bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transcontinental Modernism: How to Find the Shortcut
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

More than ever, it is urgent to expand the new emerging consciousness focused on the need to include other territories in our efforts to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the “Modern Diaspora.” Recently, the development of concepts such as ‘hybrid’ or the ‘otherness’ has been promoting a nuanced historical analysis on architecture and politics in the 20th century beyond a Eurocentric vision. The recognition that a widespread awareness of the Modern Movement architecture has always been serving colonization involves rethinking the basic principle of Modern welfare society and practiced architecture as a mission: how Modern principles have been exchanged, resulting from a Eurocentric culture with the cultures of East and Africa.
Polana High School. A Modern Building Recovering Case Study in Mozambique
Authors: Riso Vincenzo
Published: April 2021

The Polana High School in Maputo, designed by José João Tinoco and José Forjaz around 1970, is a plain functional building both as regards to the spatial organization of its composing pavilions and as to its construction that is mostly made of exposed reinforced concrete structures and elements. After decades of heavy duty use and an almost absolute lack of maintenance, it recently went through some urgent repair operations. In this sense, it exemplifies what could be today effective conditions regarding economic possibilities and cultural problems to recover Modern heritage in Africa.
Architectural Practice, Education and Research: on Learning from Cambridge
Authors: Krüger Mário
Published: April 2021

This paper reports firstly on the interrelated roles of architectural practice, education and research and focuses on the unique contribution of the Cambridge School in this area. The following section presents the drawbacks derived from a research assessment exercise where architecture was no longer considered an academic subject to be developed in a research intensive university and, finally, concludes that architecture in Cambridge succeeded in spite of its problems, not in the absence of them, which suggests strongly that other European architectural schools can learn from it.
The Beginning of the Beginning: Kahn and Architectural Education in Philadelphia
Authors: Leatherbarrow David
Published: April 2021

Paul Philippe Cret was one of Penn’s greatest teachers and one of the city’s greatest architects. Louis I. Kahn, the University’s most well–known teacher, was one of Cret’s students. Holmes Perkins, educated at Harvard under Walter Gropius, reshaped the School and changed its orientation. The key task of the three architects was to articulate a new understanding of what is specific to the discipline, recreating its professional and intellectual center and orientation. This would not require the replacement or elimination of what had been developed in the preceding years; instead the task was to augment it with a more focused sense of what architecture itself is all about.
The Teaching of Architecture and Urbanism in Brazil: 1930–1970
Authors: Monteiro Ana Maria Goes
Published: April 2021

The objective of this article is to present the scene which gave rise to the consolidation of the teaching of Architecture and Urbanism in Brazil in accordance with the precepts of Modern Architecture. Between 1930 and 1970 professional training and practice were intimately related to Brazilian political, social and economic contexts. This fact has led to the structuring of this article into three periods. In the first (1930-1945) the debates concerning the strengthening of the profession that took place. In the second (1945-1960) the courses disassociated themselves from the teaching of the Academies of Fine Arts and the Engineering Schools. In the third (1960–1970), despite the economic growth of the previous decade, the recognition of a Brazilian architecture and the consolidation of the system of teaching based on the precepts of Modern Architecture, Brazilian society saw itself turn into a dictatorial political regime. The years 1930 to 1970 were critical in strengthening Brazilian Modern Architecture, as well as being the decades that saw the launching of the basis of a teaching that echoes to the current day.
Ernesto N. Rogers and the CIAM: Teaching for Democracy
Authors: Maffioletti Serena
Published: April 2021

8 September 1943: The day the Italian army surrendered to the Allies is a - perhaps the most - decisive milestone in Ernesto N. Rogers’ life. From that transformative moment on, the young Italian architect built an extensive, in–depth international dialogue that led him to be recognized as a master in other, even quite distant, cultural contexts. It was in this concurrence of public and private life, which was practically a coincidence for him, that the career he had established as a partner in the BBPR and as a leading figure in the second generation of Italian rationalists would open to far broader horizons, enriched by his exile in Switzerland, where he, a Jew, fled just a few days after that terrible date.
The Restoration of Central City Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg
Authors: Kairamo Maija , Mustonen Tapani
Published: April 2021

The restoration of the Central City Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg is completed and was officially inaugurated on 23rd November 2013. The restoration has been a long process which started in 1991. The work was carried out as a Russian–Finnish joint cross–border project within the context of two different socio–cultural societies, customs difficulties, economic fluctuations and currency rates, which could change the situation overnight. The project has been a learning process for all who have participated during the past years.
Ludwig Hilberseimer at the Illinois Institute of Technology: Architectural Education, Organic Democracy and Colonization
Authors: Martínez Plácido González
Published: April 2021

Ludwig Hilberseimer’s role at defining trends in architectural education in the United States is a relevant one, and deserves special attention due to its rigorous method. This article aims to cast light at his teaching experience at IIT, where he promoted an integration of urban theory and political ideals. Understood as an act of cultural colonization, architectural education appears as a powerful tool to reshape the territory in the United States and the world, as part of an ongoing process of Modern postwar globalization.
“Training the Architect”: Modern Architectural Education Experiences
Authors: Moniz Gonçalo Canto
Published: April 2021

In 1937, Walter Gropius wrote “Training the Architect” for his presentation as Chairman of the Department of Architecture of Harvard University. It reinvented his experience in the Bauhaus, between 1919 and 1928, and became the pedagogical program for the new Modern paradigm of an architectural education. At that moment, the Beaux–Arts system was being revaluated and the American schools of architecture intended to approach the university through a scientific and technological curriculum.
Unity of Architectural Organism and Urban Form. The Teachings of Muratori and Quaroni in the School of Rome
Authors: Capuano Alessandra
Published: April 2021

The 60s were inaugurated with the Olympic Games, presenting the world with a new image of Rome: a city that was more modern, more efficient and definitively freed of the fascist period. The decade appeared (and not only in the Italian capital city) as a time of great political and cultural turmoil – and it was precisely the Faculty of Architecture in Rome that set one of the main stages for this struggle. The student movement began a process of profound questioning and transformation of the educational system.
From Industrial Site to University Campus. Sümerbank Kayseri Textile Factory
Authors: Asiliskender Burak
Published: April 2021

Even though Turkish Modernization in the 20th century was explained as a political revolution, it dealt much more with the transformation of space and social identity. As a result, the Turkish State built several industrial sites in Anatolian cities to strengthen their urban and social development.
The Correlativity of Building Form and Urban Space: Swoo-Geun Kim’s Daehangno Projects in Seoul
Authors: Jung Inha
Published: April 2021

Swoo-Geun Kim’s building projects in the Daehangno area of Seoul provide a remarkable example of how architects can respond to high-density environments. They also illustrate both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of the concept of correlativity, still having the potential to show us a way forward. Inspired by the urban equivalent of a traditional village structure, Kim sublimated into modern building types the fluid indeterminate spaces created by its alleyways and courtyard. This legacy is what has enabled these buildings to survive handsomely for some thirty years amid the omnipresent threat of high-density development in Seoul.
São Paulo: Urban Planning Efforts and Metropolitan Growth
Authors: Anelli Renato
Published: April 2021

São Paulo started the 20th century as a 240 thousand inhabitant town and concluded it as a 10 million inhabitant center of a metropolitan zone of 17,8 million inhabitants. The congestion and disorder disguise the planning efforts conceived since the first decade, but only partially implemented. This article highlights some of the most important urban planning proposals as the Avenue Plan (1930), the Robert Moses’s Plano de Melhoramentos (1950), the Basic Urbanization Plan (PUB, 1969) and the last Review of the Master Plan (2013-14) to São Paulo, and the challenges resulted of the pace of demographic and urban growth in that century.
Hiroyuki Suzuki (1945–2014)
Authors: Matsukuma Hiroshi , Hanada Yoshiaki
Published: April 2021

We must bring to you all a very heartbreaking notice of the sudden and totally unexpected loss of a giant, our beloved and most admired Professor Hiroyuki Suzuki, who was not only the former and first president of docomomo Japan but also a Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo, Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University Graduate School and the General Director of the Museum Meiji-Mura (a major outdoor architectural museum).
PREVI: The Metabolist’s first and only built Project
Authors: Yi Eui-Sung
Published: April 2021

Cities in the sky, superhighways over the seas, floating layers of techno-villages. These utopic proposals for Japan were generated by a passionate and extraordinary group of young Japanese architects fueled by the futuristic vision to rebuild their nation. Parallel to their idealism, was the path of Peter Land, an Englishman by way of Yale and South America, tasked to plan housing for the poor. Incredibly, their idealism would cross and the Metabolists’ first and only project would be for a United Nations social housing development in a place very far from Japan: Peru. Eui-Sung Yi sat down with the group’s last living member, Fumihiko Maki, and the organizer of the project, Peter Land, to discuss this project and its place in modern urban design (read the interviews in pg. 65 and 68, respectively).
Shukhov Tower, Moscow, 1922, by Vladimir Shukhov
Authors: Melikova Natalia
Published: April 2021

A world renowned engineering marvel and masterpiece of constructivist architecture, the radio tower designed by Vladimir Shukhov has garnered much attention lately. Citing the “dangerous” condition of the 92-year-old tower, in early February 2014 the Russian Ministry of Communications announced their plans for the 160 m structure: a two stage reconstruction-restoration, with the dismantling of the tower followed by reassembly at a new location. This has been deemed the de facto destruction of the tower by both experts and public opinion in general and has led to the Russian and international community to rally behind the campaign for the preservation of “Russia’s Eiffel Tower”.
Flexibility in the Density. Metabolism: Freedom in a Large Complex
Authors: Imamura Souhei
Published: April 2021

To find multiple possibilities and to create livable spaces in an extremely dense condition – that is what Japanese contemporary architects are particularly good at. Most of Japanese architects start their career by designing small houses in an urban environment; it is a good exercise for young architects to develop their design skills. The mini site and chaotic surroundings are far from an ideal condition; in fact it is a poor environment. But the architects come to learn that from this disadvantaged condition they can do something innovative.
Rereading Our Recent Past: Notes on Chandigarh and New Gourna
Authors: Bharne Vinayak
Published: April 2021

This article focuses on two iconic architectural works that dominate the ongoing intellectual discourse on conserving our recent past — the City of Chandigarh in India designed by Le Corbusier, and the Village of New Gourna in Egypt designed by Hassan Fathy. By examining the differential between their originating visions and their legacies that were shaped over more than five decades through many unforeseen circumstances and unaccounted consequences, this article provokes deeper reflections on our modern heritage and on the forces and entities that should decide its future.
Capital Production and Social Equity: Finding Balance in Chinese Cities
Authors: Liang Andrew
Published: April 2021

China’s massive capital accumulation, economic ascent and wealth production has largely been the result of their rapid urbanization effort. While it is indisputable that the country has largely succeeded in its economic reform efforts given its status as the world’s second largest economy and in that process lifted hundreds of millions of its population out of poverty, it has also, in that process, created severe social inequality and friction. This essay largely argues that Chinese cities are purpose-built financial instruments for capital accumulation, a result of the forces of globalization which could only have happened in sync with the time and space of a global economy. Though highly successful, so far the process has marginalized the objective of social integration into its performative matrix indexing. In this regard China has pursued an exploitive model of market driven urbanization and the resultant morphological and spatial attributes of the Chinese cities, while having achieved spectacular results on many levels, are nevertheless disjunctive. They are commodities of generic sameness that are mass-produced and exhibit the same anesthetizing effects of the spectacle that are ever prevalent in today’s global market production process, product and place. Recognizing that globalization and capitalism are here to stay in the immediate future, it begs the question if China, while having already undertaken extreme economic reform experimentations allowing it to now bask in its temporal success, will be able to leverage its acquired market knowledge and wealth creation to prospectively overcome the incredibly complex challenge of creating equitable cities in the future — ones that balance the demands of capital production on the one hand and social equity on the other — or rather will it sink deeper into the “neoliberal modern society” that it has already become.
Introduction
Authors: Yi Eui-Sung
Published: April 2021

In this issue, the parameters for the conservation and documentation of the city are defined through multiple lenses of economy, culture, politics and history reflecting critical and acute positions within the 2014 global hegemony. Following docomomo’s focus, this issue expands the Modern Movement legacy by advocating that the holistic understanding of architecture must include the study of urbanism. Unlike architecture, urbanism is an open-ended organism and its raison d’être is reinforced through layers of history. It is through these layers that we advocate for conservation and documentation.
The House, the Home and the Housing Question
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

Housing is a central program in contemporary architectural production. Incorporating civilizing values of 19th century culture, the house arrives in the 20th century at the time notions of private space and domestic comfort come to the fore in Western Culture as values inseparable from the emergence of the family in domestic space: the home. In 1951 Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), in his Darmstader sprache, “Bauen, Wohnen, Denken”, relates the word building (bau) with the verb “to be” and the action of “being” (bin), to conclude that dwelling is the fundamental trait of being, the mortals’ living condition. Looking to reframe the sense of construction and to identify the meaning of “being”, Heidegger’s criticism is moved by the failure of the so-called rational materialistic solution, and opens the discussion up to the re-evaluation of the design action as a unique, magical and creative action.
From the Late 19th Century House Question to Social Housing Programs in the 30s: the Nationalist Regulation of the Picturesque in Portugal
Authors: Ramos Rui Jorge Garcia , Gonçalves Eliseu , Silva Sérgio Dias
Published: April 2021

In the early 20th century in Portugal, a new architecture was produced as the offspring of different references, conforming to a process of “Portugueseness” based on the picturesque. From the beginning of the dictatorship in 1926, the State took advantage of that phenomenon to sublimate nationalist values. Through the first programs of mass housing construction, the single-family house became an object of consumption and a cornerstone of national identity. The search for identity brings together different architectures across the century featuring a renewed Portuguese sentiment infused with different perspectives on the “homeland”, its history and its culture.
El Tunal Experimental: 40 Years Later an Experimental Housing Project in Bogotá, Colombia, 1972
Authors: Bermudez Ramón , Bermudez José Roberto , Sanjinés Daniela
Published: April 2021

At the beginning of the 70s in Bogotá, Colombia, an experimental housing project tried to respond, with adaptable and intelligent solutions, to the challenges of an increasingly urbanized country. It utilized a Low-Rise, High-Density (LRHD) urban system that enhanced the flexibility and the incremental process of housing units cells. This paper aims first, to explain the historical background and the objectives of an experimental project in a Latin American context; then to expose its innovative architectural proposals and finally, to evaluate its evolution in its 5th decade of existence.
Social Housing in the 60s in São Paulo
Authors: Sanvitto Maria Luiza
Published: April 2021

The 60s was a decade of profound change in Brazil. The federal capital was transferred to Brasília, which represented the realization of the ideal of the modern city envisaged at CIAM IV. Modern architecture, which in its Brazilian version, was characterized by the Escola Carioca (Rio de Janeiro School), gave way to the São Paulo avant-garde, concerned with truth to materials and social aspirations. In politics we saw the shift from a democratic government to a military dictatorship, which sought to legitimize itself through the creation of a state funding system to solve the nation’s housing deficit. These factors created the conditions for the development of a series of housing projects, including the exemplary project discussed in this paper.
The Preservation of Authenticity and the Awareness of the Necessary
Authors: Rocha Luciana
Published: April 2021

The architecture of the Modern Movement in Oporto, Portugal, built between 1940 and 1960, is a recent heritage, whose scant recognition has been accelerating its natural degradation and increasing interventions of questionable quality. On one hand, the technical and structural weaknesses of the architecture of this period can be the cause of accelerated degradation, which are, in part, a consequence of successive experiments of new materials like concrete. On the other hand, we note the absence of disciplinary criteria in contemporary interventions, which suggests the fragility of the legal and logical framework for the material protection of this architectural legacy. This study analyses multi-family housing buildings built in Oporto with undeniable architectural quality and characteristics of the Modern Movement — the Parnaso, Ouro and D. Afonso V buildings. Apart from a reflection on the strategies for renovation, reuse and effective adaptation of these buildings to contemporary living requirements, this study aims to establish a relation between the spatial, technical and social transformations and the preservation of the originality/authenticity of these buildings.
Paradigms of Social Housing in Buenos Aires. Lessons from Juan XXIII
Authors: Armada Soledad
Published: April 2021

The housing deficit in Buenos Aires exceeds 143,000 dwellings. Fortunately, the city has ninety years of social housing experience to draw research from. Does this problem require new ideas or can it be studied from the existing examples? The essay proposes a quick overview of ten housing projects that were built in the 20th century and that represent different models of collective housing. One of them, Juan xxiii Complex — absent in the historical revisions — stands out for its design, size and integrated vision of the community. Architects and students committed to the city and its housing deficit should study this unpublished project.
Two Mexican Housing Units developed by the Social Security Institute
Authors: Méndez Juan Pablo Rodríguez
Published: April 2021

In the mid–20th century in Mexico there was a close link between collective housing production and the most important welfare state in the country. IMSS commenced its brief but active program of housing provision with its 1956 complex of almost 500 apartments, followed by its emblematic projects: the Santa Fe Unit (1957) and the Independence Unit (1960), with around 2,200 dwellings, each one placed among gardens. The agency’s apogee was ruled by a social justice mandate that contributed to having high quality living standards in its complexes.
Modern Housing Envisaged as a Patrimonio Vivo (Living Heritage)
Authors: Montaner Josep Maria
Published: April 2021

To analyze the life and transformation of modern housing is a key subject for architectural knowledge. There are very positive cases of evolution, such as Casa Bloc in Barcelona, Spain, by GATCPAC architects, which still functions as living patrimony after two architectural rehabilitations; and disastrous, such as Robin Hood Gardens in London by Alison and Peter Smithson. The article explains why some cases are very alive while others have suffered progressive degradation and will be demolished. A key and decisive element is the design of the corridors, which due to their forms and sizes might be positive. And one of the reasons why these complexes have become obsolete has been the excessive architectural definition of both the exterior and the interior. Also the heritage of the Villes Nouvelles in France has been disastrous and, in response to the policy of demolition, architects such as Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, Roland Castro and Sophie Denissof, or Paul Chemetov, have defended the logic of redoing, remodeling and metamorphosing. The challenge is to project and to build collective housing capable of absorbing transformations.
Santa María Micaela Housing Cooperative in Valencia: a Critical Assimilation of the Modern Legacy
Authors: Jordá Carmen , Palomares Maite
Published: April 2021

The history of Valencian architecture reached one of its highest points with a project for the Cooperativa de Agentes Comerciales, consisting of a group of 138 dwellings (1958–1961) on the corner between Pérez Galdós Avenue and Santa María Micaela Street, after which this complex is named. It is a residential complex unique for its early and conscious association with a distinct modernity that would not be limited only to the national setting, as we shall see. We only have to consider some of the leading works of that period, which revived the contributions of the grand masters, Le Corbusier being the main focus, but not forgetting Mies van der Rohe. Indeed, the critical analyses undertaken by the Team X group, as well as the interpretations of the modern legacy that the Latin American architects undertook, are well known.
How to Deal with Halen Estate
Authors: Furrer Bernhard
Published: April 2021

The Siedlung Halen (Halen Estate), built in the late 1950s near Berne, Switzerland, is still visited by many architects and students from all over the world. The houses of the Estate, once sold for a moderate price, are in high demand nowadays, which leads to a higher expectation for available space and comfort. After 50 years of existence, the normal problems of long-time maintenance are not easy to resolve. Although hampered by problems of concordance among the owners, the exemplary process of planning raises hope for an equally exemplary execution.
Reuse, Transformation and Restoration
Authors: Henket Hubert-Jan
Published: April 2021

In the period I was teaching at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, from 1984–1998, I often had the privilege to welcome our first year students entering the faculty of architecture. After I had paid my compliments to the students for having chosen a fascinating study and future profession I told them that for environmental and climate reasons, it would be best not to build at all any longer. And since this was unrealistic, the next best thing was that we should learn how to renew the world with things that exist already. Laughter was always their response. Didn’t the nutty professor notice that outside an enormous boom of new building was going on as a result of the neo-liberal wave that was hitting Europe and North America? Besides, the ambition of most of them was to become the future Rem Koolhaas or Norman Foster. So please don’t spoil the party. Directly after my talk they were embraced by the faculty staff to fulfill their dreams.
Luis Barragán’s House in Pedregal. A Successful Restoration
Authors: Noelle Louise
Published: April 2021

Luis Barragán (1902–1988) produced few works in his prime, among which, other than his own house, in the Jardines de Pedregal only the Casa Prieto López (1950) has been preserved intact. It was successfully restored when Cesar Cervantes purchased it in early 2014 and hired architects Jorge Covarrubias and Benjamín González Henze. After extensive research, the architects, respecting the context and simplicity of design, eliminated additions and carefully conserved architectural details and furnishings; the color of the walls was restored based on stratigraphic findings that revealed surprising tones very different from the traditional Mexican palette.
Progress Report on the Musashi-Ranzan Country Club Clubhouse Conservation and Repair Work
Authors: Hirai Mitsuru
Published: April 2021

This is a progress report on the plan to conserve and repair the Musashi-Ranzan Country Club clubhouse designed by architect Taro Amano. It is a valuable example of the conservation and repair of private company-owned modern reinforced concrete architecture without the use of subsidies. Project planning commenced in 2009, and minor construction has been carried out each year, with the third installment of work carried out in 2014. For carrying out the construction, the design content and course of construction are based on the results of an analysis and survey of the original building. The clubhouse, together with the conservation and repair work currently being carried out, was selected as one of the works in the docomomo Japan 174 in 2014.
A New Future for the Montréal Mies Gaz Station
Authors: Vanlaethem France
Published: April 2021

When it comes to ensuring the authenticity of an architectural conservation project, is an architect’s interpretation of the original sufficient in itself? Or should the architect’s largely intuitive understanding of a site be complemented by the knowledge of the architectural historian? The adaptive reuse of the Île des Soeurs service station, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1967 and renovated by architect Éric Gauthier in 2011, raises such questions. The unique value of this small facility is recognized by its designation as a historic monument. Today, it is a multigenerational activity centre where youth and seniors can gather to learn, play, and socialize.
When the Oppressive New and the Vulnerable Old Meet; a Plea for Sustainable Modernity
Authors: Henket Hubert-Jan
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 economic miracle, increasing transparency and growing emancipation are some of the striking advantages of modernity. However these meet their opposites in severe conflicts at both global and regional scales. Where the oppressive new meets the vulnerable old the damage is at its heaviest and often non-reversible. The history of modernity in the Western world, from the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution to the Machine Age provides information of the root causes of these conflicts, such as the dominance of rationality, fragmentation, the linear and short term mind frame, devotion to constant newness and ever increasing scale. The history of East Asian civilizations shows the millennia old care for the environment and for dynamic tradition. Precisely the 14th International docomomo Conference in Seoul — for the first time organized entirely in an Asian country — offers the opportunity to widen our scope. docomomo has four advantages that make it particularly useful to contribute to soften these conflicts in the future. Today it is a global organization with many different cultural backgrounds, it is multidisciplinary, it concentrates on history and on the reuse of what is already existing and it shares communal enthusiasm. Until today we concentrated our efforts mainly on the history of the Modern Movement and the restoration of its icons. We could enlarge our scope to include the reuse and transformation of the ordinary Modern Movement heritage and to research the history of modernity as well in the various cultural regions. Some proposals will be made how we could change words into structured action, in order to contribute more effectively to a circular mindset of reuse, reduce and recycle, to arrive at a sustainable future for all.
Renovation and Restoration (the 3 R’s)
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

The Modern Movement has demonstrated its long term legitimacy, as a concept endowed with an extraordinary and lasting longevity. Either way, it becomes increasingly important to acknowledge and value this heritage, in order to enable a skilled, informed and enlightened intervention. Such matters as materials and technology reuse, spatial and functional transformations as well as updating legislation, are part of the contemporary agenda. Knowing that many modern architects sought new heights of functionality and changeability, the challenge for today is how to deal with the heritage in relation to its continuously changing context, physical, economic and functional, as well as socio-cultural, political and scientific. I consider that the reuse project is starting to “make history” and I share the idea that heritage transforms itself with us. Therefore, modern architecture can be a resource that asks for our attention in terms of quality, economy and sustainability.
Preservation and Restoration of the International House of Japan
Authors: Kobayashi Masami
Published: April 2021

The International House of Japan (I-House) in Tokyo is a non-governmental organization that has promoted rich international intellectual exchanges. Designed by three young, up-and-coming architects Kunio Maekawa, Junzo Sakakura, and Junzo Yoshimura, the building of I-House in an exquisite modern Japanese style was built in 1955, but due to financial difficulties, the building was threatened with demolition. The Architectural Institute of Japan scrambled to assemble a special panel to present a conservation plan in 2004. Ultimately, the Board of Trustees decided to follow the panel’s proposal. This paper introduces the process of the restoration activities, discusses what were the driving forces of the preservation and restoration actions, and gives some lessons from the project.
On Collective Form
Authors: Maki Fumihiko
Published: April 2021

The following article is an edited version of the keynote address presented at the 13th International docomomo Conference that took place in Seoul, Korea, in September 2014. In this essay, Fumihiko Maki's urban design theory and practice are traced through nearly 60 years of written and built work. Extensive travel and observations of village formations (under the auspices of the Graham Foundation) in 1958, research and writing "Investigations in Collective Form" at Washington University in St. Louis, and associations with the Metabolist Group and Team X are elements which Maki has stitched together to form his understanding of urban architectural group form strategies. These strategies have been tested in a variety of projects throughout Japan and elsewhere; together with his texts, they form a continuing body of work that exhibit how successful, quality urban environments are created.
La Villa Savoye after Le Corbusier, une Longue Histoire
Authors: Gherardini Susanna Caccia , Olmo Carlo
Published: April 2021

This is a study of the microhistory of Villa Savoye that has already been realized, which thus does not concern its genesis (almost too studied by others). In the construction site of microhistory the reduced scale of observation is the space which may permit the reconstruction of interpersonal relationships as a historical subject and to experiment with new procedures and put interpretative categories to the test. The problem regarding the construction defects is more or less a constant in the work of Le Corbusier, in addition to the speed of the processes of both ageing and decay which are characteristic of the materials used in modern architecture. In this sense the restoration of the works of Le Corbusier is also an opportunity to bring back to the center of the critical and theoretical discussion crucial topics regarding the reflection on modern architecture: originality and authorship. Restorations such as the ones undertaken for Villa Savoye reopened the discussion on the topic of the restoration of an auteur architecture, beginning from its foundations.
National Museum of Western Art as Important Cultural Property of Japan: its Evolution and Historical Value
Authors: Yamana Yoshiyuki , Fukuda Kyo
Published: April 2021

Starting with the conception of the World Museum as part of the 1929 Mundaneum project, Le Corbusier continued to develop and refine that concept. The main building of the National Museum of Western Art completed in 1959, was also designed as a Museum of Unlimited Expansion prototype. NMWA has undergone conservation work and seismic base isolation work a number of times, and is therefore in generally good condition. The principal conservation works to the main building since its completion is summarized in this essay, along with other construction, extension and maintenance work carried out on the grounds.
The villa Le Lac by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret at Corseaux-sous-Vevey. The Color Rediscovered
Authors: Koering Elise
Published: April 2021

In 2011, the Fondation Le Corbusier took the fortunate initiative of requesting a historical study prior to the restoration of the villa Le Lac, built in 1924 at Corseaux-sous-Vevey in Switzerland. Submitted in 2012, the study sought to provide objective and factual information about the construction and physical evolution of the building, by exposing the initial intentions of the architect and his wishes, fulfilled or not, for its transformation, restoration or improvement, through research in several archives (Fondation Le Corbusier, Communal Archives of Corseaux and Vevey, G.T.A. in Zurich, Cantonal Archives…). The Corbusean archives, as well as the local archives and several periodicals and reviews of the period, both French and foreign, were combed. The research, based mainly on primary sources, was completed by reading the writings of the architect, his contemporaries and historians. Having been carried out prior to the material analysis of the building, the study revealed a series of new features of the house and its environs, including the garden. Thanks to an analysis of the numerous documents mentioned above, an attempt to put photographs of this evolving building in chronological order was carried out with Bénédicte Gandini. This article seeks to examine one of these new features. A feature of fundamental importance as it calls into question a well-anchored myth and is connected to recent discoveries made during restoration works on Corbusean villas of the 1920s.
The Role of the Fondation Le Corbusier in the Conservation of the Le Corbusier's Architectural Work
Authors: Gandini Bénédicte , Richard Michel
Published: April 2021

Le Corbusier died on 27 August 1965 at Roquebrune-CapMartin, near his Cabanon. Without direct heirs and driven by the fear that his carefully conserved archives and works be scattered after his death, Le Corbusier spent the last fifteen years of his life conceiving and implementing, down to its smallest details, the project of a Foundation that would bear his name.
Today the activity of the Fondation Le Corbusier comprises two main undertakings: circulating his work and spreading his ideas; preserving the architect’s work and collections. Indeed as the legatee and direct offshoot of its creator Le Corbusier, the Foundation holds the moral rights to this work and therefore has a duty to constantly watch over his architectural work (and indeed the artist’s entire legacy). For the Foundation each of his buildings constitute a piece of art in and of itself. Each issue concerned in the restoration of Le Corbusier’s buildings is effectively governed by this specificity.
Postwar Residential Housing Landscapes in France: A Retro-Prospective Approach
Authors: Blanchon Bernadette
Published: April 2021

In the residential districts built after the Second World War, the qualities of landscapes are not, in most cases, taken into account in understanding projects nor are they considered as a resource in renovation projects except as a “compensatory greening” once the main spaces have been divided, privatized and fenced off. We suggest considering this residential landscape heritage as a potentially structuring one, through the landscape approach, based on three levels for interpreting space: that of the relation to the geographic and urban site; that of the neighborhood defined by its open and public spaces; and lastly, that of the materiality of places and practices. We see it as relevant since it is more global and adapted to the current context of projects.
The Miremont-le-Crêt: Preserving a Geneva Post-War Modern Icon
Authors: Duarte Patrícia Vendrell
Published: April 2021

The collective apartment building, Miremont-le-Crêt, in Geneva is the product of the inventiveness of the local architect Marc Joseph Saugey (1908–1971), who planned and built it between 1953 and 1957. Listed as a Cantonal monument in 2002, it is considered today an original and unique example, far beyond the context of Geneva. Recently, it has become the object of a large rehabilitation project, led by the Geneva-based architecture office, Meier+associés. Mainly focused on the building's envelope, the project also includes several technical improvements of some of its other components; all of them introduced with respect to Saugey's spirit and the building's existing substance.
André Wogenscky and Marta Pan’s House Workshop: Thoughts on Conservation and Museography
Authors: Aulus Audrey
Published: April 2021

The aim of the Fondation Marta Pan — André Wogenscky is to promote the work of the architect and the work of the sculptor. Nowadays there are a lot of issues that arise regarding the accessibility and the museography of the house/workshop in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. This house/workshop deserves a wider recognition and in that sense, before making any changes, the intervention has to be considered in the interest of the work's integrity. The house is a complex heritage object due to its conception made by an architect and an artist at the same time, evolving according to their needs and aspirations.
Restoration of the Cercle de L’Ermitage in Epesses, Switzerland
Authors: Dunant Jean-Christophe
Published: April 2021

In 1935, Alberto Sartoris transformed an old mill into a private club for artists: le Cercle de l’Ermitage. The young architect conceptualized the space as a manifesto of rationalistic architecture. The resolutely modernist choice of the intervention contrasted with the rural and bucolic existing building.
In 1971, the work disappeared under fake rustic decoration and everybody considered it lost, only remaining one of the most famous axonometries of the Italian master. Forty-five years later, the work reappears miraculously while the space is under transformation into a private residence. The demolition work has revealed an unexpected amount of original elements, which will allow a faithful and rigorous restoration of the Cercle de l’Ermitage.
The Cité de l’Etoile, Bobigny, 1956–1963, Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic, Shadrach Woods Architects
Authors: Klein Richard
Published: April 2021

The Cité de l’Etoile, in Bobigny, design by Candilis Josic and Woods (1954–1963) is one of the housing estates, results of the french national competition named opération Million. Commissioned by Emmaüs, the 737 homes are a kind of synthesis of the experiments of Candilis in Marocco and the city planning thinking of the team. The demolition planned in 2008 has been avoided and the Cité de l’Etoile has been labelled 20th century heritage. The rehabilitation project brings to light the contradictions of an highly conflicting situation. Between blind demolition and a well-thought out project of restoration the question of the safeguard of collective social housing complex of the second half of the 20th century is still waiting solutions.
Georges Addor’s Housing Complexes: an Observatory on the Conservation of “Large-Scale” Heritage
Authors: Marino Giulia
Published: April 2021

The timeliness of swiss architect Georges Addor's oeuvre is indeed vast and heterogeneous. Illuminated by a few successful operations, which should be showcased as such, the picture is, however, highly nuanced, since many questionable conversions have hurriedly followed each other in recent years. The broader reflections on the methods and techniques of preservation of the contemporary heritage that emerge from the current relevance of Georges Addor's work appear to be decisive; extended to a broader production, they deserve to be addressed without delay
The Controversial History of the “Steel and Glass” by Lods, Depondt and Beauclair. The GEAI Housing Estate La Grand’Mare in Rouen (1968–2016)
Authors: Marino Giulia
Published: April 2021

Marked by numerous setbacks, the history of the GEAI housing estate La Grand'Mare in Rouen is troubled, even highly controversial. It clearly epitomizes the twists and turns in the debate over the preservation of postwar architecture, whose “industrialized” (often meaning “experimental”) dimension, is mistakenly made the excuse for its demolition. This is exemplified by the uncertain future of this now badly amputated pioneering housing complex, designed by Marcel Lods and his fellow architects.
Gonçalo Byrne interviewed by Ana Tostões
Authors: Tostões Ana
Published: April 2021

On July 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed the architect Gonçalo Byrne who has been deeply reflecting, writing and interviewing in the city through projects of reference, in order to broadly understand the evolution of the city, with an emphasis on the modernity of the 1758 Baixa Pombalina Plan, and its contemporary and future potential, grounded in its roots.
Gonçalo Byrne was born in 1941, Alcobaça, studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1968) and is Doctor Honoris Causa (2005) from the Technical University of Lisbon and the University of Alghero. He has been professor in several universities such as the University of Navarra, the University of Alghero, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, the Università IUAV di Venezia, the Harvard University, the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Coimbra. He is the principal of Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos, in Lisbon, with an extensive work both in terms of scale, program and context, including urban planning and building design, urban renewal and project management such as the renewal of the Bank of Portugal headquarters (with João Pedro Falcão de Campos), the renewal of the Thalia Theatre in Lisbon (with Barbas Lopes Arquitectos), the renewal of the Machado de Castro National Museum in Coimbra, the renewal of the Trancoso Castel and the renewal of the Santa Maria Abbey surroundings in Alcobaça. He has received the AICA Award (1988), the Valmor Award (2000), the Gold Medal from the France’s Académie d’architecture Française (2000) and the Piranesi Prix de Rome (2014).
Porfírio Pardal Monteiro and the Global Design
Authors: Monteiro João Pardal
Published: April 2021

The search for the concept and the practise of a “total project” or “global project” in architecture, in the sense of the project that integrates various artistic and technical disciplines and which reflects itself as a coherent and constructed whole, are the guiding principles to explore the relationship of architecture with works of art and with other diversified technical fields, in reference to the “total work of art” concept. The architectural concept that Porfírio Pardal Monteiro (1897–1957) will come to defend, revolves around the integration of the various fields of engineering and the integration of the plastic arts, assuming that architecture ceases to exist without the interaction of those two domains. A third domain can be added to these two, which is that of industrial (or product) and furniture design.
Housing and Contemporaneity: Recent Renovations in Lisbon's Baixa Pombalina
Authors: Gago Catarina Wall
Published: April 2021

The Plan of 1758 for the reconstruction of Lisbon's Baixa Pombalina followed principles of unparalleled efficiency and regularity. The grid of rectangular urban blocks with pre-designed street façades had a lasting impact on urban identity. Today, the original features of the blocks of flats allow renovation strategies that address changes in domestic life and present-day comfort demands: making use of alcoves and the enfilade to address intimacy; turning kitchens into social areas; using multiple entrances for flat division; introducing lifts according to staircase design. Recent renovations show how the flats' original features contribute to unconventional flexible layouts adapted to contemporary living.
Apropos of Lisbon´s Modern Architecture (1925-1965)
Authors: Rodeia João Belo
Published: April 2021

The modern experience in Lisbon (and Portugal) deserves a much wider and better dissemination in international terms, not only because of its own intrinsic value, but also because of its specificity, both of which are much more relevant when one considers the country’s peripheral contingency, the respective absence of any of the main premises that generated modernity in European architecture, the political context from which it resulted and the subsequent socio-cultural conservativeness of the country, the city and many of its elites. Even though there can be no doubt, and particularly so in this century, about the growing national recognition afforded to this modern architectural heritage, as expressed by the legal protection given to many of its buildings (which in itself is inseparable from the fertile research and documentation originating, above all, from the academic community), it is no less certain that much of this heritage is located in areas that are themselves being subjected to widespread and highly volatile processes of urban renewal.