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Otto Koenigsberger and the Course on Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association, London. Some Notes on the Portuguese Context
Get PDFOtto Koenigsberger is considered a pioneer in researching specific models and technical solutions for architecture and planning in the tropics. Educated within the core of the European Modern Movement, under the mentorship of Hans Poelzig, Bruno Taut and Ernst May, Koenigsberger moves away from the ideal and expressionist realm to the real and specific context whilst working in India. This non–western experience triggers an interest in developing countries, mainly tropical ones. In 1954, Koenigsberger conceives a new course on Tropical Architecture at the Architectural Association in London, followed by a great number of architects, such as the Portuguese Luís Possolo, António Seabra and Schiappa de Campos, who would apply their learning in the countries of “Portuguese Africa”, as it was formerly known
Local and Global Modern Thinking. Designing with Climate in Mozambique: School Buildings Production
Get PDFThe novelty of modern architecture in the former Portuguese African colonies derives from the fact that the ideology of the Modern Movement was interpreted locally. This built heritage is represented in terms of its responsiveness to the physical environment in which it operates, by means of Design with Climate–A Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism (Olgyay, 1963). Combining tradition and innovation, this approach sought to address the specific socio–cultural context within which modern architecture was conceived (Kultermann, 1969). With the purpose of contributing to the documentation and conservation of modern heritage in Africa, interpreted in the light of these assumptions (Quintã, 2007), this paper addresses a particular architectural program – school buildings – widely developed and built in Mozambique, between 1955 and 1975, the year of independence for the former Portuguese colonies. Initially led by architect Fernando Mesquita, as part of the Public Works Services of the Province of Mozambique, it was reconfigured and evolved through various levels of education, ranging from primary to high schools. Extensively built in urban and rural territory, and even gathering later contributions from other authors, the built output of this program remains a prominent feature in the Mozambican territory
Notes on Education and Research around Architecture
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Critical Eclecticism. The Way(s) of the Porto School
Get PDFThe term “Porto School” designates an identity that relates the pedagogy of a teaching institution with the ideas and the architectural practice of its professors and/or former students, resulting of the transmission (and update) of a way of thinking connected to a way of doing: a concern with social responsibility (perceived through the notions of collaboration and relationship with the context), a timeless concept of modernity, an intentional appropriation and miscegenation of models (in a process that we can call critical eclecticism), the belief that architecture should be considered figurative art (perceived in the pace of a promenade thoroughly controlled in time and space), a Vitruvian understanding of the education of the architects, the practice of manual drawing as a primary method of conception and the requirement of accuracy in the processes of work and communication
A Resisting Modern Monument: Huambo Veterinary Academic Hospital
Get PDFThe Huambo (former Nova Lisboa) Veterinary Academic Hospital, designed by Vasco Vieira da Costa in 1970, was never completed. With the independence of Angola in 1975, a civil war started and lasted 27 years, with its main battlefield in the country’s central region, where the opposition party was settled. The building has served as a military headquarters since the 80’s, becoming extremely damaged in the last three decades. Peace was restored in 2002 but 30 soldiers are still nowadays living in the ruins to defend the building from vandalism. The University is planning the renovation of the Veterinary Academic Hospital, although unawareness about the building’s heritage significance may result in the irreversible loss of an Angolan Modern monument
Aiton Court: Relocating Conservation between Poverty and Modern Idealism
Get PDFAiton Court, in Johannesburg, is a case study in how heritage and economics clash in economically constrained cities. This iconic and formally innovative Modern apartment block from 1937 is located in an area where the income levels of tenants are now very low. Although the building is protected by legislation, the viability of its restoration is being further tested by a rent boycott. The article covers the building’s history, and questions how to approach its conservation differently, given the strong demand for housing at a cost level that would be excluded by purely market–led gentrification. We propose that locating conservation strategies in relation to the building’s history and to other subsidies aimed at the public good may provide other routes to preserving Aiton Court
Phenomenon of the Russian Avant-garde. Moscow Architectural School of the 1920s
Get PDFhe phenomenon of the Russian Avant–garde architecture formed under the influence of the Moscow Higher School of Architecture and Art is today widely known by the name of VKHUTEMAS. This school is mentioned in the context of professional activity of the artists and architects who also worked in other institutes, but who had creative links. In the limelight is Nikolai Ladovsky, creator of the introductory course on architectural composition, lecturing along with many authoritative Moscow utilitarian architects, such as Alexander Kuznetsov, Vesnin brothers and others
The Intertwinement of Modernism and Colonialism: a Theoretical Perspective
Get PDFPost–colonial theory, following the lead of Edward Said’s Orientalism, holds that the discourse that justified colonialism was not marginal to European culture, but that it formed a core ingredient of European thinking about Modernity and Modernism. This thought–provoking argument has not yet been thoroughly processed in architectural history and theory. This article explores these issues by introducing some of Said’s thoughts and by discussing how they might be relevant for an interpretation of Modernism in architecture. It looks at primitivism in architecture as encountered in the work of Loos, Le Corbusier and Rudofsky, arguing that its colonialist bias is undeniable. The conclusion stresses how much Said’s analyses still give rise to difficult questions about our ideas and attitudes
Architectural Practice, Education and Research: on Learning from Cambridge
Get PDFThis paper reports firstly on the interrelated roles of architectural practice, education and research and focuses on the unique contribution of the Cambridge School in this area. The following section presents the drawbacks derived from a research assessment exercise where architecture was no longer considered an academic subject to be developed in a research intensive university and, finally, concludes that architecture in Cambridge succeeded in spite of its problems, not in the absence of them, which suggests strongly that other European architectural schools can learn from it
From Sentiment to Science — docomomo comes of Age
Get PDFThe following keynote lecture was presented at the 12th International docomomo Conference that took place in Espoo, Finland, in August 2012. The author, an active member of docomomo since its creation, used this opportunity to do what is traditional when someone ‘comes of age’, that is, use it as a milestone to look back at where docomomo came from, and forward to what it might become