January 2nd
4:52 PM
4:52 PM
Collaborative Grant Proposal
Spent most of the day revising a collaborative grant proposal on the architectural potential of 1960s/70s mass housing.
August 29th
3:58 PM
3:58 PM
Arch+ "Strategien im Umgang mit Großsiedlungen"
Arch+ reports on the the history and legacy of large scale housing estates. Definitively an upcoming field of discussion and also for historical research.
July 28th
11:03 AM
11:03 AM
TAZ Article on 45+ Conference
It seems like the general public is interested in modernist architecture now. Nice summary of our conference. Even I made it into the TAZ - who would have thought?
July 21st
12:06 PM
12:06 PM
Architecture 45+
Off to Berlin to present a paper on “Image Construction and Decline of West-German Public Housing, 1960s-1970s.”. I did quite some extra research for that presentation over the last weeks - primarily going through architectural journals. It’s probably enough material o write an article and maybe it can even serve as the basis for an application for research funding - we’ll see …
I am also looking forward to the conference because Stefanie Herold and Biljana Stefanovska want to initiate some kind of network. This could be a great chance to get a discussion going between architects and historians working on post 1945 architecture.
July 18th
11:29 AM
11:29 AM
Evolutionary Tree of Post-Modern Architecture, 1960-1980
Categorizing architectural styles. If you stay on the level of aesthetics - maybe, yes… but if you think about WHY architects designed the way they did - please don’t consider these categories! I am wondering why you would do this to let’s say the work of Venturi (who is mentioned in the diagram). In his, and even more in denise Scott Brown’s writings you will always be told, WHY they have designed a certain building the way they did. What is it about architectural history that so many scholars only look at the surface of things? Is it the aesthetics that overwhelms them? Or am I too stubborn in assuming that architecture is not art but a social process?
July 6th
9:00 AM
9:00 AM
Arch+ (1968-1978)
Went through the first decade of Arch+ issues (1968-1978). It turned out to be a great source to interpret the self-perception of critical architecture in West-Germany during that time. Two things struck me: 1. the ongoing discussions over the reform of the university education of architects and planners, concerning both the structure of the programs and the content to be taught. This overlaps 2. with the dominance of theoretical articles by marxist sociologists and politicians. This, however, ceased sometime around 1975. After that, contributions became much more concrete: you find reports on certain cases and photos, which were completely absent before 1975.
May 10th
2:56 PM
2:56 PM
Erkrath-Hochdahl, Am Stadtweiher, built ca. 1970. Roaming through the town where I grew up, which is a “New Town” built between the 1960s and 1990s, I started getting interested in the small design details of 1960s/70s large scale housing developments like the one at “Am Stadtweiher”. Has anybody ever bothered to document such details? I hope so, because these are the little things that usually get lost in the course of redevelopment.
April 5th
2:20 PM
2:20 PM
Failed Architecture
What a great and inspiring collection of “failed architecture”.
March 22nd
9:20 PM
9:20 PM
Archtheo 2011
I thought I might send in a paper proposal for this conference. It sounds very interesting and seems to relate to many things I am working on. But then again, I have so many conferences I will go to this year…
March 17th
10:57 AM
10:57 AM
Conference "Before and Beyond"
Unfortunately I will not be able to go to Kenny Cupers’ Conference “Before and Beyond: Architecture and the User”. BUt whoever happens to be in Buffalo, NY early in April should definitively go there. I am excited to be reading a report later on.
February 8th
11:47 AM
11:47 AM
The Barbican
Nice article on London’s Barbican. Yet another site to see on my next visit to London!
January 22nd
2:24 PM
2:24 PM
Post-War British University Architecture
At yesterdays Urban History Seminar William Whyte (St John’s College Oxford) was giving a presentation on “The University and the City in Post-War Britain”. It was really on the architectural history of British Universities - definitively an interesting field of research. And again, I learned a lot about British history. The talk was extremely well delivered. However, the narrative was rather conventional: “evil” modernism and students’ protest as an reaction to that.
January 20th
12:38 PM
12:38 PM
Resource of sources in planning history
Just came across a used book dealer’s website specializing on planning and architectural history. The offers are very expensive, but it gives quite an overview over the market in historical planning literature. Telling from the descriptions it seems like there are collectors of these books out there …
January 16th
3:30 PM
3:30 PM
Network 45+
There will be a new research network on post-1945 architecture. I decided to take part and discuss a proposal for research on the construction of images for West-German public housing in the 1960s and 1970s. There was a huge shift from the predominance of positive to negative images which still prevail today. If things go well it might lead to some interdisciplinary project addressing the relevance and changeability of image construction for post-1945 housing projects.
More news on this interesting network coming soon…
