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Charles Fulton: the regional reach of modernism in Australia
Get PDFCharles Fulton (1905-1987) was an Australian architect who applied influences of European Modernism, particularly the civic architecture of Willem Dudok, into the design for several hospital projects in regional towns across Queensland, at the same time adapting a climatic responsive rationale to the projects. As with many remote contexts that have been overlooked by a European and American centric focus upon Modern architecture, the account of Australian Modernism has not been widely acknowledged outside its borders, despite a local momentum to effectively document and publish its achievements. Compounding this predicament, Queensland has suffered from its own exclusion relative to the southern states of New South Wales (Sydney) and Victoria (Melbourne), which have always been the dominant centers of the national profession, its conferences and publications. This paper seeks to address these schisms through the presentation of the work of Fulton, demonstrating how even in remote areas of Queensland, thousands of kilometers from major cities, the reach of Modern architecture found a place. Mobilized by the national federal body, the Office of Health and Home Affairs, drive to improve health services across the country post WWI, Fulton became a leading architect to modernize health facilities and brought about a cultural shift in the reception of Modern architecture across the regions
“Our Cinderella North” – The Modern Diaspora’s long reach into Australia’s tropical zones
Get PDFModernism in tropical in Australia is testimony to the tenacity and optimism of individuals and communities in the vast, “empty north” of the continent, but also reflects a young nation’s strategic and commercial need to develop and make viable this region in the years following WWII. As practitioners, academics and public servants, the Modern Diaspora, introduced and promoted Modernism as a climate responsive solution to building in the tropics. The result is work that is inventive, frequently of modest material means and expressive of its tropical circumstances
President Alemán Urban Housing Project
Get PDFThe Centro Urbano Presidente Alemán, inaugurated in 1949, was a pioneer in more ways than one and can be considered as one of the most transcendent works of Mario Pani. It is the first Mexican high-rise housing complex, where many of the ideals of the European masters, especially Le Corbusier, are gathered together but with a design suited to its place and time. Mario Pani shattered the scheme of the single unit dwelling and proposed a density that allowed the presence of garden areas and integrated diverse services. Moreover, he invited the artist José Clemente Orozco to paint a mural, which he commenced on an undulating wall designed by him
Torres Blancas, a Vertical Garden City
Get PDFTorres Blancas, the building designed by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza for the Huarte company, was built between 1964 and 1972. Its powerful sculptural form, the expressive use of bare concrete and its experimental nature make it an iconic example of Madrid’s architecture. Proposed as a vertical city with an organic emphasis, Torres Blancas is not the usual stack of flats, but a residential complex of independent housing units with garden terraces and the amenities of a small community. This building thus combines Le Corbusier’s unités d’habitation and Frank Lloyd Wright’s towers
Lisbon, a Modern City
Get PDFIn 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)
Health at the core of Modern Movement Architecture
Get PDFInvestigation into healthcare facilities involves dealing with multiple spheres beyond the technological, physical and psychological. Nowadays, the growing emphasis on wellbeing goes beyond the seminal ideas that modern buildings were cleansing machines, or that modern architecture and urbanism were shaped by bacteria. Presenting some stimulating philosophically-orientated essays, this journal makes a link between the Modern Movement and what we have entitled the “Cure and Care” concept, connecting health and the environment, body and design. Considering healthcare buildings and their role in the welfare policy of societies, the discussion addresses future challenges, driven by developments in technology and medicine, envisaging a key role for healthcare facilities in ensuring a sustainable built environment
The Nature of Tropical Architecture in Indonesian Modernism
Get PDFThe idea of environmental design – or loosely referred to as “tropical architecture” – is an ever-present but underlying discourse in modern Indonesian architectural history. Despite being tentative and, at times, overshadowed by other dominant issues, the quest for climate-related environmental tropical design is apparent in almost every generation of Indonesian architects
Modernity and housing production in France after WWII
Get PDFAfter the collapse of 1940 and Occupation (1940-1944), France experienced a remarkable renewal after Liberation in 1944. Through reconstruction and intensive efforts to bring the country out of the housing crisis, the State set up a powerful production system, which based the expansion of the building sector on the concentration of investment in large companies. It was the era of the grands ensembles, of heavy prefabrication and giant construction sites. Initially well received by their inhabitants, these large housing complexes rapidly deteriorated and became ghettos. Despite the social difficulties that beset these neighborhoods, how can this important heritage of modernity be preserved today
Conservation by consensus: heritage management in large housing estates
Get PDFThis study considers the role of management guidelines in regulating the pressures for change in large housing estates where heritage constraints are involved but where the use of formal enforcement procedures would be unrealistic and uneconomical. The author’s experience in creating such documents indicates the importance of cultivating a sustainable consensus among stakeholders that balances respect for and understanding of architectural and historic significance with a realistic acceptance of the need for change. The author suggests that the success of such instruments depends upon three crucial attributes – fairness, usability and resilience. The examples, all in London, include the Barbican, Golden Lane and Brownfield