental use of popular recreation by European totalitarian regimes and its centralization in organisms of a political and ideological character. Leisure, in this context, would work as a privileged area of indoctrination and diffusion of the nationalist rhetoric that supports the construction of fascist dictatorships. But the recognition of the necessity to organize leisure was not restricted to totalitarian states, nor was it an exclusively political and/or social issue.
Holiday colonies for Italian youth during Fascism
Authors: Mulazzani Marco
Published: April 2021

Thousands of summer colonies were created for youth in Fascist Italy (1922–1943). Most were temporary structures set up to assist children only during the daytime; dozens became the concrete symbol of the totalitarian project undertaken by Fascism to shape “new Italians” starting from childhood. Actually the colonies promoted by the organizations of the regime, state agencies and industrial companies, due to a lack of precise “models” of reference for the architects involved, present a highly varied expressive panorama, reflecting the complexity of the architectural debate in those years and the difficulties that faced any truly modern approach to architecture.
Education for Adaptive reuse – the TU Delft Heritage and Architecture Experience
Authors: Clarke Nicholas , Zijlstra Hielkje , Jonge Wessel De
Published: April 2021

The Section for Heritage and Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology specializes in architectural education for adaptive reuse of heritage buildings, with a specific focus on the built heritage of the 20th century. Our approach combines architectural design and technological knowledge with an approach that places values as central informants. Here we present our approach, explore the past and project a future evolution of our educational methodology. Finally, we reflect on the lasting relevance of the tangible and intangible heritage of the recent past as aim and source of our educational practice.
Aldo van Eyck and the Amsterdam playgrounds
Authors: Ligtelijn Vincent
Published: April 2021

Aldo van Eyck design experiences engendered the development of broader architectural concepts, many of which he further developed in his writings. Aldo van Eyck used various forums to attack an impoverished functionalism that was devoid of qualities such as ambiguity and reversibility. In the history of architecture, it is rare for architects to reflect on their own work, but design and research, writing and building were intrinsic to Aldo van Eyck. He kept on looking for a formal vocabulary to bring the multiple and the general into order and harmony through his architectural assignments. When he set to work at the Amsterdam public works department the opportunity to regenerate the vacant urban spaces in the city arose through the design of an intricate network of playgrounds. This essay will focus on the architectural qualities of these playgrounds.
Reuse of Modernist Buildings
Authors: Melenhorst Michel
Published: April 2021

In his keynote lecture “When the oppressive new and the vulnerable old meet”, at the 13th docomomo Conference in Seoul 2014, Hubert-Jan Henket (1940–) made a passionate plea for “Sustainable Modernity”. In docomomo Journal 52, an invitation to join this plea was published. Hubert-Jan Henket also spoke of a wish to change the curricula at all schools of architecture and include the history of modernity as well as the conservation and adaptive reuse of what is there already as a standard part of the education.
Since then, and even before 2014, a lot has happened in exploring the further potential of reusing Modern Movement Architecture. In 2016 the project “RMB Reuse of Modernist Buildings” started. For the RMB project docomomo International and the University of Antwerp, Belgium; the University of Coimbra and the Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisboa, both from Portugal; Istanbul Technical University, from Turkey and TH-OWL, Detmold School of Architecture and Interior Architecture from Detmold, Germany, came together to prepare a master course, addressing the subjects as formulated in 2014 by Hubert Jan Henket and docomomo.
How did the Bauhaus get its name?
Authors: Neumann Dietrich
Published: April 2021

Historians have always assumed that Walter Gropius (1883-1969) invented the name Das Bauhaus (somewhat inadequately translated as ‘house for building’) for the school he founded in Weimar in 1919. Often, critics have noted the brilliance of this “unique creation”, as it announced the radical change from the “Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts” to a new institution that was going to be more accessible, grounded and humble. It promised both a new beginning and a connection to builders’ guilds of the medieval past. However, when Walter Gropius founded his school in April 1919, a Das Bauhaus G.m.b.H. had already existed in Berlin for four years. Founder and owner was the prominent architect and developer Albert Gessner (1868-1953).
Walter Gropius and Operative History: an Architectural Palimpsest
Authors: Benyamin Jasmine
Published: April 2021

This essay evaluates the legacy of the pedagogical model set by Walter Gropius and other founders of the Bauhaus on subsequent curricula for schools of architecture. More specifically, it uses Walter Gropius’ views on history as a backdrop for a closer reading of operative history. While at the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius did not initially mandate the teaching of history. Later, as Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, he re-structured the history sequence as electives, thereby undermining its hitherto central role in what he viewed as a traditional approach to pedagogy that was overly analytical and intellectual. Rather, he encouraged his students to “make history” for themselves.
What are the manifestations of operative history in architecture schools today, and how have they gone beyond references to 20th century Modernism? It is undeniable that there is a concerted effort among contemporary historians to complicate the history of the movement. Nonetheless, the impulse to self edit persists, such that imagery of like minded practitioners converge and sometime eclipse other architectural production.
Health at the core of Modern Movement Architecture
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Investigation into healthcare facilities involves dealing with multiple spheres beyond the technological, physical and psychological. Nowadays, the growing emphasis on wellbeing goes beyond the seminal ideas that modern buildings were cleansing machines, or that modern architecture and urbanism were shaped by bacteria. Presenting some stimulating philosophically-orientated essays, this journal makes a link between the Modern Movement and what we have entitled the “Cure and Care” concept, connecting health and the environment, body and design. Considering healthcare buildings and their role in the welfare policy of societies, the discussion addresses future challenges, driven by developments in technology and medicine, envisaging a key role for healthcare facilities in ensuring a sustainable built environment.
Hôpital Edouard Herriot à Lyon, Tony Garnier, 1933
Authors: Dufieux Philippe
Published: April 2021

At a time when Lyon celebrates the one hundred and fifty years of the birth of one of the most famous architects of the beginning of the 20th century, Tony Garnier (1869-1948), the observation of the conservation of the works of the designer of the Cité industrielle (1917) is very disturbing. Garnier’s heritage remains extremely fragile and the protection measures are insufficient. Several complexes and buildings have been destroyed and disfigured, for example the Abattoirs de la Mouche in Gerland (Lyon, 1909-1914) that were demolished in 1974. The large hall of the market has been preserved and transformed into a performance hall. Although the Édouard-Herriot hospital (1913-1933) has benefited from the protection of the perimeter of its chapel since 1967, its monumental fireplaces were demolished in 2001 for security reasons and, more recently, the Pavilion H has been destroyed in 2015 with indifference for the construction of a new 18,000 m2 building, designed according to François Chatillon’s (1961-) plans and delivered in 2017.
Cure and care at the cradle of innovation
Authors: Arnaut Daniela
Published: April 2021

“Illness is the night-side of life” tying one’s up in its own body and weaknesses leading either to curative or care spaces that instead of bringing hope bring to mind loneliness and death. Even if the tendency is to believe in the efficiency of medical processes, the collective memory of healthcare buildings is related to discomfort. Ill bodies enter a machine where they are homogenized, losing autonomy and privacy. Intimacy is exposed in a public domain. In healthcare buildings the focus is on medical procedure and not on the prostrate body, which is the real origin and dimensional parameter of these spaces
The New Deal Infrastructure of New York: The Hospitals of Isadore Rosenfield
Authors: Giraudet Charles
Published: April 2021

In New York, the New Deal saw the construction of a new breed of hospitals under the direction of Isadore Rosenfield (1893-1980). Though quasi-unknown today, his contribution to the field of hospital design cannot be overstated in terms of the quantity of facilities he built on four continents and the philosophy underlying his activities as an architect, planner and educator. Currently, though, even his most successful buildings are being demolished or converted without documentation. The author examines the context and some issues encountered in his photographic recording of these facilities and looks at their potential considering today’s larger challenges.
Sanatoriums in Europe: Build Heritage and Transformation Strategies
Authors: Grandvoinnet Phillipe
Published: April 2021

Sanatoriums are an emblematic program of the Modern Movement in architecture. Prolifically built in Europe between 1900 and 1950, they constitute today a remarkable architectural heritage whose technical, functional and spatial qualities are well documented. Since the decline of tuberculosis after the WWII, those sanatoriums that were not demolished have been constantly transformed and reused. Although iconic sanatoriums benefited from meticulous restoration, guided by precise historical and technical knowledge, much remains to be done to explore and develop the reuse potential of these buildings.
Architecture at the service of care: France-USA Memorial Hospital of Saint-Lô
Authors: Severo Donato
Published: April 2021

The France-USA Memorial Hospital in Saint-Lô, Normandy (1948-1965), is known as one of the most relevant French Reconstruction projects. It is the first important work crafted by the French-American architect, Paul Nelson (1895-1979). His humanist approach inspired a series of unprecedented, meaningful and technical architectural innovations. The organization of the new hospital, based on functionality and modernity; polychromic and artistic inclusion; extended high-quality work, notably the "claustra" façade; ovoid surgical rooms and technical equipment are testimonies to the major quality and innovation pursued in the Memorial Hospital project. Paul Nelson’s work brings into focus the rich and comprehensive relationship between architecture, arts and care.
The Bacterial Clients of Modern Architecture
Authors: Colomina Beatriz , Wigley Mark
Published: April 2021

The human is an unstable idea; simultaneously an all-powerful creature – capable of transforming the whole ecology of the planet – yet extremely fragile, a murky ghost. Contemporary research into our microbiome portrays the human itself as a mobile ecology constructed by the endless flux of interactions between thousands of different species of bacteria – some of which are millions of years old and others joined us just a few months ago. This challenges conventional understandings of architecture. What does it mean to house the human when we no longer think that the human organism is securely contained within its skin? What is the role of architecture when the humans occupying it are understood to be suspended in clouds of bacteria shared, generated and mobilized by other macro-organisms (pets, plants, insects…) and the building itself; when the human is not a clearly defined organism or in any sense independent; when the architectural client is a massive set of ever-changing trans-species alliances that make the apparent complexity of even the largest of cities seem quaintly uncomplicated. What kind of care do architects offer if we think of ourselves as alliances between bacteria within the apparent limits of the body and throughout the spaces we occupy? What faces 21st century architects in comparison to 20th century architects?
The Japanese Embassy in Mexico: a Fortunate Association, a Threatened Heritage
Authors: Cruz Lourdes
Published: April 2021

An examination of the architectural value of the Japanese Embassy in Mexico, designed by Kenzo Tange, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Manuel Rosen Morrison, which is in danger of being demolished. The context of mid-century Mexican architecture is addressed in order to situate this work within its historic moment, thus confirming its importance. This building was the result of an intellectual encounter between one Japanese and two Mexican architects, who exchanged ideas, concepts and criteria, resulting in a building with an innovative formal design, due to the use of reinforced concrete, and the flexibility of its structural concept, which allows it to be adapted to different uses. This article is essentially based on the archive of the architect Manuel Rosen Morrison, held by the Archive of Mexican Architects at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Faculty of Architecture.
Behind the Veils of Modern Tropical Architecture
Authors: Guedes Pedro
Published: April 2021

While orthodoxy was consolidating its hold on modern architecture in the 1930s, fresh new ideas from the periphery began to widen and question its limiting vocabulary. This study looks at projects emerging before the end of that decade that paralleled the much publicized work of Le Corbusier and Brazilian innovators in developing ideas for taming the sun in warm climates. The story focuses on a forgotten speech given in Rangoon which enthused about a soon to be forgotten but effective method of solar control and triggered a yearning for architecture widening its scope to engage with attributes of national identity.
Tropical Modernity: A Hybrid-Construct in South China
Authors: Leão Rui , Lai Charles
Published: April 2021

Parallel to the discourse of Tropical Architecture and the work of UK architects in the British colonial territories in the Middle East, Africa, and India after the WWII, climate adaptation designs or devices such as brise-soleil, perforated cement bricks, sun shading screens, courtyards, etc., started to emerge in modernist buildings in Asia. This article is a preliminary survey of these cases in Hong Kong and Macau since the 1950s. It discusses how tropicality was used in response to the post-war revisionism of Modern Movement that placed emphasis on local identity and culture.
Tropical Architecture, South of Cancer in the Modern Diaspora
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Getting back to the point of “Tropical architecture,” architecture in the humid tropics is collaboration with nature to establish a new order in which human beings may live in harmony with their surroundings. As publications at the time concentrated on French and British colonies, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the Modern Movement diaspora, it is essential to revisit, analyse, and document the important heritage built south of the Tropic of Cancer, where the debate took place and architectonic models were reproduced, and in many cases subjected to metamorphoses stemming from their antipodal geography. Notable for the modernity of its social, urban, and architectonic programs, and also its formally and technologically sustained research, the modern architecture of these latitudes below the tropics constitutes a distinctive heritage.
Makkasan Train Factory: an attempt to preserve Bangkok’s urban heritage
Authors: Lassus Pongkwan
Published: April 2021

The Makkasan Train Factory, opened 110 years ago, is the first industrial estate in Thailand and used to be the biggest hub for train production in Southeast Asia. Nowadays, this huge land of 80 hectares, with direct access from the Savarnabhumi airport rail link, is considered a golden land right in the business center of Bangkok, that attracts real estate investors. A third of the land set aside at the end of last year for the development of a mixed use commercial project as a part of the High Speed Train project. As this land is the last big area of public land in the capital, civic groups for urban heritage conservation and the environment tried to point out its tangible and intangible heritage value hoping that there would be a proper master plan to preserve these values for future generations.
Monuments of Country, Climate and Culture: Michel Écochard and the Design of the Postcolonial Tropolis
Authors: Avermaete Tom
Published: April 2021

The French architect and urban designer Écochard, was one of the numerous architects that designed buildings and cities for newly independent nations in the post-war era of decolonization. Many of these young nation states were in search for urban and architectural projects that would explicitate a “proper” model of modernization that differed from that of the former colonizer. This essay argues that the principles of tropical architecture would play a key role in representing and monumentalizing such an alternative model of modernization.
Tropical Building Research: the Angolan Case
Authors: Quintã Margarida
Published: April 2021

This paper investigates how the notion of “tropical architecture” was established in Angola by looking at the local development of scientific knowledge on climate during the 20th century. It focuses on the processes that gave rise to a growing understanding of the geography and climate of the country, namely through the creation of local research institutes. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, increasingly more climatic data was collected in the country. This data was later combined with studies in building physics, giving rise to original research developed by the lea. Local institutions, such as the Public Works Department of Angola (DSOPA), disseminated this knowledge, eventually influencing not only the design methods of local architects but also the development of specific products in the construction sector. The lea became a research and education organization of great relevance in Angola during the 1960s and the 1970s, as well as a symbol of modernity and the quest for scientific knowledge.
Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism
Authors: Henning Moritz , Below Sally , Hiller Christian , Kögel Eduard
Published: April 2021

Against the backdrop of the Bauhaus centenary in 2019, Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism examined the history, significance, and future of postcolonial modernism in this region, with partners in four cities – Jakarta, Phnom Penh, Singapore, and Yangon. The project provided a historical perspective on the societal and political upheaval that accompanied the transition to independence after the colonial period in these countries. It also showcased current initiatives in the fields of art, architecture, and science that are committed to the preservation and use of Modernist buildings. In 2020, the project will continue with an exhibition and accompanying program in Berlin.
Towns are made from houses – Jean-Pierre Watel (1933-2016)
Authors: Klein Richard
Published: April 2021

Jean-Pierre Watel (1933-2016) has not been forgotten in the history of contemporary architecture. Gérard Monnier recounts the architect’s success in the 1960’s, his single-family houses and a domestic modernity largely linked to his design of North European-style houses: a central living room, an assumed horizontality and large sections of glass. His main constructions were mentioned or have featured in the professional magazines as well as in the more mainstream press - ensuring recognition from his peers and the aspirations of potential clients. The houses grouped together into new towns were also lavishly commented on for their stylistic affiliations