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Capitol Complex at Chandigarh Faces Development Challenges
Get PDFLe Corbusier’s vision for the Capitol Complex as the crown of Chandigarh city nestled in the backdrop of the Himalayas responded well to the aspirations of a modern and independent India in 1948. As recorded by several researchers of modern architecture, the Capitol Complex was strategically designed by Le Corbusier to share an intended visual transparency with its natural setting of the hills and forests in the backdrop. While Chandigarh has expanded to the south-west with the initial designed sectors now giving way to large scale housing structures on the outskirts, the original sectors and the Capitol Complex have, to a large extent, retained their authenticity well in terms of form, color, location and setting
The Question of Auckland’s Civic Building
Get PDFThis article examines recent and current controversy over the Civic Administration Building (1954- 1966) in Auckland, New Zealand. Unoccupied since the end of 2014, the building’s future is uncertain. Its heritage value is widely recognized by heritage professionals and commentators. Yet Auckland Council, the building’s owner and former occupier, does not recognize its significance and has not scheduled it as a heritage building on its district plan. To the contrary, it has floated the possibility of demolishing it. This article considers the building’s history, significance and possible futures
Modern Architecture in Setif (Algeria, 1930–1962). Expression of a Plurality of Approaches
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to report on the characteristics of modern architecture in Setif, a town in eastern Algeria, created from scratch during the French occupation. It will be of a particular interest to unveil a part of the puzzle that represents the “backdrop” of modern architecture, in this city. The present paper tries to contain and recognize the different forms of expression of this architecture, through a historical perspective, punctuated by major events in order to shed light on the characteristics of modern architecture in Setif (1930-1962) and by which they were motivated
LC′s Poetic Endurance Time and Space — Light and Matter
Get PDFLe Corbusier (LC) prolific personality as theorist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, researcher, disseminator, thinker, and provocative activist, helped to make him a universal author. His dual and inseparable theoretical and practical activities represented a source for LC’s balanced inspirational and systematic method. Envisaging “la planète comme chantier”, LC drove his obsessive constructive impulse around the whole world, to nations such as Japan, Russia, Argentina and India. Thinking deeply about the human condition in the contemporary age, he looked for solutions to solve social, technical and spatial problems, believing that architecture could have the power to improve the world. To the question “architecture or revolution?” he answered “revolution can be avoided” through modern architecture
When the Oppressive New and the Vulnerable Old Meet; a Plea for Sustainable Modernity
Get PDFThe 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
Preservation and Restoration of the International House of Japan
Get PDFThe 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
Modern Architecture in the Promotion of National Tourism, the Cap Ducal, an Emblematic Work in Viña del Mar
Get PDFThis article proposes analyzing the Cap Ducal restaurant, a work by architect Roberto Dávila Carson in 1936, as an emblematic construction in Chile’s favorite summer resort city, Viña del Mar. The proposal is to place the relevance and value of this pioneer work of modernity in a wide context of promotion, in which it represents the changes in social and cultural practices related to the resort. From the realm of architecture where, this work establishes the beginning of a new formal language, as well as a part of the new urban configuration of the city as one of the then new tourist infrastructure works
Rereading Our Recent Past: Notes on Chandigarh and New Gourna
Get PDFThis 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
Housing and City: Old Problems, New Approaches
Get PDFIn the course of the 20th century, housing became a science due to the huge efforts of progressive architects and their great interest in addressing this issue that had been raised with major political impact by Engels in the first half of the 19th century. The concern of modernist architects with these new problems facing the population, prompted advanced designs that are still regarded as exemplary in the history of urbanistics. In the 1930s, housing complexes in Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt and Rotterdam constituted role models for other cities. They even became banners of housing and a strategy of social innovation in Vienna, with Karl Ehn’s Karl-Marx-Hof, and in Amsterdam, with Michel de Klerk’s Het Schip. Housing design became something rational, almost like a science, and the CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) provided the framework of discussion for the functionalist vanguard that channeled this concern. However, the misuse of these models by commercial architecture and the scant adaptation of their proposals have turned this experience into something from the past that requires fresh consideration. In this respect, and in view of present-day society’s new paradigms, this article aims to cast some light on new approaches that can be introduced in response to the old problems existing between housing and city
Flexibility in the Density. Metabolism: Freedom in a Large Complex
Get PDFTo 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