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Scholars have recently written about the importance of Marxism and political agitation within architectural discourses of post-war East Central Europe. Less attention has been paid to the period before World War II and the ways in which Marxist language and concepts were already infused into interwar avant-garde practices and debates. This essay argues that a necessary corrective to this gap in the historiography is to write new histories of interwar revolutionary socialist architecture that do not presuppose the failures of the socialist project itself. These histories emerge from a time in Europe when Marxism offered an enticing alternative vision of the future in a region where economic and social deprivation was real and urgent. Three case studies in Czechoslovakia will be discussed: Karel Teige's engagement with Hannes Meyer, the discourse of the Architectural Working Group, and early experimentation with the collective housing typology in Litvínov, Prague, and Zlín.

In contemporary state of architecture some historians and theorists of architecture refer to a necessity to return to utopian thought and practice. The aim is to address a series of questions and problematics that have emerged throughout history when utopian thought, as derived from literary and philosophical genres, has been spatialised by architects and urbanists. A great part of historians and theorists of architecture refer to a crisis of representation that entails the failure of buildings to carry dependable cultural meaning. ȉhe question of utopia has always been a tool for social criticism. In the mid-1970 some architects like Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown were actively rejecting modernist utopias. On the other hand, Fredric Jameson problematics focus on the reasons for which the utopian imagination is worth fighting for and dissociating from totalitarianism. Manfredo Tafuri in his book Progetto e Uttopia refers to the relation between semiology and formalism argumenting that the intention of revitalizing architecture by means of an exploration of its internal structures appears as a way to rediscover a possible avant-garde role for architecture. Through semiology architecture seeks its own meaning. Tafuri's engagement with the present addresses contemporary architectural production in its relationship with modernism and capitalism. The intention is to describe the forms according to which the concept of ideology has affected the classifications in the contemporary ³historiography´ of architecture. The term ³historiography´ denotes the total stories written over a specific time period or on a specific thematic unity. A Pragmatist approach to architecture would entail a refocusing of intellectual energies onto the complex realities of the built environments. As far as the interchange between pragmatism and utopianism is concerned Reinhold Martin develops a theoretical discourse that aims to reconciliate pragmatic aspects and utopian aspirations and dissolve the borders between these two approaches. According to 5einhold 0artin the ³post-critical´ polemic is an effort to bury the utopian politics of the 1960s. Reinhold Martin arguments that utopia is a ghost that infuses everyday reality with other possible worlds and uses the term ³utopian realism´ in order to describe the effort which is intended to overcome the restrictions of the post-utopian pragmatism.

No prior scholarly work on Cuban architectural and intellectual history has yet focused on Arquitectura Cuba, a periodical published by the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos, as an archive. However, issues of the publication from the early years of the Cuban Revolution (especially 1959 and 1960) provide an indication of state-sponsored views on architecture, urbanism and the interplay between these and the socialist project in Cuba. Using articles and editorials from Arquitectura Cuba alongside other contemporary sources, this article focuses on and critiques three themes that recur throughout these issues: the idea of architecture as a socially minded profession, the need for urbanisation of the countryside as a core goal of the new Cuban state and the interplay between global modernism and localised practices. Ultimately, this investigation illustrates potential methodological directions and archival sources for Cuban architectural and social historiography, revealing another lens to read the Cuban Revolution and its legacies today.

Throughout the early modern period, the Ottoman material culture and aesthetics exerted considerable influence on the tastes of Moldavian and Wallachian elites. However, while this cultural footprint has been recognized with regard to moveable luxury goods, such as garments and household objects, the architectural influence has been regarded differently within historiography. Particularly, the absence of mosques and other Islamic places of worship in the Danubian principalities has been brought up in scholarship as an argument for their position outside of the Ottoman space. In turn, the incorporation of Ottoman architectural elements was usually considered as a purely stylistic choice devoid of deeper meaning. The scope of this study is to rethink the relationship between Ottoman models and their incorporation into the built environment of the Danubian principalities throughout the early modern period. Focusing on the patterns of architectural patronage and incorporation of Ottoman stylistic elements, the paper argues that patrons in Moldavia and Wallachia not only emulated many of the trends from Istanbul but also consciously incorporated them to emphasize their ties to the imperial culture and society. By means of constructing fountains, depicting kaftans bestowed upon them by sultans and adapting a decorative program radiating from the imperial centre, rulers and boyars showcased not only their wealth but also their ties to the Ottoman political edifice and elite culture of the empire.

The explosion of youth revolts in the long 1970s, including the emergence of environmental activism in western Europe, coincided with the democratization of printing technologies, and led to radical transformation in the production and distribution of knowledge. Publishing became cheap and easy due to the appearance of portable versions of formerly costly and heavy printing machinery and a myriad of self-published zines with an environmentalist tone flourished, disseminating a firm rejection to the post-war consensus of consumerism and growth, denouncing the overarching planning organizations, policies, and strategies. Besides criticism, they also present ways of thinking, living, cooperating, and building that follow different rules and values than consumer capitalism. This contribution identifies a gap in European planning history related to the agency of 1970s' environmental activism and explores the potential of environmentalist zines as sources to sustain historical inquiry and help to fill that gap. It proposes conceptualizing zines as 'minor' sources, arguing that the Deleuzian-Guattarian category is a useful concept for reframing previously marginalized voices in planning history. Through the analysis of seven transnationally published zines, the paper demonstrates their validity as sources that document contributions of voices that have been neglected so far. ; open access

If we look at an Antipodes World Map, Europe and Australasia are relatively close, so much so that New Zealand and Spain share a virtual territory. Thinking about antipodes, remoteness implies coincidence and distance brings countries closer together. This paper aims to track the spread that modern Australian architecture reached in some of the main European nodes of reception and emission of news: France, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. Based on articles published in the architectural periodicals of the moment, it will establish which aspects of Australian architecture mattered in these countries. More importantly, these cases can be compared with each other and, as a whole, with the interest that other closer continents aroused in Europe. Did distance play the same role in all cases? Or had any other circumstances, such as politics or economics, more weight in the rapprochement between countries? Is the presence of Australian architecture in modern canonical historiography the direct result of these exchanges of information? In short, does historiography have a debt to distance?

Jürgen Schardt legt eine umfassende Studie zur Architektur der Stadt- und Universitätsbauten in Frankfurt am Main von 1906 bis 1956 vor. Besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf den gesellschaftlichen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen der Architekturproduktion und einer kritischen Revision der etablierten Historiografie der Goethe-Universität. Der Autor widmet sich in drei Teilen jeweils dem Kaiserreich und der Gründung der Hochschule im Jahr 1914, der Zeit der Weimarer Republik sowie der Jahre des Aufbaus nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Schardt untersucht die entstandenen Gebäude hinsichtlich schlüssiger Kriterien bürgerlicher Architektur, beleuchtet aber auch andere für die Hochschulgeschichte relevante Rahmenbedingungen. Die lesenswerte Studie verbindet dabei Aspekte der Sozial-, Wissenschafts- und Architekturgeschichte. ; Jürgen Schardt presents a comprehensive study of the architecture of university buildings in Frankfurt on the Main from 1906 to 1956. He focuses on the societal and political frameworks of architectural production and sheds a critical light on established historiographies of the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt. The author divides his survey in three parts: German Empire including the foundation of the university in 1914, the Weimar Republic era and lastly the years of reconstruction after World War II. Schardt examines the buildings along coherent criteria of bourgeois architecture but also adds further aspects that are crucial for the historiography of the university. The research combines interpretations of social, institutional and architectural history.

U radu se razmatra odnos socijalističkog estetizma - specifičnog fenomena nastalog u jugoslovenskoj kulturi tokom druge polovine dvadesetog veka - i tada aktuelne arhitektonske teorije i prakse. Kao glavne osobine socijalističkog estetizma identifikovane su: neutralnost, kompromis pasivnost, samosvojnost i samodovoljnost. U okviru socijalističkog estetizma umetničko delo se nije više posmatralo kao 'odraz', optimalna projekcija realnosti, što je bilo karakteristično za prethodni period socijalističkog realizma, već je napravljen suštinski prelaz sa tematskog na plastičko, sa predmetnog motiva na estetski predmet. Osnovno pitanje koje se postavlja u radu jeste kako je arhitektura učestvovala u izgradnji tog novog ulepšanog sveta, zasnovanog na idejama socijalističkog estetizma. ; The Yugoslav cultural space in the period after 1948 was in a unique situation which was the result of a special state politics which based the realization of its interests on a diffuse position between the East and the West Blocks. In accordance with that, it was necessary to find an adequate visualization of the new system. Architecture, as a privileged esthetic language, was one of the channels for accomplishing the established aims. After the period of socialist realism based on the premises of the cultural politics of the Soviet Union, the model had to be changed. Besides being a new state, Socialist Yugoslavia strived to be unique. In this cultural and political setting a special phenomenon was created in the Yugoslav artistic scene and it was called socialist esthetism. It was first noted in literature at the beginning of the 1960's. Soon the perception of socialist esthetism as a theoretical instrument was expanded to the fields of painting, graphics and sculpture, where the phenomenon was examined by influential Yugoslav art critics, historians and theoreticians of art. In architectural historiography, however, it would occur for the first time at the beginning of 2000 in the reflections on Serbian architecture of the second half of the 20th century. The main characteristics of socialist esthetism were identified as neutrality, compromise, passivity, independence and self-sufficiency. This was the source of two groups of implications. The first one refers to the position of art in social reality, therefore, to its sociocultural function, whereas the second one refers to the domain of autochthonous artistic expression, i.e. its ontological, semantic and structural aspects. These two components surely have a common denominator. What is indisputable is that the work of art is no longer observed as a 'reflection' of socialistic social reality, i.e. as an optimal projection of reality, as the principles of socialist realism demanded. An essential transition was made from thematic to plastic, from the topical motive to an esthetic object. The moment of divergence is, however, the semantic ending of an esthetic object. In the discourse of architecture the phenomenon of socialist esthetism is manifested as a starting concept but also as a product of architectural practice, so the relationship of socialist esthetism and architecture can be defined as bidirectional. The definition of one direction of this relation requires an answer to the question if there is a marked transition from thematic to plastic in architectural practice, i.e. from the topical motive to an esthetic object. The second direction is the search for the role of architecture in the construction of context in which the phenomenon of socialist esthetism is manifested. In other words, the first direction follows the elements of socialist esthetism in architecture and the second one the elements of architecture in socialist esthetism. Elements of socialist esthetism in architecture are manifested in a similar way like in other visual arts. They are recognized in the tendency for a non-conflicting morphology and visuality, i.e. in the creation of a structure whose semantic potential is exhausted inside itself. Elements of socialist esthetism bring into architecture an aspiration to avoid ideological and symbolic premises with the aim of a self-sufficient spatial system which can conditionally be called esthetical. On the other hand, the elements of architecture in the vision of socialist esthetism can be searched for in opuses of leading architects of this period (B. Bogdanović I. Antić, M. Mitrović). Because of its materialization and purpose, the building of the Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade, the work of Ivan Antić and Ivanka Raspopović, can be discussed as a very symptomatic example of the relationship of architecture and socialist esthetism. The building of the Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade surely represents a unique achievement of Yugoslav post-war architecture. This uniqueness is seen not only in the characteristic architectural idea, but also in the fact that this is one of the rare cultural objects, of the many that had been planned, which was actually realized. The very high degree of the esthetization of the Museum of Modern Art shows the esthetic vision of the socialist world in which the edifice was built. On the other hand, the non-realization of planned objects which would potentially follow this line of esthetization of social reality indicates that this world had different priorities.

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.

"Through a multidisciplinary collection of case studies, this book explores the effects of the digital age on medieval and early modern studies. Divided into two parts, the book examines how people, medieval and modern, engage with medieval media and technology through an exploration of the theory underpinning audience interactions with historical materials in the past and the real-world engagement of a twenty-first century audience with medieval and early modern studies through the multimodal lens of a vast digital landscape. Each case study reveals the diversity of medieval media and technology and challenges readers to consider new types of literacy competencies as scholarly, rigorous methods of engaging in pre-modern investigations of materiality. Essays in the first section engage in the examination of medieval media, mediation, and technology from a theoretical framework, while the second section explores how digitization, smart-technologies, digital mapping, and the internet have shaped medieval and early modern studies today. The book will be of interest to students in undergraduate or graduate intermediate or advanced courses as well as scholars, in medieval studies, art history, architectural history, medieval history, literary history, and religious history"--

In the Old art, especially in architectural decoration of 11th-13th century, only the image of a single-head eagle was found, while in the Byzantine cultural circle the image of a double-headed eagle was known. In the recent years, as result of searches on the territory of ancient Halych, several works of decorative-applied a picture of a double-headed eagle were found. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to try to figure out the functionality and the iconographic program of works art of such content.The artists of Galician architectural school borrowed artistic symbol of a single-head eagle from Kyiv monument art architecture of Malopolska. It is widely used in the decoration of ceramic tiles that veneers floors and walls of ancient temples and palaces. Similar ornamental motifs are found the architectural decoration in Volodymyro-Suzdal Rus. From the area of monumental sculpture, the image of an eagle was used as models by Galician goldsmiths in the production of bracelets, signets and rings.Equally rich in heraldic and history is a symbol of a double-headed eagle. Artistic-religious image of a double-headed eagle has Eastern origin. The most ancient images belong to the 12th century BC. In ancient Rome it was considered as the main emblem of the pagan god Jupiter and of the Roman Empire. The emblem of a bird of prey was personally used on their banners by outstanding military Roman leaders Pompey and Julius Caesar. In the Empire the image of double-headed eagle was used as a symbol of power and state emblem that had been started by Constantine the Great from 326 year. Archeological finds from the territory Ukraine argue that the leaders of tribal and military alliances in different periods of ancient history used the eagle as a symbol of power.In describing of the architectural construction in Holm, which was started by Prince Danylo Romanovych in 40–50 years of the 13th century, impresses the mention a monumental pedestal with the image of headed eagle. In Ukrainian and foreign historiography ...

713 717 44 ; S ; [EN] Alzira, the capital of the Ribera del Júcar, has historically played a prominent role within the Comunitat Valenciana. The first settlement of the city dates back to the Moorish domination, and after the Reconquista, together with Xativa, Alcoi and Elx, it became one of the main cities of the ancient Reino de Valencia. Its architectural heritage is a witness of this remarkable past, including the glorious example of the Moorish wall, built almost entirely using the technique of rammed earth. Throughout history, the Moorish wall and the entire architectural heritage of Alzira have suffered extensive damage due to multiple factors, including neglect, wars and numerous floods. Throughout history, floods have had a significant impact on the architectural and cultural heritage of the city, as chronicled at the time, given that until the 1960s, the historic centre was surrounded by the two branches of the river Júcar. This study aims to analyse the response of earthen architecture to flooding, assessing its resilience and vulnerability through the analysis of the case of the city of Alzira and, in particular, of its historic centre. The research will therefore investigate the adaptation of earthen architecture and traditional techniques to floods. The recognition of these good practices used in the past and the establishment of a level of risk will be crucial to developing measures for the prevention and mitigation of the effects of floods, such as structural reinforcements and protective devices. This work is part of the research project Earthen architecture in the Iberian Peninsula: study of natural, social and anthropic risks and strategies to improve resilience Risk-Terra (ref. RTI2018-095302-B-I00; main researchers: Camilla Mileto and Fernando Vegas), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University. Trizio, F.; Mileto, C.; Torrijo, F.; Lidón De-Miguel, M. (2020). Preliminary Analysis of Earthen Architecture Response to Floods: The Case of Alzira (Spain). International ...

Since the 1990s architectural historians discovered Modern architecture in Africa as part of a cultural production related to colonialism. With the introduction of postcolonial theory in the historiography of architecture, an exclusively ideological critical sense has been developed preventing disciplinary autonomy or practice of architecture and finally condemning any objective look. Recently, the development of concepts such as hybrid or the otherness has been promoting a nuanced historical analysis about architecture and politics in the 20th century in Africa. The recognition that a widespread awareness of 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 from the East and Africa. In addition, it must be said that the case of Sub–Saharan Lusophone Africa is now beginning to be studied in depth putting together peripheral universes.

By using the workhouse of Dresden as a microstudy, this article explores local continuities in postwar East Germany. It argues that this example not only illustrates the persistence of mentalities towards 'sexual and social deviance', not least as a legacy of the Third Reich, but also questions the assumption of a strictly centralized state and 1945 as a caesura. In a first step, the article shows the continuity of personnel at the state level, who decided that the workhouse as an institution should have a future in the new East German state after 1945, before revealing that local authorities were also unable to dissociate themselves with the views towards this institution of the past. In the end, the article enters this institution with help of archival sources, architectural plans, and photographs, exploring the impact of this state and local continuity on the everyday lives of inmates in this workhouse in Dresden. In doing so, it contributes to the historiography of East Germany by revealing the agency of different individuals, even if confined to a 'total institution'.

Addressing present day art making in the southern Caribbean island of Trinidad, with specific attention to the notion of a diasporic 'Indian art', this article offers a genealogy of some relationships between ethnicity, nationhood and visual imaging. Focusing on the painter and sculptor Shastri Maharaj (b. 1953), who is descended from South Asian indentured migrants to Trinidad, it shows how artists in the Caribbean have negotiated the region's period of strident anti-colonialism to the present. Examples of Maharaj's art comprise works of figuration and landscape, including depictions of local architectural styles and Hindu ritual, as well as more ambiguous and abstract forms, also presented as gallery installations. Paying attention to these the discussion highlights the problematic relations between the exegetical tendency for 'reading' such visual materials, and the ambitions of artists seeking to transcend the limits of expectations about ethnicity and cultural difference. In place of those limits it recommends an alternative historiography able to enjoin the critical search among contemporary artists for perceptual and aesthetic agency.