bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Universidad Laboral de Cheste, a Modern Heritage Site Under Threat
Authors: Jordá Carmen , Palomares Maite
Published: April 2021

Universidades laborales, or workers’ universities, were set up throughout Spain during the years of the dictatorship, and were aimed at professionally training the working classes. Their charitable–educational nature was established by law in 1955, although several date back to before that official date. The Universidad Laboral de Gijón (1946-1957) was the first to be built, as reflected in the traditional and academic architecture of Luis Moya. Fernando Moreno Barberá, one of the most important architects involved, was the author of four centres: those of Las Palmas, 1970-73, Toledo, 1970-78, Malaga 1972-78 and Cheste 1967–69, his work reflecting an undoubted assimilation of the Modern legacy.
Modern Industrial Heritage in Romania: Extending the Boundaries to Protect the Recent Past
Authors: Tiganea Oana
Published: April 2021

The term “Modern industrial heritage” is usually associated, in the Romanian context, directly with the 1920s-30s built legacy. This period is in fact commonly perceived as representative of the Romanian Modern Movement, in synchrony with the western Avant-garde. However, industrial traces even with modern influences were left on the national territory mostly by the 1945-89 Communist “forced industrialization.” The manifestation of the Communist industrial architecture was analyzed through the case study of Hunedoara Steelworks. It was also possible to investigate its destiny in the present context, dominated by a general resentment directed towards “political labeled” built environment. This analysis highlighted the vulnerability of the Romanian industrial heritage in the present context.
The “Densification” of Modern Public Housing: Hong Kong and Singapore
Authors: Glendinning Miles
Published: April 2021

In the Asian mini-city-states of Hong Kong and Singapore, massive public housing programmes, far more extreme in density and height than their European and North American predecessors, have played an unexpectedly prominent role in development policy since the 1950s. This article explores some of the ways in which the original conventions of public housing were transformed and “densified” in these territories, and argues that the key influences in this process were not so much avant-garde modernist architectural discourses as the organisational mechanisms and political pressures within late British colonialism and decolonisation.
High Density and the Investigations in Collective Form
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

The debates that followed the World Design Conference (WoDeCo, Tokyo, 1960) on the search for a “total Image for the 20th Century” pointed out among worldwide designers, architects and planners, viewpoints and intellectual ideas concerning the future of the city, particularly in the wake of technological and scientific advancement in industry. At the time of the WoDeCo, progressive architects formed the “Metabolism” group and proposed their concepts for dealing with the increasing complexity of the cities rising. Debating over the ideal city and promoting a kind of experimental architecture based on ideas of life styles and communities for a new era, its biological name suggests that buildings and cities should be designed in the same organic way that the material substance of a natural organism propagates adapting to its environment by changing its forms in rapid succession.
Post-Global? Fantasy and Crisis during the First Decade of the Global Era
Authors: Koo Young Min
Published: April 2021

“Post-global” is a coined word signifying a chaotic state or a transitional period after the violent gale of globalism that created a large gap between the new and the old. Reproving the global power game for having created evil paradises that repress individual evolutions and highest value of lives, the essay attempts to refute the historic and cultural agenda in global standard propagating them as a new paradigm that holds the key to accomplish the global mission, and to conjecture that small plans toward local community would offer guidelines to recur gradually to the state of “milieu”, a collective balance.
Converging Fragments. Seoul: A Portrait of a 21st Century City
Authors: Ferreto Peter
Published: April 2021

Seoul is a city of discontinuities, a sequence of fragments that collectively converge to form an urban settlement set against a dramatic natural backdrop. At the heart of Seoul’s DNA is absence, or rather the absence of any grid. Unlike its neighboring capitals – Beijing and Tokyo, Seoul is a capital whose urban fabric expands in direct symbiosis with its topography.
Old Ditch — New Water
Authors: Heikkinen Mikko
Published: April 2021

The following keynote was presented at the 12th International docomomo Conference that took place in Espoo, Finland, in August 2012. The title refers to the lecture given by an American artist James Turrell at the symposium Permanence in Architecture organized by Virginia Tech in 1998. In architecture and in all arts the new is eroding the old earth and slowly reforming tradition. “Survival of Modern” could be seen as an effort to use the built “modern” environment in a sustainable way. Mikko Heikkinen believes that our challenge is not only to make iconic masterpieces of the Modern Masters to survive but even more what to do with the vast mass of contemporary buildings not found in the architectural guide books. In his presentation, Mikko Heikkinen listed five different cases – five different strategies to make modern to survive: 1) recycling, 2) preserving and restoring the historical milieu, 3) creating a historical and functional collage, 4) preserving a historical fragment and 5) contradiction.
Poker Faces: Seeing Behind the Mask of Convention
Authors: Friedman Alice T.
Published: April 2021

“Poker Faces” interrogates the category of modernity in the history and criticism of domestic architecture, examining the relationship between formal innovation — typically used as our measure of originality — and planning innovation, in which new ways of living and experiencing the home are enabled through the translation of unconventional programs into interior spaces. Two examples of houses built for women clients — William Brainerd’s Colonial Revival “SCARAB” in Wellesley, Massachusetts (1907), built as a home for Professor Katharine Lee Bates and her life partner, Professor Katharine Coman; and Richard Neutra’s Constance Perkins House, in Pasadena, California (1955) — suggest that sometimes the most radical households lie behind self-protectively diffident façades.
Citizen Activation in Contemporary Collective Housing. Barcelona Experiences
Authors: Turrado Isabel Aparici
Published: April 2021

This paper explores contemporary collective housing as a community resource and living heritage. The first part of the article is a conceptualization of citizen activation as a valid concept to merge actions that can transform housing into a platform to promote social cohesion. The second part lists the steps to reach citizen activation. The article highlights some examples in Barcelona: buildings where some activation activities have been stimulated and others that could start the process.
Women in Modern Neighborhoods: Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky; Jakoba Mulder, Lotte Stam-Beese; and Carmen Portinho
Authors: Martínez Zaida Muxí
Published: April 2021

From the end of the 19th century women architects had played important roles in the making of the built environment. But their presence and participation in the building of the modern city was a fact that has been forgotten over time. This text introduces the case study of the proposals made by four women: Margarete Schütte Lihotzky, Jakoba Mulder, Lotte Stam-Beese and Carmen Portinho. They are just a sample to show the importance of women’s contribution in the building of better housing and neighborhoods.
Modern Housing: Heritage and Vitality
Authors: Montaner Josep Maria , Martínez Zaida Muxí
Published: April 2021

One of the main subjects in contemporary architecture is how to deal with the physical and intellectual requirements of transforming modern housing. Joan Busquets points out in his contribution to this issue, that the special effort made by modern architects and progressive housing politics during the 20th century must be reinterpreted and followed today. Intentionally, this issue brings a special focus on the Iberoamerican world, specifically Spain, Portugal and Latin America, with the aim of relocating it in a cultural world of predominantly Anglo-American historiography. In any case, it presents a very wide spectrum, including North America, Switzerland and Great Britain. For this reason the projects are presented as case studies, both housing politics in different countries, and paradigmatic architectural examples, either positive or negative.
Housing and City: Old Problems, New Approaches
Authors: Busquets Joan
Published: April 2021

In the course of the 20th century, housing became a science due to the huge efforts of progressive architects and their great interest in addressing this issue that had been raised with major political impact by Engels in the first half of the 19th century. The concern of modernist architects with these new problems facing the population, prompted advanced designs that are still regarded as exemplary in the history of urbanistics. In the 1930s, housing complexes in Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt and Rotterdam constituted role models for other cities. They even became banners of housing and a strategy of social innovation in Vienna, with Karl Ehn’s Karl-Marx-Hof, and in Amsterdam, with Michel de Klerk’s Het Schip. Housing design became something rational, almost like a science, and the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) provided the framework of discussion for the functionalist vanguard that channeled this concern. However, the misuse of these models by commercial architecture and the scant adaptation of their proposals have turned this experience into something from the past that requires fresh consideration. In this respect, and in view of present-day society’s new paradigms, this article aims to cast some light on new approaches that can be introduced in response to the old problems existing between housing and city.
Robin Hood Gardens and the Rehabilitation of Post-War Mass Housing in London
Authors: Melon Aranzazu
Published: April 2021

In London, in the context of a shortfall of homes that has achieved the status of “housing crisis”, the replacement of obsolete social housing stock, inherited from the post-war period of mass production, for housing that satisfies the demands of the private market and the need for more sustainable cities is one of the main issues for the 21st century. Robin Hood Gardens’ demolition will become a paradigm for the positions to be taken respecting urban obsolescence. Across London, one can see examples that show how, by the criteria of contemporary urban planning, the domestic and urban potential of much of the post-war social housing stock makes it difficult for the current owner, the local government, to invest in its refurbishment and to keep its status as social housing.
Reuse and Transformation of a Modern Movement Masterpiece: UN-CEPAL-ECLAC Building, Santiago de Chile
Authors: Torrent Horacio
Published: April 2021

Recent interventions in modern oeuvres of high cultural significance have set new challenges, opening discussion on the various positions associated with their preservation and sustainability. In particular, the relationship between newly conceived architecture and modern heritage, for which the analysis of the design in the original building, the ideas promoted in terms of its significance and the results obtained in material terms, become the key features in each case. The experience of the United Nations ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) building in Santiago, Chile, may, in this sense, be of special interest in order to verify possibilities of sustainability that assume both the contingencies among which the rehabilitation process takes place and the values recognized in the building as monument.
Efforts to Improve the Earthquake Resistance of the Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building
Authors: Hamada Keizo
Published: April 2021

The Kagawa Prefectural Government Office East Building, designed by Kenzo Tange, was completed in 1958, and in addition to acting as an important disaster prevention base facility, it possesses a cultural value through its many spaces open to the public and its expression of traditional Japanese architectural ideas in concrete. It is part of the current government offices, and while the concrete itself is expected to be viable for over 50 years, it will require substantial improvements in order to meet the most recent earthquake resistance standards. As such, Kagawa Prefecture, through advice from specialists and discussion in the Prefectural Assembly, has considered the possible earthquake resistance improvements that could be made, including reconstruction, seismic isolation retrofitting, and seismic strengthening. It was concluded that in consideration of earthquake resistance, its office functions, costs involved, and the cultural value of the building, it would be appropriate to preserve the building and improve its earthquake resistance through base isolation construction methods, and efforts are being made to gain the support and understanding of the people of the prefecture and pursue this policy going forward.
Conversion of the Church of Sainte-Germaine-Cousin Reaching out to the Community
Authors: Salvione Marie-Dina
Published: April 2021

This essay synthesizes a serious concern related to built ecclisiastical heritage in Quebec. Most of all, it intends to present the recent conversion of the church of Sainte-Germaine-Cousin in Montreal, built between 1960 and 1962 by architect Gérard Notebaert into a community center related to social housing and child care. Today, after a decade and as the project is nearly complete, it recounts a modern heritage tale that led to an exceptional outcome from social and cultural perspectives and, of course, from an architectural angle. On a larger scale, this project responded sensitively to fundamental issues by creating awareness and a sense of belonging toward modern built heritage.
Modern Architecture in Setif (Algeria, 1930–1962). Expression of a Plurality of Approaches
Authors: Setif Samaï Bouadjadja , Mazouz Saïd
Published: April 2021

The purpose of this paper is to report on the characteristics of modern architecture in Setif, a town in eastern Algeria, created from scratch during the French occupation. It will be of a particular interest to unveil a part of the puzzle that represents the “backdrop” of modern architecture, in this city. The present paper tries to contain and recognize the different forms of expression of this architecture, through a historical perspective, punctuated by major events in order to shed light on the characteristics of modern architecture in Setif (1930-1962) and by which they were motivated.
Modern Architecture in the Promotion of National Tourism, the Cap Ducal, an Emblematic Work in Viña del Mar
Authors: Cortés Macarena
Published: April 2021

This article proposes analyzing the Cap Ducal restaurant, a work by architect Roberto Dávila Carson in 1936, as an emblematic construction in Chile’s favorite summer resort city, Viña del Mar. The proposal is to place the relevance and value of this pioneer work of modernity in a wide context of promotion, in which it represents the changes in social and cultural practices related to the resort. From the realm of architecture where, this work establishes the beginning of a new formal language, as well as a part of the new urban configuration of the city as one of the then new tourist infrastructure works.
The Legacy of Mies van der Rohe in Modern Movement and the Modern Architecture in Korea
Authors: Kimm Jong Soung
Published: April 2021

The following article is an edited version of the keynote presented at the 13th International docomomo Conference that took place in Seoul, Korea, on September 2014. The paper discusses how “Western” architecture was first introduced to Korean soil: a French Catholic missionary-architect built the Seoul Cathedral at the end of the 19th century. American and Canadian architects built educational buildings for the Protestant missionary-founded colleges in Korea. Japanese civil servant architects built some public buildings during the colonial rule. The work of two prominent Korean architects, Kim Chung-Up and Kim Swoo-Geun are discussed. The author discusses his education at Mies van der Rohe’s Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in mid-1950s, his work for the Master during the 1960s, and his teaching at IIT 1966 and 1978. He describes how his dual position of teaching at IIT and working for Mies gave him the opportunity to work on three projects of importance: the Mies Retrospective in Berlin in 1968; the exhibition proposal for the extension of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston of 1969; the Toronto-Dominion Bank executive floor and Banking Pavilion of 1966–1968. The author discusses several works of Mies van der Rohe to “demystify” the general perception that Mies was a rigid aesthetician: how Mies van der Rohe would arrive at design decisions not always sticking to the module, grid and geometry, contrary to the conventional reading of his architecture. The author then discusses five works from his three decades of practice with sac International in Seoul, highlighting where Mies’ influences might be found in these works: the Korea Military Academy Library of 1982; Seoul Hilton Hotel of 1983; the Weight-lifting Gymnasium for ‘88 Seoul Olympics of 1986; Kyongju Museum of Art of 1991; and the SK Group Office Building in Seoul of 1999. The paper also reflects on its relationship to the main theme of the recent International docomomo Conference in Seoul, Expansion and Conflict.
Conservation and Renovation Project of Hizuchi Elementary School: First Challenge to Treat a Post-war Wooden Architecture as a Cultural Property
Authors: Hanada Yoshiaki
Published: April 2021

Hizuchi Elementary School is an example of timber modern architecture completed between 1956 and 1958. It was recognized as one of the twenty representative modern buildings in Japan by docomomo in 1999, and from 2006 to 2009 it was meticulously restored. The consortium members for its conservation and renovation were awarded the Annual Award of the Architectural Institute of Japan and World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize in 2012. This paper outlines the project of the Hizuchi Elementary School and the architect Matsumura Masatsune who designed it.
The Question of Auckland’s Civic Building
Authors: Gatley Julia
Published: April 2021

This article examines recent and current controversy over the Civic Administration Building (1954- 1966) in Auckland, New Zealand. Unoccupied since the end of 2014, the building’s future is uncertain. Its heritage value is widely recognized by heritage professionals and commentators. Yet Auckland Council, the building’s owner and former occupier, does not recognize its significance and has not scheduled it as a heritage building on its district plan. To the contrary, it has floated the possibility of demolishing it. This article considers the building’s history, significance and possible futures.
The Couvent de La Tourette from 1960 to the present day. Future Discernibility of Past Interventions
Authors: Grignolo Roberta
Published: April 2021

The La Tourette Convent, built by Le Corbusier in Eveux (1953–1960) was subjected to interventions very soon after its inauguration. The article presents a critical analysis of these interventions: those overseen by Fernand Gardien (until 1964) right after completion; those undertaken before the complex was listed and for which limited documentation is available (1964–1979); the restoration campaign led by the Architecte en Chef des Monuments Historiques (ACMH) Mortamet, who followed an approach based on the completion of Le Corbusier’s work; lastly the most recent campaign, overseen by the ACMH Repellin, who succeeded in devising intelligent alternative compliance measures thanks to the fire safety officials. The complex was returned to its original appearance, following an approach that has yet to come to terms with the aging of modern architectural works, but is nevertheless still widely used today in the conservation of 20th century architecture.
Capitol Complex at Chandigarh Faces Development Challenges
Authors: Jain Shikha
Published: April 2021

Le Corbusier’s vision for the Capitol Complex as the crown of Chandigarh city nestled in the backdrop of the Himalayas responded well to the aspirations of a modern and independent India in 1948. As recorded by several researchers of modern architecture, the Capitol Complex was strategically designed by Le Corbusier to share an intended visual transparency with its natural setting of the hills and forests in the backdrop. While Chandigarh has expanded to the south-west with the initial designed sectors now giving way to large scale housing structures on the outskirts, the original sectors and the Capitol Complex have, to a large extent, retained their authenticity well in terms of form, color, location and setting.
Renovation and Restructuring the Cité de Refuge by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Preserving the Dual Functional and Architectural Identity of the Masterpiece
Authors: Ragot Gilles
Published: April 2021

The Cité de Refuge, for the Salvation Army, was built in Paris by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, in 1933. For Le Corbusier, it represented a formal, technical and mainly social architectural manifesto, as part of his idea of new society published in La Ville Radieuse, in 1935. Seventy years after, the building is deeply transformed because the everyday use is inadequate for the contemporary community standards for the reception of homeless and current climate standards. The challenge of the last restoration campaign (2007–2015) was to reconcile the current demanding standards while maintaining and upgrading the architectural qualities of the building.
The Restoration of the Paintings of Le Corbusier in the Villa E-1027, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes Maritimes
Authors: Hubert Marie-Odile
Published: April 2021

The restoration of the paintings of Le Corbusier in the Villa E-1027 was preceded by an important study phase including systematic sampling of the paintings. One purpose of the study was to determine the presence of the original paintings under the global over-paint made by a local craftsman in the seventies. Four of the eight paintings have been rediscovered, in a much better condition than expected. These paintings are a fragile testimony of the particular use of “Ripolin” by Le Corbusier, in the context of its use by others famous artists as Picasso or Picabia in the same period.
LC′s Poetic Endurance Time and Space — Light and Matter
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Le Corbusier (LC) prolific personality as theorist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, researcher, disseminator, thinker, and provocative activist, helped to make him a universal author. His dual and inseparable theoretical and practical activities represented a source for LC’s balanced inspirational and systematic method. Envisaging “la planète comme chantier”, LC drove his obsessive constructive impulse around the whole world, to nations such as Japan, Russia, Argentina and India. Thinking deeply about the human condition in the contemporary age, he looked for solutions to solve social, technical and spatial problems, believing that architecture could have the power to improve the world. To the question “architecture or revolution?” he answered “revolution can be avoided” through modern architecture.
Maison Curutchet, La Plata, Argentina
Authors: Bozzano Jorge Néstor , Santana Julio
Published: April 2021

The Maison Curutchet is the only house by Le Corbusier in America. The project was developed between 1948 to 1949 and built between 1949 to 1955 as a single-family dwelling and as a professional medical office to the well-known Dr. Pedro Domingo Curutchet in La Plata, Buenos Aires. In 2013–2014, Colegio de Arquitectos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CAPBA) which head office is settled there, decided to carry out a full maintenance, done with the strict criteria of minimizing the impact on the house and using as reference the original documentation. The process was coordinated by CAPBA's Enhancement Research Institute, led by the architect Pablo Mastropasqua, and directed by the architect Julio Santana.
Restoration of the Petite Maison, Corseaux, 1924, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Construction Practice as Research
Authors: Graf Franz , Marino Giulia
Published: April 2021

The Petite Maison, or the villa Le Lac was built by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at Corseaux, near Vevey, in 1924 for the parents of the former. Various modifications were made from then until 1973. The exteriors, façades, gardens and enclosures of this emblematic work were repaired and restored based on detailed research of the fabric and a well judged program of conservation which concluded in June 2015. This essay reports on some of the specifics of the project, the construction itself, the problems of ageing that the architects had to address, and the most recent conservation works (2013–15).
Reloaded Corviale, a City with a Single Building (1973–84). Mario Fiorentino Architect, Rome
Authors: Vittorini Rosalia
Published: April 2021

The Corviale is one of the most controversial pieces of 20th century Roman architecture, having been simultaneously debated, demonized, mythologized, loved and hated. The architecture is unquestionably extraordinary, and not only for its size. The complex, comprised of public housing and services for more than 8,000 residents, was designed between 1972 and 1974 by Mario Fiorentino, along with a large group of associates, and was built in the following ten years. As a result of deterioration due to its incompletion, lack of maintenance, continuous squatting and difficulties for diverse residents to coexist, the Corviale has, for years, represented the manifesto of disastrous public housing policies in Italy
The European Large Scale Heritage
Authors: Tostões Ana , Ferreira Zara
Published: April 2021

Post-War Housing Complexes in Europe are symbols of architectural, technological and social aspirations. These grands ensembles of Mass Housing have nowadays begun to be appreciated by users and authorities, as integral part of the current city. Whether discussing demolition (as faced by the Smithsons' Robin Hood Gardens and Toulouse's Le Mirail, and commonly seen as a focus for social marginalization), or the growing phenomenon of heritagization (as implicit in the type of person now using the Marseille Unité d’Habitation), the debate today has mainly become centered on the question of: how to keep these large structures alive, while meeting contemporary standards of comfort? Characterized by adventurous experiments in the use of new materials and techniques, space creation and gender transformations, the obsolescence of these big complexes is determined on two different levels: the technical one (regarding comfort, such as thermal or acoustic, and the need for mechanical and safety improvements, as infrastructures, systems, elevators), and the functional one (involving space dimensions, organisation, orientation, and the introduction of new uses); all while complying with current regulatory standards. In addition, these buildings have frequently been intensively used and modified.
Housing Reloaded Collective. Housing in Europe, 1945–2015
Authors: Graf Franz , Marino Giulia
Published: April 2021

“Should the grands ensembles be demolished?” This question was a major preoccupation for architects in the 1990s. Incidental as it may seem today, the question is not completely old hat. The initial, progressive shift towards the practise of maintenance is to be welcomed. But we still need to be conscious, looking forward, that the qualities or values of constructions built between 1945 and 1975 are only rarely recognized and safeguarded. A tremendous variety of strategies have been adopted, and this thematic issue on collective housing's present-day relevance proposes to revisit, on the European scale, this very multiplicity of approaches.
Willy Van Der Meeren’s Ieder Zijn Huis: Saving a Fragile Giant
Authors: Cohen Maurizio
Published: April 2021

The project for the renovation of the Willy Van Der Meeren apartment building known as Ieder Zijn Huis [“A House for Everyone”], in Brussels, raises a question that is crucial for the conservation of modern work using prefabrication techniques. The debate focuses on the original design and construction values, and above all on how best to keep them alive and contemporary despite the building's age and changing standards and techniques. In the wording of the renovation specifications, the project owner — the public company Beliris — laid stress on the importance of preserving the architectural qualities: “Given the building's importance in the architectural heritage, the renovation must reflect the original ideas of the designer, Willy Van Der Meeren”.
The point of the call for tenders was to establish an approach for the work that conserves the structure's architectural principles in terms of appearance and structural articulation, while making renovated apartments available that meet today's standards. The architecture firm Origin decided to focus on the building's values and on the comfort and convenience of the accommodation, while pursuing further the conceptual direction taken by the original designer. This meant exploring all the building's architectural and structural aspects in order to successfully showcase its qualities.
The Marseille Unité d’Habitation after Le Corbusier: Or the Chronicle of a Permanent Construction Site
Authors: Delemontey Yvan
Published: April 2021

Now that Le Corbusier's architectural oeuvre has been nominated for the third time for inclusion in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it is useful to revisit one of his icons built in the aftermath of World War II: the Unité d’Habitation in Marseille. Far from wishing to retrace the genesis of this outstanding building, it is a different story that I would like to sketch out here. Less well known, it is, however, fundamental to the material understanding and conservation of modern architecture. It is a history of the many repairs and other restoration projects that have accompanied this monument of 20th century architecture ever since its inception.
“EH, Evolutionary Building” Prototype Housing at Solomeo by R. Piano & P. Rice Engineers and Architects with Gruppo Isovibro Perugia: Architectural Study and Guidelines for Conservation and Reuse
Authors: Nozza Carlo
Published: April 2021

The prototype “EH, evolutionary building” at Solomeo by the design team Piano & Rice Engineers and Architects Vibrocemento Perugia s.p.a. is an example of the experimental design of residential buildings for
emergency situations and represents a crucial phase of transition from traditional prefabrication to open prefabrication. Built on the basis of the project prepared for the competition held following the disastrous 1976 earthquake in Friuli, many of the ideas tested in the prototype were later used to construct the RIGO housing estate at Corciano. The text describes the architectural study and guidelines for the protection and reuse of this significant modernist building, today abandoned.
Towards a Modern Lisbon through the Work of João Guilherme Faria da Costa for the Lisbon City Council (1938-1948)
Authors: Salvatore Silvia Di
Published: April 2021

The urban planner João Guilherme Faria da Costa (1906–1971) is a leading figure of the generation of modern Portuguese architects, who distinguished himself by an intense professional activity in the field of urban planning since the 1930s, which is when this discipline was introduced into Portugal. In fact, with the institution of the Estado Novo regime (1933–1974), a completely new era was initiated for Portuguese urban planning, which evolved from being mostly the result of private initiative, to becoming an instrument for the public control of urban transformation. Faria da Costa, who worked for the Lisbon City Council from 1938, participated directly in some of the great urban transformations of the Portuguese capital which took place during this period.
City Architecture. The Example of Infante Santo Avenue (1945–1955)
Authors: Farinha Tiago
Published: April 2021

Infante Santo was idealized as a modern way of living in a modern avenue, within the existing city. This comprehensive project of city architecture, coordinated by the architect Alberto Pessoa (1919–1985) and built during the 1950s, embodies a site-specific attitude of cultural and urban continuity. During its planning and construction, this major urban project was first exhibited in Lisbon, in 1951, and then in Rome, 1955, London, 1956, Washington, 1958, Brussels, 1958, and also published in the French magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, in 1960. Today, the absence of a strategy for approaching Infante Santo as a whole is compromising its adaptation for the future.
Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia. A Modern Architect in the Garden-City
Authors: Carvalho Ricardo
Published: April 2021

In the 1950s, when the social, aesthetic and technological assumptions of the Modern Movement seemed to be consolidated, there was hesitation in Portugal. Two possibilities were open to what could be viewed as post-war understanding of modernity. Some architects focused on the possible confrontation between the heritage of tradition and avant-garde proposals, in tune with the international movement. Others assimilated the universal appeal of the Modern Movement and aimed to operate within those contexts, facing the shortage of technological tools and of scarce theoretical production. Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia (1917–2006), an important Portuguese architect, belonged to the latter.
Lisbon, a Modern City
Authors: Tostões Ana , Ferreira Zara
Published: April 2021

In the words of José-Augusto França, Lisbon is the last of the old European cities and the first of the modern cities, as confirmed by the 1758 Baixa Pombalina plan undertaken for the reconstruction of the city destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, as a pioneering example of modern urban planning. Following the avant-garde plan, modern architecture in Portugal may be envisaged through three main moments according to specific policies undertaken during the long Estado Novo dictatorship (1926-1974).
Brutalism and Nature. The Gulbenkian Foundation Buildings (1959-1969)
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation headquarters and museum complex (1959–1969) headed a fundamental role in building science in Portugal, as it contributed to the accomplishment of a Modern Movement design committed with a high level of construction quality, showing that there was more beyond Modern Movement formalism. Inaugurated in 1969, it was designed to create a pleasant environment, providing prospects from inside at various angles to the grove of trees and the surrounding land. As a mega-structure designed under a multi-disciplinary design and construction team it achieved a high level of technical excellence and comfort, whilst beautifully linking the building and garden.
Located in central Lisbon, within a park with an area of 7.5 ha, occupying an area of 25.000 m2, it was designed by the architects Alberto Pessoa (1919–1985), Pedro Cid (1925–1983) and Ruy Jevis d’Athouguia (1917–2006) with the collaboration of the landscape designers Ribeiro Barreto (1924–2013) and Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (1922–). The construction gathered an international interdisciplinary team of specialists. The most up-to-date techniques were adopted, including reinforced and pre-stressed concrete in its construction. Some figures illustrate the volume of these buildings: 150,000 m3 of excavation, 45,000 m3 of concrete, 3,200 t of steel, 100 km of power cables, 50,000 m of air conditioning pipes and 3,500 kW of installed electrical capacity.
The architectural design expresses the structure. The aim of having a dominant horizontal line that guaranteed the image of a low building hugging the land and the wish to emphasize the long slabs of concrete that constituted the visible image of the built complex called for a very creative structural concept. The impact that the complex has had and the way in which it has manifested the effectiveness of its qualities, such as formal sobriety and restraint, have confirmed the close relationship between the conception process and the construction site. With its garden it has created the very image of the prestige and innovation of the Foundation itself.
Cassiano Branco. Modern Visions of an “Inconvenient” Architect
Authors: Pinto Paulo Tormenta
Published: April 2021

Cassiano Branco (1897-1970) belonged to the pioneer generation of modern Portuguese architects, who worked during the years of the dictatorship. During the 1930s, Cassiano produced an anti-conservative and eloquent architecture, contrasting with the guidelines of the regime. The discomfort about his personality came also from his ideological opposition to the government. Among his peers he has been considered “an exception to the rule”, working, mainly for private investors, on programs for rental housing, movie theaters and tourism facilities, which were built along the boulevards of Lisbon or in the natural and intact regional areas of Portugal.
José Augusto França interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

On April 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed Professor José-Augusto França, the Portuguese modern art researcher of reference on the contemporary era, in order to discuss the key modern structure that made the shift towards a Modern Lisbon.
José-Augusto França (b. 1922, Tomar) is historian, sociologist and critic of art. He has a graduation in Historical and Philosophical Sciences (1944, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon), a PhD in History (1962, Paris-Sorbonne University, Une Ville des Lumères: la Lisbonne de Pombal), a diploma on Sociology of the Art (1963, L'Art et la Société Portugaise au XXè siècle) and a PhD in Letters (1969, Paris-Sorbonne University, Le Romantisme au Portugal). He is professor emeritus of the Nova University of Lisbon, where he created the first Art History masters of the country (1976). He was Director of the Portuguese Cultural Center of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris (1983), President of the National Academy of Fine Arts (1985) and member of the UNESCO Comité du Patrimoine Mondial. He is a reference author in the field of visual and cultural arts in Portugal, being the first one identifying and presenting modern architecture in Portugal in his Arte em Portugal no Século XX (1974). Among his works stand out studies on art in Portugal in the 19th and 20th centuries, as several volumes of essays on historical, sociological and aesthetic reflection on contemporary art issues. He has received the Medal of Honor of the City of Lisbon (1992), the Grand Officer (1991) and the Grand Cross (2006) of the Infante D. Henrique Order and the Grand Cross of the Order of Public Instruction (1992).
Before and behind the Pioneers of Modern Architecture in Singapore
Authors: Chang Jiat-Hwee
Published: April 2021

This article situates the emergence of pioneer modern architects and architecture of Singapore in the longer history of colonial and post-colonial modernities and modernization, and in relation to socio-economic forces of capitalism and socio-political influences of the modern state in both the colonial and post-colonial eras. Rather than understand modern architecture in terms of style, this article goes behind style to explore the social, economic, technological and political conditions of producing modern architecture.
Modern Architecture in Vietnam or Vietnamese Modern Architecture?
Authors: Loan Pham Thuy , Lan Truong Ngoc
Published: April 2021

Architecture is one of the keys to the values of a society, a reflection of a people’s aspiration, and a society’s ideas and technological experiments over periods in its history. This paper will address “modern architecture in Vietnam” focusing on the general course of its development: its practice, discourse and the built environment throughout history. The guiding questions for the main content of this paper are very fundamental:
How can we define modern architecture in Vietnam?
How was it formed and developed through the modern history of the country?
Can we call modern architecture in Vietnam “Vietnamese modern architecture”?
Nation Building and Modern Architecture in Malaysia
Authors: Hussain Nor Hayati
Published: April 2021

This paper explores the historical development of modern architecture in Malaysia, which is evident in the emerging architectural language; the efforts of the Federation of Malaya Society of Architects (later known as the Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia); as well as the direction taken by the architectural practice in the country; all of which were driven by the prevailing political, economic as well as the socio-cultural attributes of the new nation, and the vision on Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya. The outcome of all these is an architecture that speaks of the nation’s modern society’s values and identity.
Modern Movement in Myanmar
Authors: Su Su , Aye Swe Swe , Alt Win Shwin et
Published: April 2021

This paper highlights the course of the development of modern architecture in Myanmar, a country with an original and vital architectural tradition. There are case studies of well-known foreign and Myanmar architects who dealt with the relationship of spatial, cultural and environmental factors of modern architecture. Some architectural masterpieces created during the second half of the 20th century between 1950 and 1970 in Yangon are presented in this article in order to highlight the inspiration, imagination and limitation of these pioneer architects. The main reason for selecting these case studies are not only because of the influences from the outside world occurred in the post-independence period, but they can reveal the intertwined logic of the nation’s identity-building. They reveal the new consciousness of globalization as well as the development of regionalism.
Rising from of the Ashes: post-war Philippines Architecture
Authors: Lico Gerard
Published: April 2021

The 1945 battle for liberation witnessed the massive decimation of Manila’s urban built-heritage and the irreplaceable treasures of colonial architecture. Despite the seemingly impossible task to resuscitate war ravaged Manila, it rose again. Out of the ashes, modernism provided the opportunity to craft a new architecture for a newly independent nation. Modernism emerged as the period’s architectural symbol of survival and optimism. In a post-colonial cultural milieu, Filipino architects pursued the iconography of national mythology channeled through the pure surfaces and unadorned geometries of modern architecture. They found in modernism a convenient aesthetic modus to denounce the colonial vestiges embodied in the infrastructure of American neoclassicism in pre-war Manila and sought to create new-built environments that conveyed emancipation from the colonial past and celebrate the vernacular forms processed through modernist geometric simplification. Modernism, therefore, was a logical choice, for it provided a progressive image. The Philippines post-independence architecture endeavored to dispense an image that stimulated a national spirit, inspired patriotism, and invoked faith in the unknown future of the national imagination.
What Decides “Heritage”? Lessons from a Comparison of Louis Kahn's Commercial and Institutional Projects
Authors: Desbrisay Lloyd L.
Published: April 2021

In the quest to save recent-past, mid-century modern buildings, it is important to recognize how symbolic and commercial considerations influence the likelihood that some buildings are preserved while other buildings are demolished. Simply put, why does one building survive and another not? This article compares two of Louis I. Kahn’s projects — one a commercial building and the other institutional. The comparison examines how various dynamics facilitate or hinder the preservation of modern buildings. Further analysis considers steps that preservation-minded individuals and organizations might consider to retain and restore more modern buildings.
Louis Kahn in Tel-Aviv
Authors: Hoffmann Jeremie , Nevo-Goldberst Hadas
Published: April 2021

This paper surveys the historical urban infrastructure and architecture of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University, designed by one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, Louis I. Kahn. The paper describes the monumental architecture of the building, which hints subtly to the qualities and complexity of the internal spaces. The structure is the only building ever erected in Israel by Kahn, and became an architectural icon, presenting the best in the Brutalist architectural style to be found in Tel-Aviv-Yafo, alongside other outstanding structures from the same period.
David B. Brownlee interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

In February 2018, Ana Tostões interviewed David Brownlee, pioneer researcher on Louis I. Kahn and an historian of modern architecture and professor of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, in order to debate Kahn’s realm of ideas and their contemporary significance. David Brownlee was guest curator of the exhibition Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992), and is co-author of the homonymous book (with David G. De Long, New York, 1991, translated into four other languages) that stands as the first worldwide comprehensive publication on Louis I. Kahn.
Transcendence and permanence
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Louis I. Kahn fascinate us all with his passion for Mediterranean culture. Precisely at the moment when the center of the dominant culture moved from Europe to North America, he was able to immerse himself in the Roman brick structures of the great classical buildings, interpreting the timeless forms of antiquity. When the glass curtain of the bureaucratic International Style became trivialized, he turned to the archaic sources of architecture to discover light, matter and desire, in the pyramids of Gis. or in the ruins of the Caracalla Baths. Kahn is a unique case in the history of 20th-century architecture: he introduced the question of monumentality, a matter heretical to the Modern Movement, and emphasized the value of permanence, and the tectonic character and materiality of constructive elements. He was able to read History creatively, interpreting the permanent value of the monuments for the community and rescuing their public sense of place. Posing questions such as “what do you want, brick?” or “does the inside of a column contain a promise?”, he produced an impressive body of work and a doctrine with originality, often appearing philosophical, poetic or even mystical. Moving away from dogmas, but never losing the functional and constructive sense of modulation, he broke the systematic use of fluid space and reintroduced a sense of ritual and the value of solemnity, while achieving the most suggestive syntheses between modernity and tradition, as Otávio Paz recognized, between the use of technique and memory.
Post-War Modern Architecture in Tunisia
Authors: Pegorin Elisa , Eula Luca
Published: April 2021

At the end of the spring of 1943, the German forces were finally defeated in Northern Tunisia and had to leave the country. This allowed the French protectorate to take power and in the years that followed, thanks to massive American economic aid, undertake a very important project of architectural construction and reconstruction. All of Tunisia was involved but the four main cities (Tunis, Bizerte, Sousse and Sfax), whose populations were expanding, saw entire parts of themselves reconstructed. Today, a unique experience of modernity still remains in the tissue of all these cities, but with big issues of conservation.