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The Trenton Bath House Restoration: Challenges in Sustainability
Get PDFThe Trenton Bath House complex holds an important place in Louis I. Kahn’s oeuvre. As he stated: “The world discovered me after I designed the Richards Laboratories building, but I discovered myself after designing that little concrete bath house in Trenton”1. Given its significance, a thoughtful restoration that allowed the buildings to remain in active use was imperative. Because the complex embodies in miniature many of the theoretical and practical considerations that accompany the work of Kahn and other modern-era architects, the process, outcome, and projected future of the restoration effort are instructive
Managing Expectations – Contemporary Design Culture, Conservation and the Transformation of The Richards Laboratories
Get PDFLouis I. Kahn’s Richards Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania are a paradoxical building. At the same time that they perhaps represent the epitome of Kahn's literal expression of structure and material hierarchy, servant and served spaces and the role of mechanical systems in determining architectural form, these powerful ideas never came together programmatically to enable a fully functional, complete work of architecture. This paper describes the quest to solve the functional conundrum and technical shortcomings of Richards, to bring the architecture and program closer together. Through a synthesis combining transformation — a significant change in use that allowed the opening of the laboratory floors to the unique light and views that were always latent in the promise of Kahn’s essential architectural idea — and rehabilitation, where the best aspects of Richards — the glazed, vitrine-like facades and the beautiful logic of the building services distribution, were renovated for enhanced performance, Kahn’s original architectural vision and present function were able to be successfully reconciled
Isokon Furniture — Modernist Dreams in Plywood
Get PDFThe Isokon Furniture Company was never commercially successful, yet its legacy has stubbornly refused to die and disappear. Even today, this radical collection of plywood furniture is manufactured and used. The main reason is of course the names associated with it: Jack Pritchard, Wells Coates, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy and – more recently – Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby. The genius little Isokon Penguin Donkey, first designed by the Austrian émigré architect Egon Riss in 1939 and marketed by publisher Allen Lane’s then new imprint Penguin Books, is particularly popular with younger generations of design students
Post-War Modern Architecture in Tunisia
Get PDFAt 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
Conserving the Teak Window Wall Assemblies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Get PDFIn 2013 the Salk Institute for Biological Studies partnered with the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) to commence development of a conservation program for the long-term care of the teak window walls. Phase 1 of the program included preliminary historic research and an assessment of significance, surveys and investigative inspection openings, wood and fungus identification, and analyses of past surface treatments. Guidelines were then developed based on three treatment approaches, ranging from in situ cleaning and treatment, to selective repairs, and finally in-kind replacement of teak wood. In Phase 2 of the work, the GCI and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) developed a trial mock-up program to assess the protocols of the three treatments. This article will review the overarching goal of the treatment approaches, integrating conservation and repair needs with select modifications to the window detailing to improve long-term performance, including surface treatments to protect the teak wood and retard fungal growth and weathering over time
Czech hotels in the late-modernist style set against the landscape
Get PDFThis paper looks at the changes in hotel architecture in post-war Czechoslovakia. In particular, the way in which architects, either with the support of or, in some cases, in resistance to the political dictate, handled the inspirational influences that came from abroad. Namely the Soviet models forced on them, or the ideas that seeped through from the other side of the Iron Curtain that were closer to the Czech modernist environment. The resulting approach of compromises and mixing influences, typical for a small country in the middle of Europe, gave rise to imaginative combinations of the universal principles of the International Style with structural experiments, a return to sophistication and refined craftsmanship, a cautious criticism of Modernism, or an intensive effort to strike a balance and harmony with the poetic character of the landscape
Slovenian industrial heritage – complexity of meanings, their preservation and regeneration
Get PDFIndustrialization caused the biggest technological changes in human history, which called for not only new ways of working but also of living, education, and life as a whole. Eventually the world became the global market that we know today, when we are on the threshold of 5.0 Industry, when utopia is becoming reality. Despite its peripheral role, Slovenia started to change quite early under the influences of industrialization; these changes accelerated in the 19th century and gained momentum during socialist industrialization, when organized heritage protection started to develop extremely quickly — first it was used for socialist propaganda and then increasingly for concrete protection actions and regenerations. In parallel, relevant domestic knowledge was developed and, particularly, awareness was raised about the significance of industrial heritage, testifying to the transformation of its value in space and time. The understanding of this is necessary for an effective, development-directed protection
On the wings of modernity: WWII memorials in Yugoslavia
Get PDFMemorial sites dedicated to the National Liberation War, revolution and the victims of fascism have played an important role in the cultural and political life of the socialist Yugoslavia. The changing political course of Yugoslavia from 1948 influenced its cultural strategy. This reflected the artists’ sensibility and tendency towards abstract sculpture, which culminated during the 1960s and 1970s. In this essay we will examine the influx of modern art and architecture on the aesthetics of the memorials from the era. We will also focus on their contemporary representation as an important part of cultural heritage
Jong Soung Kimm
Get PDFOn the 15th February 2018, in New York City, Ana Tostões interviewed Jong Soung Kimm, an internationally renowned architect and educator, a collaborator at the office of Mies van der Rohe (1961–1972) and design studio teacher at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago (1966–1978). He is founder and honorary president of SAC(Seoul Architects Consultants) International Ltd
Before and behind the Pioneers of Modern Architecture in Singapore
Get PDFThis 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